In distributed computing, multiple processes interact to solve a problem together. The main model of interaction is the message-passing model, where processes communicate by exchanging messages. Nevertheless, there are several models varying along important dimensions: degree of synchrony, kinds of faults, number of faults... This variety is compounded by the lack of a general formalism in which to abstract these models. One way to bring order is to constrain these models to communicate in rounds. This is the setting of the Heard-Of model, which captures many models through predicates on the messages sent in a round and received on time. Yet, it is not easy to define the predicate that captures a given operational model. The question is even harder for the asynchronous case, as unbounded message delay means the implementation of rounds must depend on details of the model. This paper shows that characterising asynchronous models by heard-of predicates is indeed meaningful. This characterization relies on delivered predicates, an intermediate abstraction between the informal operational model and the heard-of predicates. Our approach splits the problem into two steps: first extract the delivered model capturing the informal model, and then characterize the heard-of predicates that are generated by this delivered model. For the first part, we provide examples of delivered predicates, and an approach to derive more. It uses the intuition that complex models are a composition of simpler models. We define operations like union, succession or repetition that make it easier to derive complex delivered predicates from simple ones while retaining expressivity. For the second part, we formalize and study strategies for when to change rounds. Intuitively, the characterizing predicate of a model is the one generated by a strategy that waits for as much messages as possible, without blocking forever.

Round-based models are very common message-passing models; combinatorial topology applied to distributed computing provides sweeping results like general lower bounds. We combine both to study the computability of k-set agreement.

Message-passing models of distributed computing vary along numerous dimensions: degree of synchrony, kind of faults, number of faults... Unfortunately, the sheer number of models and their subtle distinctions hinder our ability to design a general theory of message-passing models. One way out of this conundrum restricts communication to proceed by round. A great variety of message-passing models can then be captured in the Heard-Of model, through predicates on the messages sent in a round and received during or before this round. Then, the issue is to find the most accurate Heard-Of predicate to capture a given model. This is straightforward in synchronous models, because waiting for the upper bound on communication delay ensures that all available messages are received, while not waiting forever. On the other hand, asynchrony allows unbounded message delays. Is there nonetheless a meaningful characterization of asynchronous models by a Heard-Of predicate? We formalize this characterization by introducing Delivered collections: the collections of all messages delivered at each round, whether late or not. Predicates on Delivered collections capture message-passing models. The question is to determine which Heard-Of predicates can be generated by a given Delivered predicate. We answer this by formalizing strategies for when to change round. Thanks to a partial order on these strategies, we also find the "best" strategy for multiple models, where "best" intuitively means it waits for as many messages as possible while not waiting forever. Finally, a strategy for changing round that never blocks a process forever implements a Heard-Of predicate. This allows us to translate the order on strategies into an order on Heard-Of predicates. The characterizing predicate for a model is then the greatest element for that order, if it exists.

In the asynchronous setting, distributed behavior is traditionally studied through computa- tions, the Happened-Before posets of events generated by the system. An equivalent perspective considers the linear extensions of the generated computations: each linear extension defines a sequence of events, called an execution. Both perspective were leveraged in the study of asyn- chronous point-to-point message orderings over computations; yet neither allows us to interpret message orderings defined over executions. Can we nevertheless make sense of such an ordering, maybe even use it to understand asynchronicity better? We provide a general answer by defining a topology on the set of executions which captures the fundamental assumptions of asynchronicity. This topology links each message ordering over executions with two sets of computations: its closure, the computations for which at least one linear extension satisfies the predicate; and its interior, the computations for which all linear ex- tensions satisfy it. These sets of computations represent respectively the uncertainty brought by asynchronicity – the computations where the predicate is satisfiable – and the certainty available despite asynchronicity – the computations where the predicate must hold. The paper demon- strates the use of this topological approach by examining closures and interiors of interesting orderings over executions.