The location-based paradigm for replication: Achieving efficiency and availability in distributed systems

Replication techniques for transaction-based distributed systems generally achieve increased availability but with a significant performance penalty. We present a new replication paradigm, the location-based paradigm, which addresses availability and other performance issues. It provides availability similar to quorum-based replication protocols but with transaction-execution delays similar to one-copy systems. The paradigm further exploits replication to improve performance in two instances. First, it takes advantage of local or nearby replicas to further improve the response time of transactions, achieving smaller execution delays than one-copy systems. Second, it takes advantage of replication to facilitate the independent crash recovery of replica sites-a goal which is unattainable in one-copy systems. In addition to the above the location-based paradigm avoids bottlenecks, facilitates load balancing, and minimizes the disruption of service when failures and recoveries occur. In this paper we present the paradigm, a formal proof of correctness, and a detailed simulation study comparing our paradigm to one-copy systems and to other approaches to replication control