Paper's network assumptions:
"We assume a model of reliable communication—messages cannot be lost (only delayed). This is a reasonable assumption if we consider a reliable protocol, such as TCP."
Paxos network assumptions:
"Messages can take arbitrarily long to be delivered, can be duplicated, and can be lost, but they are not corrupted." - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/p...