On implementing SWMR registers from SWSR registers in systems with Byzantine failures

Abstract

The implementation of registers from (potentially) weaker registers is a classical problem in the theory of distributed computing. Since Lamport’s pioneering work (Lamport in Distrib Comput 1(2):77–101, 1986), this problem has been extensively studied in the context of asynchronous processes with crash failures. In this paper, we investigate this problem in the context of Byzantine process failures, with and without process signatures. We first prove that, without signatures, there is no wait-free linearizable implementation of a 1-writer n-reader register from atomic 1-writer 1-reader registers. In fact, we show a stronger result, namely, even under the assumption that the writer can only crash and at most one reader can be malicious, there is no linearizable implementation of a 1-writer n-reader register from atomic 1-writer \((n-1)\)-reader registers that ensures that every correct process eventually completes its operations. In light of this impossibility result, we give two implementations of a 1-writer n-reader register from atomic 1-writer 1-reader registers that work under different assumptions. The first implementation is linearizable (under any combination of Byzantine process failures), but it guarantees that every correct process eventually completes its operations only under the assumption that the writer is correct or no reader is Byzantine—thus matching the impossibility result. The second implementation assumes process signatures; it is wait-free and linearizable under any number and combination of Byzantine process failures.