Safe Generic Data Synchronizer

Rapport interne.Reconciliating divergent data is an important issue in concurrent engineering, mobile computing and software configuration management. Actually, a lot of synchronizers or merge tools perform reconciliations, however, which strategy they apply ? is it correct ? In this paper, we propose to use a transformational approach to build a safe generic data synchronizer

Mobile Databases: a Selection of Open Issues and Research Directions

International audienceThis paper reports on the main results of a specific action on mobile databases conducted by CNRS in France from October 2001 to December 2002. The objective of this action was to review the state of progress in mobile databases and identify major research directions for the French database community. Rather than provide a survey of all important issues in mobile databases, this paper gives an outline of the directions in which the action participants are now engaged, namely: copy synchronization in disconnected computing, mobile transactions, database embedded in ultra-light devices, data confidentiality, P2P dissemination models and middleware adaptability

What\u27s in Unison? A Formal Specification and Reference Implementation of a File Synchronizer

A file synchronizer is a tool that reconciles disconnected modifications to a replicated directory structure. Trustworthy synchronizers are difficult to build, since they must deal correctly with both the semantic complexities of file systems and the unpredictable failure modes arising from distributed operation. On the other hand, synchronizers are often packaged as stand-alone, user-level utilities, whose intended behavior is relatively easy to isolate from the other functions of the system. This combination of subtlety and isolability makes file synchronizers attractive candidates for precise mathematical specification. We present here a detailed specification of a particular file synchronizer called Unison, sketch an idealized reference implementation of our specification, and discuss the relation between our idealized implementation and the actual code base

Supporting Collaborative Writing of XML Documents

Data management is a key issue in cooperative systems. Anyone who uses more than one computer or collaborates with other people is aware of the problems posed by having multiple copies of shared documents. Most existing synchronization tools are specific to a particular type of shared data i.e. text files, calendars, XML files. Therefore, user should use several tools to maintain their different copies up-to-date. This is not an easy task. To address this issue, we defined a generic synchronization framework based on the operational transformation approach. This framework allows to synchronise text files, calendars, XML files by using the same tool. The main objective of this paper is to present this framework and how it is used to support cooperative writing of XML document. An implementation is illustrated through the revision control system called So6, which is a part of a distributed collaborative technology called LibreSource

Towards Synchronizing Linear Collaborative Objects with Operation Transformation

A collaborative object represents a data type (such as a text document or a filesystem) designed to be shared by multiple geographi- cally separated users. Data replication is a technology to improve perfor- mance and availability of data in distributed systems. Indeed, each user has a local copy of the shared objects, upon which he may perform up- dates. Locally executed updates are then transmitted to the other users. This replication potentially leads, however, to divergent (i.e. different) copies. In this respect, Operational Transformation (OT) algorithms are applied for achieving convergence of all copies, i.e. all users view the same objects. Using these algorithms users can apply the same set of updates but possibly in different orders since the convergence should be ensured in all cases. However, achieving convergence with the OT approach is still a critical and challenging issue. In this paper, we address an open convergence problem when the shared data has a linear structure such as list, text, ordered XML tree, etc. We analyze the source of this problem and we propose a generic solution with its formal correctness

P2P Logging and Timestamping for Reconciliation

ISBN : 978-1-60558-306-8/08/08Dans VLDB 2008International audienceIn this paper, we address data reconciliation in peer-to-peer (P2P) collaborative applications. We propose P2P-LTR (Logging and Timestamping for Reconciliation) which provides P2P logging and timestamping services for P2P reconciliation over a distributed hash table (DHT). While updating at collaborating peers, updates are timestamped and stored in a highly available P2P log. During reconciliation, these updates are retrieved in total order to enforce eventual consistency. In this paper, we first give an overview of P2P-LTR with its model and its main procedures. We then present our prototype used to validate P2P-LTR. To demonstrate P2P-LTR, we propose several scenarios that test our solutions and measure performance. In particular, we demonstrate how P2P-LTR handles the dynamic behavior of peers with respect to the DHT

XWiki Concerto: A P2P Wiki System Supporting Disconnected Work

International audienceThis paper presents the XWiki Concerto system, the P2P version of the XWiki server. This system is based on replicating wiki pages on a network of wiki servers. The approach, based on the Woot algorithm, has been designed to be scalable, to support the dynamic aspect of P2P networks and network partitions. These characteristics make our system capable of supporting disconnected edition and sub-groups, making it very flexible and usable