A token-based protocol for reliable, ordered multicast communication

A description is given of the token-passing multicast (TPM) protocol, a token-based protocol that provides reliable, ordered multicast communication for distributed process groups in the presence of failures and network partitions. The TPM protocol combines several positive features of other reliable multicast schemes into a single protocol, yet maintains a relatively simple structure and requires that only a minimal amount of state information be kept by process group members. It is designed specifically for computing environments with relatively low error rates, such as local area networks, and for process groups in which communication is symmetric, that is, each group member can send messages to the group, and the source must be a member of the group