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| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2026
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| Acceso en línea: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.09114 |
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| _version_ | 1866909032780922880 |
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| author | Landers, Rob Kramer, Kaben |
| author_facet | Landers, Rob Kramer, Kaben |
| contents | Every distributed system -- databases, networks, postal services, CPU caches -- is a message-passing system. Every message-passing system is a growing causal log observed by a set of observers. We present Light Cone Consistency (LCC), a framework that describes every known consistency model as a configuration of three constraints on each observer's visible sub-DAG: causal closure $C(\mathrm{deps})$, fork resolution $O(π)$, and timeliness $R(δ)$, plus an orthogonal return-value function $F$. We map 85 configurations, covering all 50+ named models from Viotti and Vukolic's taxonomy, with caveats for fork-based and probabilistic models.
We show that three impossibility results of distributed computing -- CAP, FLP, and AFC -- each constrain exactly one pair of parameters, and prove they are minimal and independent. Our central result is the observation that these three constraints are fully entangled: violation of any one surface cascades to the other two, because restoring any parameter requires messages -- and those messages are subject to all three constraints. The three parameters and their pairwise impossibility surfaces form a fully connected triangle. Every distributed system must exit the triangle by relaxing at least one parameter. The triangle activates only when the system is in use: $C \neq \mathrm{none}$, $O \neq \mathrm{trivial}$, or $R \neq \mathrm{absent}$ each introduces a constraint that exposes the system to the surfaces. A system that demands nothing -- or writes far slower than its propagation delay -- is trivially linearizable. We identify open problems including a conjectured fourth surface (log locality), undiscovered constraints, and the universality of the safety-liveness fork as the consequence of crossing any boundary. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_09114 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Light Cone Consistency: Toward a Unified Theory of Consistency in Message-Passing Systems Landers, Rob Kramer, Kaben Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing 68M14 (Primary), 68Q85 (Secondary) C.2.4; H.2.4; F.1.2 Every distributed system -- databases, networks, postal services, CPU caches -- is a message-passing system. Every message-passing system is a growing causal log observed by a set of observers. We present Light Cone Consistency (LCC), a framework that describes every known consistency model as a configuration of three constraints on each observer's visible sub-DAG: causal closure $C(\mathrm{deps})$, fork resolution $O(π)$, and timeliness $R(δ)$, plus an orthogonal return-value function $F$. We map 85 configurations, covering all 50+ named models from Viotti and Vukolic's taxonomy, with caveats for fork-based and probabilistic models. We show that three impossibility results of distributed computing -- CAP, FLP, and AFC -- each constrain exactly one pair of parameters, and prove they are minimal and independent. Our central result is the observation that these three constraints are fully entangled: violation of any one surface cascades to the other two, because restoring any parameter requires messages -- and those messages are subject to all three constraints. The three parameters and their pairwise impossibility surfaces form a fully connected triangle. Every distributed system must exit the triangle by relaxing at least one parameter. The triangle activates only when the system is in use: $C \neq \mathrm{none}$, $O \neq \mathrm{trivial}$, or $R \neq \mathrm{absent}$ each introduces a constraint that exposes the system to the surfaces. A system that demands nothing -- or writes far slower than its propagation delay -- is trivially linearizable. We identify open problems including a conjectured fourth surface (log locality), undiscovered constraints, and the universality of the safety-liveness fork as the consequence of crossing any boundary. |
| title | Light Cone Consistency: Toward a Unified Theory of Consistency in Message-Passing Systems |
| topic | Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing 68M14 (Primary), 68Q85 (Secondary) C.2.4; H.2.4; F.1.2 |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.09114 |