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A proof technique for concurrency control and recovery algorithms for replicated databases

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Abstract

A replicated database is a distributed database in which copies of some data items are stored redundantly at multiple sites. In such a system, an execution of transactions iscorrect if it is equivalent to a serial execution of those transactions on a one copy database. We show that in any serializable execution, if all transactions see the failures and recoveries of data item copies in a consistent order, then the execution is correct. We model this condition using a modified type of serialization graph, and show that if this graph is acyclic then the corresponding execution is correct. We demonstrate the value of this model by using it to prove the correctness of an algorithm for synchronizing access to a replicated database.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wang Institute of Graduate Studies, School of Information Technology, Tyng Road, 01879, Tyngsboro, MA, USA

    Philip A. Bernstein

  2. Kendall Square Research Corporation, One Kendall Square, 02139, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Nathan Goodman

Authors
  1. Philip A. Bernstein
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  2. Nathan Goodman
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Additional information

Philip A. Bernstein is Professor of Information Technology at the Wang Institute of Graduate Studies. Previously, he was Vice President Software at Sequoia Systems, Associate at Harvard University, and a researcher at Computer Corporation of America, where he was codesigner of four distributed database systems. Professor Bernstein's research focuses on the theory and implementation of database systems and transaction processing systems. He is an Associate Editor of ACM Transactions on Database Systems, and on the editorial board of this journal.

Nathan Goodman is a senior consulting engineer at Encore Computer Corporation. Previously he was with Sequoia Systems, where he developed a transaction processing system for a fault-tolerant multiprocessor computer. Prior to that he was with Computer Corporation of America, where he participated in the design of three distributed systems: SDD-1, the first relational distributed DBMS; Multibase, a system for querying relational and nonrelational distributed databases; and DDM, a distributed DBMS based on ADA. Dr. Goodman was a professor Computer Science at Harvard University and Boston University. He has done research on query optimization, concurrency control, and failure recovery.

Research supported by the National Science Foundation, grant number MCS79-07762, and by the Office of Naval Research, contract number N00014-80-C-674.

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Bernstein, P.A., Goodman, N. A proof technique for concurrency control and recovery algorithms for replicated databases. Distrib Comput 2, 32–44 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01786253

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