DISTAL: Domain-specific Language for Implementing Distributed Algorithms

Distributed algorithms research focuses on interactions and communication between independent systems and processors in diverse scenarios. These algorithms are usually written as abstract pseudo-code, and turning them into compilable and runnable code is a complex and error prone task. This is in part due to the lack of expressiveness for representing the distributed algorithms abstractions in currently available tools and libraries. We present DISTAL, a domain-specific language for implementing distributed algorithms, as a library on top of Scala that allows the user to express and fully implement distributed algorithms in a high level, pseudo-code-like manner. Validated with a Paxos and its MultiPaxos variant along with a batching optimization, this library exhibits the capability of allowing a quickly implementation of these algorithms, while retaining their expected behavior and properties.