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Publications

Publications by HASLab

2016

Life Beyond Distributed Transactions on the Edge

Authors
Shoker, A; Kassam, Z; Almeida, PS; Baquero, C;

Publication
Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Middleware for Edge Clouds & Cloudlets, Trento, Italy, December 12-16, 2016

Abstract
Edge/Fog Computing is an extension to the Cloud Computing model, primarily proposed to pull some of the load on cloud data center towards the edge of the network, i.e., closer to the clients. Despite being a promising model, the foundations to adopt and fully exploit the edge model are yet to be clear, and thus new ideas are continuously advocated. In his paper on \Life beyond Distributed Transactions: An Apostate's Opinion", Pat Helland proposed his vision to build\almost innite" scale future applications, demonstrating why Distributed Transactions are not very practical under scale. His approach models the applications data state as independent \entities" with separate serialization scopes, thus allowing ecient local transactions within an entity, but precluding transactions involving dierent entities. Accessing remote data (which is assumed rare) can be done through separate channels in a more message-oriented manner. In this paper, we recall Helland's vision in the aforementioned paper, explaining how his model ts the Edge Computing Model either regarding scalability, applications, or assumptions, and discussing the potential challenges leveraged . © 2016 ACM.

2016

Why Logical Clocks Are Easy

Authors
Baquero, C; Preguica, N;

Publication
COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM

Abstract

2016

The problem with embedded CRDT counters and a solution

Authors
Baquero, C; Almeida, PS; Lerche, C;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2ND WORKSHOP ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CONSISTENCY FOR DISTRIBUTED DATA, PAPOC 2016

Abstract
Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) can simplify the design of deterministic eventual consistency. Considering the several CRDTs that have been deployed in production systems, counters are among the first. Counters are apparently simple, with a straightforward inc/dec/read API, but can require complex implementations and several variants have been specified and coded. Unlike sets and registers, that can be adapted to operate inside maps, current counter approaches exhibit anomalies when embedded in maps. Here, we illustrate the anomaly and propose a solution, based on a new counter model and implementation.

2016

Worlds of Events Deduction with Partial Knowledge about Causality

Authors
Haeri, SH; Van Roy, P; Baquero, C; Meiklejohn, C;

Publication
ELECTRONIC PROCEEDINGS IN THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE

Abstract
Interactions between internet users are mediated by their devices and the common support infrastructure in data centres. Keeping track of causality amongst actions that take place in this distributed system is key to provide a seamless interaction where effects follow causes. Tracking causality in large scale interactions is difficult due to the cost of keeping large quantities of metadata; even more challenging when dealing with resource-limited devices. In this paper, we focus on keeping partial knowledge on causality and address deduction from that knowledge. We provide the first proof-theoretic causality modelling for distributed partial knowledge. We prove computability and consistency results. We also prove that the partial knowledge gives rise to a weaker model than classical causality. We provide rules for offline deduction about causality and refute some related folklore. We define two notions of forward and backward bisimilarity between devices, using which we prove two important results. Namely, no matter the order of addition/ removal, two devices deduce similarly about causality so long as: (1) the same causal information is fed to both. (2) they start bisimilar and erase the same causal information. Thanks to our establishment of forward and backward bisimilarity, respectively, proofs of the latter two results work by simple induction on length.

2016

Eventually Consistent Register Revisited

Authors
Zawirski, M; Baquero, C; Bieniusa, A; Preguica, N; Shapiro, M;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2ND WORKSHOP ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CONSISTENCY FOR DISTRIBUTED DATA, PAPOC 2016

Abstract
In order to converge in the presence of concurrent updates, modern eventually consistent replication systems rely on causality information and operation semantics. It is relatively easy to use semantics of high-level operations on replicated data structures, such as sets, lists, etc. However, it is difficult to exploit semantics of operations on registers, which store opaque data. In existing register designs, concurrent writes are resolved either by the application, or by arbitrating them according to their timestamps. The former is complex and may require user intervention, whereas the latter causes arbitrary updates to be lost. In this work, we identify a register construction that generalizes existing ones by combining runtime causality ordering, to identify concurrent writes, with static data semantics, to resolve them. We propose a simple conflict resolution template based on an application-predefined order on the domain of values. It eliminates or reduces the number of conflicts that need to be resolved by the user or by an explicit application logic. We illustrate some variants of our approach with use cases, and how it generalizes existing designs.

2016

Why logical clocks are easy

Authors
Baquero, C; Preguiça, N;

Publication
Queue

Abstract

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