A Topological Approach to
Computability in Distributed Computing
Dr. Michael Saks
Rutgers University
Distributed computing deals with problems that arise when a set of autonomous computers interact. Among the most basic of these problems are those of coordination: ensuring that computers act in a mutually consistent manner and do not interfere with each other. It turns out that, under certain reasonable assumptions, many basic coordination problems are provably impossible to solve.
In this talk, I'll discuss an approach to such results via elementary topology, that reveals a surprising connection between these impossibility results and the classical Brouwer fixed point theorem for Euclidean space.
This work is joint with Fotis Zaharoglou. The talk will not assume any prior knowledge of distributed computing.
Thursday, April 23, 1998
4:10 p.m. in MA 109
Coffee/Tea/Treats 3:30 p.m. in MA 104 (Lounge)
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