Performance modelling of replication protocols

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the performance modelling of data replication protocols. Data replication is used to provide fault tolerance and to improve the performance of a distributed system. Replication not only needs extra storage but also has an extra cost associated with it when performing an update. It is not always clear which algorithm will give best performance in a given scenario, how many copies should be maintained or where these copies should be located to yield the best performance. The consistency requirements also change with application. One has to choose these parameters to maximize reliability and speed and minimize cost. A study showing the effect of change in different parameters on the performance of these protocols would be helpful in making these decisions. With the use of data replication techniques in wide-area systems where hundreds or even thousands of sites may be involved, it has become important to evaluate the performance of the schemes maintaining copies of data. This thesis evaluates the performance of replication protocols that provide differ- ent levels of data consistency ranging from strong to weak consistency. The protocols that try to integrate strong and weak consistency are also examined. Queueing theory techniques are used to evaluate the performance of these protocols. The performance measures of interest are the response times of read and write jobs. These times are evaluated both when replicas are reliable and when they are subject to random breakdowns and repairs.