Vmware, Inc.

Ling Ren

Dahlia Malkhi

Kartik Ravidas Nayak

Ittai Abraham

A method and system for performing a flexible Byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) protocol. The method includes sending, from a client device, a proposed value to a plurality of replica devices and receiving, from at least one of the plurality of replica devices, a safe vote on the proposed value. The replica device sends the safe vote, based on a first quorum being reached, to the client device and each of the other replica devices of the plurality of replica devices. The method further includes determining that a number of received safe votes for the proposed value meets or exceeds a second quorum threshold, selecting the proposed value based on the determination, and setting a period of time within which to receive additional votes. The method further includes, based on the period of time elapsing without receiving the additional votes, committing the selected value for the single view.

Flexible byzantine fault tolerance

A replicated service comprises N replicas deployed on compute nodes of a computer network, wherein the replicas are each configured to vote on a proposed transaction output by a leader of the replicas and certify the proposed transaction upon receiving qr*N first votes, where qr is a fractional value between 0 and 1 that represents a quorum required for certification. A method of approving a transaction in the replicated service includes receiving certifications from the replicas, and transmitting an approval of the transaction to the replicas for recording: (i) upon determining that at least qc*N certifications have been received, where qc is a fractional value between 0 and 1 that represents a quorum required for transaction approval and qc&#x3e;qr, or (ii) upon determining that at least qr*N certifications have been received at the end of the time period equal to 2*&#x394;, where &#x394; represents a network delay.

Byzantine fault tolerance that supports heterogeneous clients

A replicated service comprises N replicas deployed on compute nodes of a computer network, wherein the N replicas are each configured to vote on a proposed transaction output by a leader of the N replicas and certify the proposed transaction upon receiving qr*N first votes, where qr is a fractional value between 0 and 1 that represents a quorum required for certification. A method of approving a transaction in the replicated service includes receiving certifications from the N replicas, determining whether or not the certifications are received from at least qr*N replicas during a time period equal to 2*&#x394;, where &#x394; represents a network delay between two compute nodes of the computer network, and transmitting an approval of the transaction to the replicas for recording by the replicas upon determining that at least qr*N certifications have been received at the end of the time period equal to 2*&#x394;.

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Menlo Park, CA, United States of America

Ling Ren