<p>Distributed real-time database systems demand consistency and timeliness. One approach for this problem is eventual consistency which guarantees local consistency within predictable time. Global consistency can be reached by best effort mechanisms but for some scenarios, e.g. an alarm signal, this may not be suffcient. Bounded delay replication, which provides global consistency in bounded time, ensures that after the local commit of a transaction updates are propagated to and integrated at any remote node within bounded time. The DRTS group at the University of Skövde is working on a project called DeeDS, which is a distributed real-time database prototype. In this prototype, eventual consistency with as</p><p>soon as possible (ASAP) replication is implemented. The goal of this dissertation is to further develop replication in this prototype in coexistence to the existing eventual consistency which implies the extension of both the theory and the implementation.</p><p>The main issue with bounded time replication is to make all parts, which are involved in the replication process predictable and simultaneously support eventual consistency with as soon as possible replication.</p>

Distributed real-time database systems demand consistency and timeliness. One approach for this problem is eventual consistency which guarantees local consistency within predictable time. Global consistency can be reached by best effort mechanisms but for some scenarios, e.g. an alarm signal, this may not be suffcient. Bounded delay replication, which provides global consistency in bounded time, ensures that after the local commit of a transaction updates are propagated to and integrated at any remote node within bounded time. The DRTS group at the University of Skövde is working on a project called DeeDS, which is a distributed real-time database prototype. In this prototype, eventual consistency with as soon as possible (ASAP) replication is implemented. The goal of this dissertation is to further develop replication in this prototype in coexistence to the existing eventual consistency which implies the extension of both the theory and the implementation. The main issue with bounded time replication is to make all parts, which are involved in the replication process predictable and simultaneously support eventual consistency with as soon as possible replication.

Replikation kann helfen, in einem verteilten System die Fehlertoleranz und Datensicherheit zu verbessern. In Systemen, die über Weitverkehrsnetze kommunizieren oder mobile Endgeräte einschließen, muß das Replikationssystem mit großen Kommunikationslatenzen umgehen können. Deshalb werden in solchen Systemen in der Regel nur asynchrone Replikationsalgorithmen mit schwach-konsistenter Änderungssemantik eingesetzt, da diese die lokale Annahme von Änderungen der Daten und deren Koordinierung mit anderen Replikaten entkoppeln und somit ein schnelles Antwortverhalten bieten können. Diese Dissertation stellt einen Ansatz für die Entwicklung schwach-konsistenter Replikationssysteme mit erweiterten kausalen Konsistenzgarantien vor und weist nach, daß auf seiner Grundlage effiziente Replikationssysteme konstruiert werden können. Dazu werden Mechanismen, Algorithmen und Protokolle vorgestellt, die Änderungen an replizierten Daten aufzeichnen und verteilen und dabei Kausalitätsbeziehungen erhalten. Kern ist ein Änderungsprotokoll, das sowohl als grundlegende Datenstruktur der verteilten Algorithmen agiert, als auch für die Konsistenz der lokalen Daten nach Systemabstürzen sorgt. Die kausalen Garantien werden mit Hilfe von zwei Algorithmen erweitet, die gleichzeitige Änderungen konsistent handhaben. Beide Algorithmen basieren auf der Beobachtung, daß die Divergenz der Replikate durch unkoordinierte, gleichzeitige Änderungen nicht unbedingt als Inkonsistenz gesehen werden muß, sondern auch als das Erzeugen verschiedener Versionen der Daten modelliert werden kann. Distributed Consistent Branching (DCB) erzeugt diese alternativen Versionen der Daten konsistent auf allen Replikaten; Distributed Consistent Cutting (DCC) wählt eine der Versionen konsistent aus. Die vorgestellten Algorithmen und Protokolle wurden in einer Datenbankimplementierung validiert. Mehrere Experimente zeigen ihre Einsetzbarkeit und helfen, ihr Verhalten unter verschiedenen Bedingungen einzuschätzen. / Data replication techniques introduce redundancy into a distributed system architecture that can help solve several of its persistent problems. In wide area or mobile systems, a replication system must be able to deal with the presence of unreliable, high-latency links. Only asynchronous replication algorithms with weak-consistency guarantees can be deployed in these environments, as these algorithms decouple the local acceptance of changes to the replicated data from coordination with remote replicas. This dissertation proposes a framework for building weak-consistency replication systems that provides the application developer with causal consistency guarantees and mechanisms for handling concurrency. By presenting an integrated set of mechanisms, algorithms and protocols for capturing and disseminating changes to the replicated data, we show that causal consistency and concurrency handling can be implemented in an efficient and versatile manner. The framework is founded on log of changes, which both acts the core data structure for its distributed algorithms and protocols and serves as the database log that ensures the consistency of the local data replica. The causal consistency guarantees are complemented with two distributed algorithms that handle concurrent operations. Both algorithms are based on the observation that uncoordinated concurrent operations introduce a divergence of state in a replication system that can be modeled as the creation of version branches. Distributed Consistent Branching (DCB) recreates these branches on all participating processes in a consistent manner. Distributed Consistent Cutting (DCC) selects one of the possible branches in a consistent and application-controllable manner and enforces a total causal order for all its operations. The contributed algorithms and protocols were validated in an database system implementation, and several experiments assess the behavior of these algorithms and protocols under varying conditions.

