Authenticated Algorithms for Byzantine Agreement

Reaching agreement in a distributed system in the presence of faulty processors is a central issue for reliable computer systems. Using an authentication protocol, one can limit the undetected behavior of faulty processors to a simple failure to relay messages to all intended targets. In this paper we show that, in spite of such an ability to limit faulty behavior, and no matter what message types or protocols are allowed, reaching (Byzantine) agreement requires at least t + 1 phases or rounds of information exchange, where t is an upper bound on the number of faulty processors. We present algorithms for reaching agreement based on authentication that require a total number of messages sent by correctly operating processors that is polynomial in both t and the number of processors, n. The best algorithm uses only t + 1 phases and O (nt) messages.