A method to design resilient protocols for spanning tree problems is proposed. The method consists of a generic resilient protocol that can be used for any spanning tree problem. A resilient protocol for a particular spanning tree problem can be obtained by adjusting various run-time parameters of the generic protocol. The generic protocol is designed by using the concepts of replacement sets that contain the links that can be used to replace a link that fails and replacement values that measure the change in the spanning tree when a link in a replacement set is used to recreate a spanning tree. The approach is as general as the common approach (for the case of spanning trees) because the generic protocol can solve a new spanning tree problem without an individual design. The protocols obtained with this method are efficient and easy to implement and verify because they are all derived from the generic protocol.>

We present a distributed protocol for updating and maintaining a minimum-weight spanning tree (MST) in a network with changing topology. The protocol can respond to multiple link/node failures and recoveries that can occur at arbitrary times. Given that an arbitrary finite number of topological changes occur during a period, the protocol finds the MST corresponding to the latest network, within finite time after the last change. The message complexity of the protocol is O(m|E|+k|V|) when k link recoveries and m link failures occur, where |V| and |E| are the total number of nodes and links, respectively.

We present a resilient distributed protocol that enables a synchronous algorithm to run on an asynchronous network. The protocol is resilient in the sense that it can continue providing network synchronization in the presence of topological changes in the underlying communication network of a distributed system. These changes are caused by link/node failures and recoveries that occur while running the protocol. In general, the protocol is a useful tool in the design of resilient distributed algorithms as it isolates the algorithm from the characteristics of the communication network.