Version stamps-decentralized version vectors

Abstract

Version vectors and their variants play a central role in update tracking in optimistic distributed systems. Existing mechanisms for a variable number of participants use a mapping from identities to integers, and rely on some form of global configuration or distributed naming protocol to assign unique identifiers to each participant. These approaches are incompatible with replica creation under arbitrary partitions, a typical mode of operation in mobile or poorly connected environments. We present an update tracking mechanism that overcomes this limitation; it departs from the traditional mapping and avoids the use of integer counters, while providing all the functionality of version vectors in what concerns version tracking.