“A fault-aware message layer for state-machine replication,” Project, Bachelor's thesis or Master's thesis, F. J. Hauck (Supervisor), F. J. Hauck (Examiner), Inst. of Distr. Sys., Ulm Univ., 2024 –
Open.
State-machine replication is a fault-tolerance solution where multiple servers (replicas) execute the same requests. In order to manage the replicas, they have to handle complex replication protocols, a checkpoint mechanism etc. Obviously replicas have to communicate among each other and also with clients. As the currently available solutions are not really modular, we would like to build our own replication framework. As a first step there is a need for a messaging layer that is able to interconnect replicas and clients. Communication has to authenticated by various means (SSL, asymmetric and symmetric cryptography, message authentication codes). Further, the layer has to be aware of unavailable clients and replicas and to automatically reconnect as soon as these are back and up again. The communication layer should stick to gRPC fundamentals, e.g ProtocolBuffers but perhaps even more, to gain some interoperability and language independence. Part of the work is also an appropriate configuration concept, so that replicas know their buddy replicas and their key material. As part of a Master's thesis we would expect performance measurements and appropriate optimizations and the consideration of overload situations.