US Patent 7849223 Virtually synchronous Paxos

A variant of Paxos is referred to as Virtually Synchronous Paxos (VS Paxos). VS Paxos is a self-reconfigurable protocol that allows for delay only for reconfiguration decisions, without placing an artificial limit on regular decisions. In an implementation of VS Paxos, subject to any restriction on reconfiguration decisions, a leader may activate an unbounded number of consensus instances ahead. A VS Paxos technique permits unlimited progress during stability periods, in that a leader may initiate commands at any number of consensus instances without bound. VS Paxos waits for command completion only when configuration-changing commands occur.