Dr. Darrell Long

Lease-Based Safety Protocol for Distributed System with Multiple Networks

U.S. Patent 6,775,703
August 2004View at Google Patents

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product for a lease-based timeout scheme that addresses fencing's shortcomings. Unlike fencing, this scheme (or protocol) enables an isolated computer to realize it is disconnected from the distributed system and write its dirty data out to storage before its locks are stolen. In accordance with the invention, data consistency during a partition in a distributed system is ensured by establishing a lease based protocol between in the distributed system wherein a client can hold a lease with a server. The lease represents a contract between a client and a server in which the server promises to respect the client for a period of time. The server respects the contract even when it detects a partition between the client and itself.

BibTeX

@misc{Burns2004Lease,
  author = {Randal Chilton Burns and Atul Goel and Darrell D. E. Long and Robert Michael Rees},
  title  = {Lease-Based Safety Protocol for Distributed System with Multiple Networks},
  note   = {U.S. Patent no. 6,775,703},
  month  = aug,
  year   = {2004}
}
View at Google Patents