Experiment-5: Leader-Election Algorithms – Bully Algorithm

Description:
Many distributed algorithms require one process to act as coordinator, initiator, or otherwise perform some special role. In
general, it does not matter which process takes on this special responsibility, but one of them has to do it. In this experiment
we will look at one of these leader-election algorithms which elects a coordinator.

If all processes are exactly the same, with no distinguishing characteristics, there is no way to select one of them to be special.
Consequently, we will assume that each process P has a unique identifier id(P). In general, election algorithms attempt to
locate the process with the highest identifier and designate it as coordinator. The algorithms differ in the way they locate the
coordinator.

It is assumed that each process has complete knowledge (i.e., knows the id) of each process in the group in which a
coordinator must be elected. What the processes do not know is which ones are currently up and which ones are currently
down. The goal of an election algorithm is to ensure that when an election starts, it concludes with all processes agreeing on
who the new coordinator is to be.

The Bully Algorithm

The bully algorithm is a leader-election algorithm devised in 1982. The algorithm works as follows: consider N processes {Pk,
..., PN-1} and let id(Pk) = k. When any process notices that the coordinator is no longer responding to requests, it initiates an
election. A process, Pk, holds an election as follows:

1. Pk sends an ELECTION message to all processes with higher identifiers: Pk+1, Pk+2, …, PN-1.

2. If no one responds, Pk wins the election and becomes coordinator.

3. If one of the higher-ups answers, it takes over and Pk’s job is done.

Note that at any moment a process can get an ELECTION message from one of its lower-numbered colleagues. When such a
message arrives, the receiver sends an OK message back to the sender to indicate that he is alive and will take over. The
receiver then holds an election, unless it is already holding one. Eventually, all processes give up but one, and that one is the
new coordinator. It announces its victory by sending all processes a COORDINATOR message telling them that starting
immediately it is the new coordinator.

If a process that was previously down comes back up, it holds an election. If it happens to be the highest-numbered process
currently running, it will win the election and take over the coordinator's job. Thus the biggest guy in town always wins, hence
the name "bully algorithm."

Example:
The group of processes shown in the figure below consists of eight processes with process id ranging from 0 to 7. Previously
process P7 was the coordinator, but it has just crashed. Process P4 is the first one to notice this, so it sends ELECTION
messages to all the processes higher than it, namely P5, P6, and P7 figure (a). Processes P5 and P6 both respond with OK, as
shown in the figure (b). Upon getting the first of these responses, P4 knows that its job is over, knowing that either one of P5
or P6 will take over and become coordinator. Process P4 just sits back and waits to see who the winner will be. In figure (c)

Prepared by: Dr Talal A. Edwan

both P5 and P6 hold elections, each one sending messages only to those processes with identifiers higher than itself.

In figure (d), P6 tells P5 that it will take over. At this point P6 knows that P7 is dead and that it (P6) is the winner, thus it sends
a COORDINATOR message to all running processes. When P4 gets this message, it can now continue with the operation it

Prepared by: Dr Talal A. Edwan

was trying to do when it discovered that P7 was dead, but using P6 as the coordinator this time. In this way the failure of P7 is
handled and the work can continue. If process P7 is ever restarted, it will initiate an election and wins.

Pre-LAB Assignment:

Install “GoLang” on your computer, depending on your GNU/Linux distribution, you can try something like this:

1. add the PPA repository by running the command below in terminal,

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports

2. update your package list index and install “Go” by running the command below in terminal,

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install golang-go

3. confirm installed version using the go version option by running the command below in terminal,

$ go version
go version go1.17.2 linux/amd64

In-LAB Assignment:
We are going to use a source code of an implementation of the bully algorithm written in “Go” programming language and a
small browser visualization tool to illustrate the concept of the algorithm.

1. get the “Go” repository by typing the following in your terminal:

nibras@eagle:~$ go get -d github.com/timtosi/bully-algorithm

2. change to the directory of the data visualisation tool and run it using the following commands:
nibras@eagle:~$ cd ~/go/src/github.com/timtosi/bully-algorithm/cmd/data-viz

nibras@eagle:~/go/src/github.com/timtosi/bully-algorithm/cmd/data-viz$ go build && ./data-viz

2021/12/16 00:21:06 Server started at :8080

3. access the visualisation tool from your web browser by typing the following in the address field:
http://localhost:8080/

5. launch three processes/nodes in three terminals and specify the id for each process/node,

node 0
nibras@eagle:~/go/src/github.com/timtosi/bully-algorithm/cmd/bully$ go build && ./bully 0

node 1
nibras@eagle:~/go/src/github.com/timtosi/bully-algorithm/cmd/bully$ ./bully 1

node 2
nibras@eagle:~/go/src/github.com/timtosi/bully-algorithm/cmd/bully$ ./bully 2

Prepared by: Dr Talal A. Edwan

Observe the result:

Then:

• crash node 2 and observe the result.

• restart node 2 and observe the result.
• crash node 1 and observe the result.
• restart node 1 and observe the result.

Prepared by: Dr Talal A. Edwan

Prepared by: Dr Talal A. Edwan
Exercise:
a) start three nodes such that all have the same id, then crash any of them and repeat. Will the leader change?
b) show that in the worst case, the number of messages passed has an order O(n 2). Is this a order of message passing good or
bad?

Prepared by: Dr Talal A. Edwan