Talk:Byzantine fault tolerance

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[edit] References to more work

This is a beginning, it needs references to more recent work (such as this osdi paper) and perhaps an explaination of the algorithms. It also needs some backlinks.

--Jsnow 22:09, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Removed the External links part, as the only link in there was the same as the one in References. -- Olivier

[edit] Error in Paragraph Solutions

current "the Generals vote by treating each others' orders as votes." shouldnt it be that "the Generals vote by asking each of the direct subordinates or even lower ranks for comment where the amount of people asked depends on the 'velocity' of information exchange and processing."

16:18, 16 February 2006 (UTC) Jan Girke

[edit] Suggesting Merge

I'm suggesting that Byzantine failure and Byzantine fault tolerance be merged. Both pages primarily contain a description of the Byzantine Generals' Problem. -- ToastyKen 18:32, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, I've merged them. There may need to be a little more cleanup. -- Bovineone 06:37, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Origin section

The origin section currently contains two descriptions of the origin of the label "Byzantine". I've hacked the second of these out of the main article and placed it below. It seems the less-concise and weaker of the two, but others may disagree. Cheers, --Plumbago 09:20, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

The Byzantine Generals problem describes a group of generals, each commanding a division of the Byzantine army, encircling a city. These generals wish to formulate a plan for attacking the city. In its simplest form, the generals must only decide whether to attack or retreat. Some generals may prefer to attack, while others prefer to retreat. The important thing is that every general agrees on a common decision, for a halfhearted attack by a few generals would become a rout and be worse than a coordinated attack or a coordinated retreat.
The problem is complicated by the presence of traitorous generals who may not only cast a vote for a suboptimal strategy, they may do so selectively. For instance, if nine generals are voting, four of whom support attacking while four others are in favor of retreat, the ninth general may send a vote of retreat to a few generals, and a vote of attack to the rest. Those who received a retreat vote from the ninth general will retreat, while the rest will attack (which may not go well for the attackers).
  • Though on the other hand this version does contain more information that the other doesn't have. Mathmo Talk 09:05, 12 February 2007 (UTC)


Lamport explains the origin of the problem here and the origin of the name here. --TristramBrelstaff (talk) 16:12, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Motives for attacking

Such a nice little article! Can anyone list some of the mentioned motives for attacking P2P networks, so maybe it can be worked into the article?