Concurrency Control and Consistency Over Erasure Coded Data

Abstract

For over a decade, erasure codes have become an integral part of large-scale data storage solutions and data-centers. However, in commercial systems, they are, so far, used predominantly for static data. In the meanwhile, there has also been almost a decade and a half of research on mutable erasure coded data, looking at various associated issues, including update computation, concurrency control and consistency, which has led to a variety of reasonably mature techniques. In this work we aim at curating and systematizing this knowledge on managing mutable erasure coded data. We believe the time is right, both because of the richness and maturity of the literature itself, and also, given the pervasiveness of erasure codes in data-centers, because it is natural to expect a transition to accommodate mutable content using erasure coded redundancy in order to support more diverse and versatile overlying applications, while benefiting from the advantages (particularly, that of significantly lower storage overhead) of erasure codes.