Semantics-based reconciliation for collaborative and mobile environments

Abstract

IceCube is a system for optimistic replication, supporting collaborative work and mobile computing. It lets users write to shared data with no mutual synchronisation; however replicas diverge and must be reconciled. IceCube is a general-purpose reconciliation engine, parameterised by "constraints" capturing data semantics and user intents. IceCube combines logs of disconnected actions into near-optimal reconciliation schedules that honour the constraints. IceCube features a simple, high-level, systematic API. It seamlessly integrates diverse applications, sharing various data, and run by concurrent users. This paper focus on the IceCube API and algorithms. Application experience indicates that IceCube simplifies application design, supports a wide variety of application semantics, and seamlessly integrates diverse applications. On a realistic benchmark, IceCube runs at reasonable speeds and scales to large input sets. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.