Implosion-avoidance protocols for reliable group communications

A reliable group communication protocol requires that members of the group acknowledge the reception of messages. The uncontrolled transmission of acknowledgements from the members of a group can lead to implosion; a condition that occurs when the responses flood the network or overwhelm the resources of the client's host. Scaling, the increase in the membership of a group, is a typical cause of implosion and the subsequent failure of a group communication. The problem of implosion is reviewed in this paper and a number of solutions considered; from this examination, two reliable group communication protocols are developed. Although these protocols are designed to minimize the likelihood of implosion, they also exhibit shorter data transfer times and generate less network traffic as compared to other group communication methods.<>