The techniques for reassigning votes dynamically in a distributed system upon node or link failure discussed in this paper use mutual exclusion constraints and attempt to accomplish higher availability of the distributed system. The authors discuss two basic methodologies: group consensus and autonomous reassignment. They present examples of these two methodologies. The paper then concentrates on the autonomous method of dynamic vote reassignment.

The paper examines protocols that permit nodes to install new vote values and still maintain mutual exclusion. The authors present and prove theorems to validate these protocols. They also discuss simulation results for the several policies that they considered for the implementation of the dynamic vote reassignment. The paper should interest people who deal with shared or distributed resources or replicated data items.