A Protocol for Reversible Distributed Computation

We present a new protocol for realizing reversible distributed programs with CSP style communication. While this work was motivated by the desire to implement reversible process algebras, the protocol may have other interesting uses in distributed systems including checkpointing, speculative real-time simulation, and transaction synchronization. The protocol may be efficiently implemented in hardware for tightly coupled (e.g. multi-core) systems: it is insensitive to communication delays and has minimal communication infrastructure requirements, only assuming in-order message delivery. The core of our presentation is the protocol and its verification. We additionally present a small reversible language, embedded in Ruby, to illustrate the potential for our protocol in implementing solutions to various distributed synchronization problems. Regular paper Not eligible for best student paper award A Protocol for Reversible Distributed Computation Geoffrey Brown Amr Sabry William J. Bowman