DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM WITH AN EFFICIENT ATOMIC BROADCAST MECHANISM

A method for ensuring consistent message reception among a plurality of nodes in a distributed system includes the step of causing nodes with outgoing messages to send the messages to all of the nodes. Each of the nodes then re-sends whatever messages it has received to all of the nodes after each of the nodes has received at least one message. The sequence of received messages in each of the nodes is then determined. If the sequence is not the same for all of the nodes, then each of the nodes re-sends what it has received until each node receives the same sequence of messages. A distributed system with a weak atomic broadcast module in each node to ensure consistent message reception while the nodes operate asynchronously is also described.