This paper appears in: Parallel and Distributed Systems, IEEE Transactions on
Publication Date: Jan 1991
Volume: 2,
Issue: 1
On page(s): 93-104
ISSN: 1045-9219
References Cited: 29
CODEN: ITDSEO
INSPEC Accession Number: 3883790
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/71.80192
Current Version Published: 2002-08-06
Abstract
A description is given of the relaxation lattice method, a new
approach to specifying graceful degradation for a large class of
programs. A relaxation lattice is a lattice of specifications
parameterized by a set of constraints, where the stronger the set of
constraints, the more restrictive the specification. While a program is
able to satisfy its strongest set of constraints, it satisfies its
preferred specification, but if changes to the environment force it to
satisfy a weaker set, then it will permit additional weakly consistent
computations which are undesired but tolerated. The use of relaxation
lattices is illustrated by specifications for programs that tolerate (1)
faults, such as site crashes and network partitions, (2) timing
anomalies, such as attempting to read a value too soon after it was
written, (3) synchronization conflicts, such as choosing the oldest
unlocked item from a queue, and (4) security breaches, such as acquiring
unauthorized capabilities
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