Keep CALM and CRDT On
Shadaj Laddad, Conor Power, Mae Milano, Alvin Cheung, Natacha Crooks,, Joseph M. Hellerstein

TL;DR
This paper proposes an extension to CRDTs that incorporates a query model based on the CALM Theorem, enabling safe, coordination-free interactions with replicated data for more reliable distributed applications.
Contribution
It introduces a query model for CRDTs that ensures safe, coordination-free queries, enhancing the reliability and usability of CRDT-based distributed systems.
Findings
Extended CRDTs with a query model for safe interactions
Applied CALM Theorem to reason about query safety
Laid out a development agenda for CRDT data stores
Abstract
Despite decades of research and practical experience, developers have few tools for programming reliable distributed applications without resorting to expensive coordination techniques. Conflict-free replicated datatypes (CRDTs) are a promising line of work that enable coordination-free replication and offer certain eventual consistency guarantees in a relatively simple object-oriented API. Yet CRDT guarantees extend only to data updates; observations of CRDT state are unconstrained and unsafe. We propose an agenda that embraces the simplicity of CRDTs, but provides richer, more uniform guarantees. We extend CRDTs with a query model that reasons about which queries are safe without coordination by applying monotonicity results from the CALM Theorem, and lay out a larger agenda for developing CRDT data stores that let developers safely and efficiently interact with replicated application…
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Taxonomy
TopicsDistributed systems and fault tolerance · Advanced Data Storage Technologies · Caching and Content Delivery
