Global Predicate Detection in Distributed Systems with Small Faults

We study the problem of global predicate detection in presence of permanent and transient failures. We term the transient failures as small faults. We show that it is impossible to detect predicates in an asynchronous distributed system prone to small faults even if nodes are equipped with a powerful device known as failure detector sequencer (denoted by Σ). To redress this impossibility, we introduce a theoretical device, known as a small fault sequencer (denoted by ΣSF ), and show that ΣSF is necessary and sufficient for predicate detection. Unfortunately, we also show that ΣSF cannot be implemented even in a synchronous distributed system. Fortunately, however, we show that predicate detection can be achieved with high probability in synchronous systems.