In Search of a Compositional Theory of Self-Stabilization

The author explores compositional theory for self-stabilizing systems to address metastable failures, finding that existing literature on layered stabilization hasn't evolved substantially since the early 2000s. They discover a 2017 control theory paper on parametric assume-guarantee contracts that enables circular reasoning between components without layering, though it has limitations such as being memoryless and lacking connection to stabilization theory. The author attempts to adapt this framework by creating parameterized contracts that cover all system states rather than conditional ones, using a retry storm example to illustrate how contracts can be expressed as functions of system parameters.