Exploring the consistency problem space

Nishith Krishna (1) , Marc Shapiro (2, 3) , Karthikeyan Bhargavan (2)

1 CIMS - Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences [New York]
2 Microsoft - Microsoft Research [Cambridge]
3 Regal - Large-Scale Distributed Systems and Applications

We study formally the consistency problem, for replicated shared data, in the Action-Constraint framework (ACF). ACF can describe a large range of application semantics and replication protocols, including optimistic and/or partial replication. ACF is used to decompose the consistency problem into simpler sub-problems. Each is easily understood. Existing algorithms from the literature can be explained as combinations of concrete sub-problem implementations. Using ACF, we design a new serialisation algorithm that does not cause aborts and only needs pairwise agreement (not global consensus)

Mots clés: Pessimistic replication; Optimistic replication; Replicated data; Semantic consistency; Partial replication; Strong consistency; Weak consisency

Domaines: Informatique [cs]

Nishith Krishna, Marc Shapiro, Karthikeyan Bhargavan. Exploring the consistency problem space. 2005. ⟨hal-01248207⟩