Revisiting Lower Bounds for Two-Step Consensus

Abstract: A seminal result by Lamport shows that at least $\max{2e+f+1,2f+1}$ processes are required to implement partially synchronous consensus that tolerates $f$ process failures and can furthermore decide in two message delays under $e$ failures. This lower bound is matched by the classical Fast Paxos protocol. However, more recent practical protocols, such as Egalitarian Paxos, provide two-step decisions with fewer processes, seemingly contradicting the lower bound. We show that this discrepancy arises because the classical bound requires two-step decisions under a wide range of scenarios, not all of which are relevant in practice. We propose a more pragmatic condition for which we establish tight bounds on the number of processes required. Interestingly, these bounds depend on whether consensus is implemented as an atomic object or a decision task. For consensus as an object, $\max{2e+f-1,2f+1}$ processes are necessary and sufficient for two-step decisions, while for a task the tight bound is $\max{2e+f, 2f+1}$.