Modelling the Raft Distributed Consensus Protocol in mCRL2

Abstract

The consensus problem is a fundamental problem in distributed systems. It involves a set of actors, or entities, that need to agree on some values or decisions. The Raft algorithm is a solution to the consensus problem that has gained widespread popularity as an easy-to-understand and implement alternative to Lamport's Paxos algorithm. In this paper we discuss a formalisation of the Raft algorithm and its associated correctness properties in the mCRL2 specification language.