CATS: linearizability and partition tolerance in scalable and self-organizing key-value stores

• Distributed key-value stores provide scalable, fault-tolerant, and self-organizing storage services, but fall short of guaranteeing linearizable consistency in partially synchronous, lossy, partitionable, and dynamic networks, when data is distributed and replicated automatically by the principle of consistent hashing. This paper introduces consistent quorums as a solution for achieving atomic consistency. We present the design and implementation of CATS, a distributed key-value store which uses consistent quorums to guarantee linearizability and partition tolerance in such adverse and dynamic network conditions. CATS is scalable, elastic, and self-organizing; key properties for modern cloud storage middleware. Our system shows that consistency can be achieved with practical performance and modest throughput overhead (5%) for read-intensive workloads.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

atomic consistency

partition tolerance

scalability

self-organization

elasticity

fault tolerance

dynamic reconfiguration

distributed key-value stores

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

rap (subject category)