Reconfigurable distributed storage for dynamic networks

Gregory Chockler, Seth Gilbert, Vincent Gramoli, Peter M. Musial, Alex A. Shvartsman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper presents a new algorithm for implementing a reconfigurable distributed shared memory in an asynchronous dynamic network. The algorithm guarantees atomic consistency (linearizability) in all executions in the presence of arbitrary crash failures of the processing nodes, message delays, and message loss. The algorithm incorporates a classic quorum-based algorithm for read/write operations, and an optimized consensus protocol, based on Fast Paxos for reconfiguration, and achieves the design goals of: (i) allowing read and write operations to complete rapidly and (ii) providing long-term fault- tolerance through reconfiguration, a process that evolves the quorum configurations used by the read and write operations. The resulting algorithm tolerates dynamism. We formally prove our algorithm to be correct, we present its performance and compare it to existing reconfigurable memories, and we evaluate experimentally the cost of its reconfiguration mechanism.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)100-116
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Parallel and Distributed Computing
Volume69
Issue number1
Early online date26 Jul 2008
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2009

Keywords

  • Distributed algorithms
  • Reconfiguration
  • Atomic objects
  • Performance

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