Single-bit messages are insufficient for data link over duplicating channels

Kai Engelhardt, Yoram Moses

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Fekete and Lynch have proved that reliable end-to-end communication is impossible for lossy FIFO channels without messages containing header information. The results of Wang and Zuck show that, in non-FIFO models with duplication or loss, reliable end-to-end communication is impossible unless the number of different packet types is greater than the number of messages sequences that can be transmitted. An asynchronous, bidirectional, reliable, FIFO channel that may duplicate messages, while single-bit protocols can transmit a binary value over a duplicating channel. The result implies that these cannot be composed to implement a data-link layer, without using a larger set of message types.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)235-239
Number of pages5
JournalInformation Processing Letters
Volume107
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 31 Aug 2008

Keywords

  • Distributed systems

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • Signal Processing
  • Information Systems
  • Computer Science Applications

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