  In this paper, we detail how two types of distributed coordinator election
algorithms can be compared in terms of performance based on an evaluation on
the High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure. An experimental approach
based on an MPI (Message Passing Interface) implementation is presented, with
the goal to characterize the relevant evaluation metrics based on statistical
processing of the results. The presented approach can be used to learn master
students of a course on distributed software the basics of algorithms for
coordinator election, and how to conduct an experimental performance evaluation
study. Finally, use cases where distributed coordinator election algorithms are
useful are presented.
