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doi:10.1006/inco.2001.3088 
Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.
Regular Article
Distributed Probabilistic Polling and Applications to Proportionate Agreement*1
Yehuda Hassina and David Pelegb, 2
Received 25 January 2000.
Abstract
This paper considers a probabilistic local polling process, examines its properties, and proposes its use in the context of distributed network protocols for achieving consensus. The resulting consensus algorithm is very simple and lightweight, yet it enjoys some desirable properties, such as proportionate agreement (namely, reaching a consensus value of one with probability proportional to the number of ones in the inputs), resilience against dynamic link failures and recoveries, and (weak) self-stabilization. The paper also investigates the maximum influence of small sets and establishes results analogous to those obtained for the problem in the deterministic polling model.
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*1 The results of this paper are based on Hassin's M.Sc. thesis [H98] and were reported in preliminary version in [HP99, HP00].
2 Supported in part by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation and by a grant from the Israel Ministry of Science and Art.
f1 hassin@wisdom.weizmann.ac.il
f2 peleg@wisdom.weizmann.ac.il
