Title: Evaluating BFT Protocols with Deterministic Simulation

Speaker: Hans Peter Reiser (Reykjavík University, Iceland)

Date: May 10, 2023, 13h00

Where:  C6.3.27

Abstract: Numerous Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) protocols have emerged in recent years, each attempting to increase scalability in different ways. However, it is challenging to determine which protocol works best in specific environments. To evaluate BFT protocols, approaches such as real deployments, emulation, and simulation have been proposed. In this talk, we compare different approaches and specifically explore the possibility of evaluating the performance of BFT protocols based on their unmodified implementations. Building upon the Phantom simulator, our approach enables the execution of controlled, deterministic experiments in a resource-friendly and efficient way, yielding realistic insights into a system’s expected behavior in different environments.

Short Bio: Hans P. Reiser is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Reykjavík University, Iceland. He graduated in computer science from University of Erlangen, Germany, and received his PhD degree from Ulm University, Germany, in 2007. Before moving to Iceland, he worked as an assistant professor at the University of Lisbon, Portugal (2007-2011) and the University of Passau, Germany (2011-2021). He was also a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University, USA (2010), and Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Germany (2017/2018). Hans P. Reiser’s research focuses on building secure and reliable distributed systems, exploring novel methods for detecting, masking, and analyzing malicious faults.