This thesis compares different approaches of creating a collaborative editing application using different methods such as OT, CRDT and Locking. After a comparison between these methods an implementation based on CRDT was done. The implementation of a collaborative graphical network was made such that consistency is guaranteed. The implementation uses the 2P2P-Graph which was extended in order to support moving of nodes, and uses the client-server communication model. An evaluation of the implementation was made by creating a time-complexity and a space complexity analysis. The result of the thesis includes a comparison between different methods and by an evaluation of the Extended 2P2P-Graph.

<p>In a distributed database system, pessimistic concurrency control is often used to ensure consistency which implies that the execution time of a transaction is not predictable. The execution time of a transaction is not dependent on the local transactions only, but on every transaction in the system.</p><p>In real-time database systems it is important that transactions are predictable. One way to make transactions predictable is to use eventual consistency where transactions commit locally before they are propagated to other nodes in the system. It is then possible to get predictable transactions due to the fact that the execution time of the transaction only depends on concurrent transactions on the local node and not on delays on other nodes and delays from a network.</p><p>In this report an investigation is made on how a replication protocol using eventual consistency can be designed for, and implemented in, DeeDS, a distributed real-time database prototype. The protocol consists of three parts: a propagation method, a conflict detection algorithm, and a conflict resolution mechanism. The conflict detection algorithm is based on version vectors. The focus is on the propagation mechanism and the conflict detection algorithm of the replication protocol.</p><p>An implementation design of the replication protocol is made. A discussion on how the version vectors may be applied in terms of granularity (container, page, object or attribute) and how the log filter should be designed and implemented to suit the particular conflict detection algorithm is carried out. A number of test cases with focus on regression testing have been defined.</p><p>It is concluded that the feasibility of the conflict detection algorithm is dependent on the application type that uses DeeDS.</p>

In a distributed database system, pessimistic concurrency control is often used to ensure consistency which implies that the execution time of a transaction is not predictable. The execution time of a transaction is not dependent on the local transactions only, but on every transaction in the system. In real-time database systems it is important that transactions are predictable. One way to make transactions predictable is to use eventual consistency where transactions commit locally before they are propagated to other nodes in the system. It is then possible to get predictable transactions due to the fact that the execution time of the transaction only depends on concurrent transactions on the local node and not on delays on other nodes and delays from a network. In this report an investigation is made on how a replication protocol using eventual consistency can be designed for, and implemented in, DeeDS, a distributed real-time database prototype. The protocol consists of three parts: a propagation method, a conflict detection algorithm, and a conflict resolution mechanism. The conflict detection algorithm is based on version vectors. The focus is on the propagation mechanism and the conflict detection algorithm of the replication protocol. An implementation design of the replication protocol is made. A discussion on how the version vectors may be applied in terms of granularity (container, page, object or attribute) and how the log filter should be designed and implemented to suit the particular conflict detection algorithm is carried out. A number of test cases with focus on regression testing have been defined. It is concluded that the feasibility of the conflict detection algorithm is dependent on the application type that uses DeeDS.

Les systèmes décentralisés sont par nature extensibles mais sont également difficiles à coordonner en raison de leur faible couplage. La réplication de données dans ces systèmes géo-répartis est donc un défi inhérent à leur structure. Les deux contributions de cette thèse exploitent l'hétérogénéité des besoins des utilisateurs et permettent une qualité de service personnalisable pour la réplication de données dans les systèmes décentralisés. Notre première contribution Gossip Primary-Secondary étend le critère de cohérence Update consistency Primary-Secondary afin d'offrir des garanties différenciées de cohérence et de latence de messages pour la réplication de données à grande échelle. Notre seconde contribution Dietcoin enrichit Bitcoin avec des nœuds diet qui peuvent (i) vérifier la validité de sous-chaînes de blocs en évitant le coût exorbitant de la vérification initiale et (ii) choisir leur propres garanties de sécurité et de consommation de ressources. / Decentralized systems are scalable by design but also difficult to coordinate due to their weak coupling. Replicating data in these geo-distributed systems is therefore a challenge inherent to their structure. The two contributions of this thesis exploit the heterogeneity of user requirements and enable personalizable quality of services for data replication in decentralized systems. Our first contribution Gossip Primary-Secondary enables the consistency criterion Update consistency Primary-Secondary to offer differentiated guarantees in terms of consistency and message delivery latency for large-scale data replication. Our second contribution Dietcoin enriches Bitcoin with diet nodes that can (i) verify the correctness of entire subchains of blocks while avoiding the exorbitant cost of bootstrap verification and (ii) personalize their own security and resource consumption guarantees.

