Resolving Conflicts with Grace: Dynamically Concurrent Universality

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dynamic approach to synchronization in distributed systems, allowing operations to adaptively employ strong synchronization only when conflicts are relevant, thereby improving scalability.

Contribution

It proposes a novel concept of dynamic concurrency and presents a universal construction that adapts synchronization based on current system states.

Findings

Defines dynamic concurrency for adaptive synchronization

Develops a universal construction for dynamic concurrency

Enhances scalability by reducing unnecessary synchronization

Abstract

Synchronization is the major obstacle to scalability in distributed computing. Concurrent operations on the shared data engage in synchronization when they encounter a \emph{conflict}, i.e., their effects depend on the order in which they are applied. Ideally, one would like to detect conflicts in a \emph{dynamic} manner, i.e., adjusting to the current system state. Indeed, it is very common that two concurrent operations conflict only in some rarely occurring states. In this paper, we define the notion of \emph{dynamic concurrency}: an operation employs strong synchronization primitives only if it \emph{has} to arbitrate with concurrent operations, given the current system state. We then present a dynamically concurrent universal construction.