Consensus Protocol Exploiting Network Co-Design

This project will develop a new set of optimized consensus protocols that leverage recent advances in network programmability and hardware design. Consensus protocols are typically designed without consideration for the networks on which they run. As a result, most consensus protocols make weak assumptions about network behavior, and therefore, incur overhead to compensate for potential message loss or re-ordering. However, recent advances in software-defined networking and flexible hardware allows protocol designers to re-visit these assumptions. Protocol designers can now tailor the network to their needs, and refine the design of consensus protocols based on the stronger assumptions. The protocols that will result from this project have the potential to dramatically improve the performance of storage and replication systems that are the fundamental infrastructure for distributed and cloud computing services.