Reconciling the Theory and Practice of (Un)Reliable Wireless Broadcast

Theorists and practitioners have fairly different perspectives on how wireless broadcast works. Theorists think about synchrony; practitioners think about backoff. Theorists assume reliable communication; practitioners worry about collisions. The examples are endless. The authors' goal is to begin to reconcile the theory and practice of wireless broadcast, in the presence of failures. They propose new models for wireless broadcast and use them to examine what makes a broadcast model good. In the process, they pose some interesting questions that will help to bridge the gap.