La collaboration en temps réel est un cas spécial de collaboration où les utilisateurs travaillent sur le même élément simultanément et sont au courant des modifications des autres utilisateurs en temps réel. Les données distribuées doivent rester disponibles et consistant tout en étant répartis sur plusieurs systèmes physiques. "Strong Consistency" est une approche qui crée un ordre total des opérations en utilisant des mécanismes tel que le "locking". Cependant, cela introduit un "bottleneck". Ces dix dernières années, les algorithmes de concurrence ont été étudiés dans le but de garder la convergence de tous les replicas sans utiliser de "locking" ni de synchronisation. "Operational Trans- formation" et "Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDT)" sont utilisés dans ce but. Cependant, la complexité de ces stratégies les rend compliquées à intégrer dans des logicielles conséquents, comme les éditeurs de modèles, spécialement pour des data structures complexes comme les graphes. Les implémentations actuelles intègrent seulement des data linéaires tel que le texte. Dans ce mémoire, nous présentons CollabServer, un framework pour construire des environnements de collaboration. Il a une implémentation de CRDTs pour des data structures complexes tel que les graphes et donne la possibilité de construire ses propres data structures. / Real-time collaboration is a special case of collaboration where users work on the same artefact simultaneously and are aware of each other’s changes in real-time. Shared data should remain available and consistent while dealing with its physically distributed aspect. Strong Consistency is one approach that enforces a total order of operations using mechanisms, such as locking. This however introduces a bottleneck. In the last decade, algorithms for concurrency control have been studied to keep convergence of all replicas without locking or synchronization. Operational Transformation and Conflict free Replicated Data Types (CRDT) are widely used to achieve this purpose. However, the complexity of these strategies makes it hard to integrate in large software, such as modeling editors, especially for complex data types like graphs. Current implementations only integrate linear data, such as text. In this thesis, we present CollabServer, a framework to build collaborative environments. It features a CRDTs implementation for complex data types such as graphs and gives possibility to build other data structures.

<p>A distributed, real-time database could be used to implement a shared whiteboard architecture used for communication between mobile nodes, in an ad-hoc network. This kind of application implies specific requirements on how the database handles replication and consistency between replicas (global consistency). Since mobile nodes are likely to disconnect from the network and connect again at unpredictable times, and since a node may be disconnected an arbitrary amount of time, this needs to be treated as normal operation, and not as failures.</p><p>The replication scheme used in the DeeDS architecture, and the PRiDe replication protocol are both suitable for a shared whiteboard architecture as described above. Since the mobile nodes are likely to be some kind of hand-held device (e.g., used by rescue personnel to exchange information), the database system should be suitable for use in embedded systems. The Polyhedra Real-Time Relational Database (RTRDB) and the TimesTen database are two such systems. A problem is that neither of these two database systems have a replication scheme suitable for use in the previously described type of architecture.</p><p>This dissertation presents two design proposals for how to extend the Polyhedra RTRDB with support for multi-master replication of data using full replication and eventual consistency. One design proposal is based on the DeeDS architecture and the other is based on the PRiDe replication protocol. The proposal based on DeeDS puts a number of requirements on the underlying database and is not easy to port to another DBMS since it makes use of Polyhedra specific API’s. The proposal based on PRiDe on the other hand requires no instrumentation of the underlying database and is thus easier to port to other database systems.</p>

<p>Recovery is a fundamental service in database systems. In this work, we present a new mechanism for diskless real-time recovery in fully replicated distributed real-time database systems. Traditionally, recovery has relied on disk-resident redundant data. Unfortunately, disks cannot always be used in real-time systems since these systems are sometimes used in environments which do not allow the use of disks. Also, minimizing the amount of hardware can save money, especially in mass-produced products. Instead of loading the database from disk, our recovery mechanism enables a restarted node to retrieve a copy of the database from an arbitrary remote node. The recovery mechanism does not violate timeliness during normal processing and, during recovery, all nodes except for the recovering node can guarantee the timeliness of critical transactions. The mechanism uses fuzzy checkpointing to copy the database to the recovering node. Fuzzy checkpointing has been chosen since it copies the database without regard to concurrency control and, thus, does not increase data contention in the database. We conclude that the suggested recovery mechanism is a feasible option for fully replicated distributed real-time database systems.</p>