PRDTs: Composable Knowledge-Based Consensus Protocols with Replicated Data Types

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Haas, Julian, Mogk, Ragnar, Bieniusa, Annette, Mezini, Mira
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Haas, Julian
Mogk, Ragnar
Bieniusa, Annette
Mezini, Mira
author_facet Haas, Julian
Mogk, Ragnar
Bieniusa, Annette
Mezini, Mira
contents Consensus protocols are fundamental in distributed systems as they enable software with strong consistency properties. However, designing optimized protocols for specific use-cases under certain system assumptions is typically a laborious and error-prone process requiring expert knowledge. While most recent optimized protocols are variations of well-known algorithms like Paxos or Raft, they often necessitate complete re-implementations, potentially introducing new bugs and complicating the application of existing verification results. This approach stands in the way of application-specific consistency protocols that can easily be amended or swapped out, depending on the given application and deployment scenario. We propose Protocol Replicated Data Types (PRDTs), a novel programming model for implementing consensus protocols using replicated data types (RDTs). Inspired by the knowledge-based view of consensus, PRDTs employ RDTs to monotonically accumulate knowledge until agreement is reached. This approach allows for implementations focusing on high-level protocol logic with minimal network environment assumptions. Moreover, by applying existing algebraic composition techniques for RDTs in the PRDT context, we enable composable protocol building-blocks for implementing complex protocols. We present a formal model of our approach, demonstrate its application in PRDT-based implementations of existing protocols, and report empirical evaluation results. Our findings indicate that the PRDT approach offers enhanced flexibility and composability in protocol design, facilitates reasoning about correctness, and does not suffer from inherent performance limitations that would prevent its use in real-world applications.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_05173
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle PRDTs: Composable Knowledge-Based Consensus Protocols with Replicated Data Types
Haas, Julian
Mogk, Ragnar
Bieniusa, Annette
Mezini, Mira
Programming Languages
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Consensus protocols are fundamental in distributed systems as they enable software with strong consistency properties. However, designing optimized protocols for specific use-cases under certain system assumptions is typically a laborious and error-prone process requiring expert knowledge. While most recent optimized protocols are variations of well-known algorithms like Paxos or Raft, they often necessitate complete re-implementations, potentially introducing new bugs and complicating the application of existing verification results. This approach stands in the way of application-specific consistency protocols that can easily be amended or swapped out, depending on the given application and deployment scenario. We propose Protocol Replicated Data Types (PRDTs), a novel programming model for implementing consensus protocols using replicated data types (RDTs). Inspired by the knowledge-based view of consensus, PRDTs employ RDTs to monotonically accumulate knowledge until agreement is reached. This approach allows for implementations focusing on high-level protocol logic with minimal network environment assumptions. Moreover, by applying existing algebraic composition techniques for RDTs in the PRDT context, we enable composable protocol building-blocks for implementing complex protocols. We present a formal model of our approach, demonstrate its application in PRDT-based implementations of existing protocols, and report empirical evaluation results. Our findings indicate that the PRDT approach offers enhanced flexibility and composability in protocol design, facilitates reasoning about correctness, and does not suffer from inherent performance limitations that would prevent its use in real-world applications.
title PRDTs: Composable Knowledge-Based Consensus Protocols with Replicated Data Types
topic Programming Languages
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.05173