EAGER: State Replication Amongst Communicating Parties

该项目将探索一种在互联网上进行数字通信的新方法。当代系统，包括所有与因特网相连的设备和基础设施，都采用仿照早期电话系统的方法；电话系统在共享单一通道的两个端点之间发送信号--电话“线路”。该模型是一种发送-接收模型，通过该模型，一个人发出呼叫，并将她的消息发送给另一个接收该呼叫的人。此模型构成了今天在Internet上使用的Internet协议(IP)的基础。还有另一种在互联网上使用的方法，称为请求-响应模型，根据该模型，用户发出请求(例如，请求本地影院正在上映什么)，然后将具有该信息的响应返回给请求者。然而，这个项目在“状态同步”的基础上采取了不同的立场。考虑两个现代通信的例子，它们没有被现有的模型很好地服务。在编辑协作文档时，用户想要访问和修改相同的文档是很自然的，即使他们各自有自己的副本。同样，在多玩家游戏中，每个玩家都希望观察和操纵相同的共享虚拟环境，即使玩家在本地托管自己的副本。我们观察到，大多数应用程序，如协作文档编辑、消息应用程序、文件备份、社交媒体应用程序、多人游戏以及云服务，都自然地表达在这个模型中。我们的愿景是证明，使用使共享信息保持同步的同步模型的应用程序和系统明显更简单、更高效、更值得信赖。这项研究将阐述通信同步模型的基本原理，并将探索其与当代互联网协议中使用的发送-接收和请求-响应模型的关系。这项工作追求一种新的模型，因为当今网络系统中的问题和挑战，如基础设施的复杂性、安全和隐私、服务提供商的集中化和应用的复杂性，可能是底层通信模型的属性，而不是协议实现的细节。同步模型受到量子纠缠现象的启发，在量子纠缠现象中，一个位置所做的状态变化会反映到另一个位置。为了在此模型中表示通信，应用程序关注它们与其他应用程序共享的状态的结构，以及它们如何进行、检测和响应状态更改。该项目将详细阐述和形式化提出的模型的语义，并将开发一个分析框架，以便能够对所讨论的三个模型进行比较。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will explore a new approach for digital communication on the Internet. Contemporary systems, including all Internet-connected devices and infrastructure, use an approach modeled on the early telephone system; the telephone system sent signals between two endpoints which share a single channel—the telephone “line”. This model is a transmit-receive model whereby a person places a call and transmits her message to another person who receives the call. This model forms the basis for the Internet Protocol (IP) that is in use on the Internet today. There is another approach called a request-response model used on the Internet whereby a user makes a request (for example asking for what is showing at the local theater) and a response with that information is returned to the requester. This project, however, takes a different stance based on “state synchronization.” Consider two examples of modern communication that are not well-served by the existing models. When editing collaborative documents, it is natural that the users want to access and modify the same document, even when they each have their own copy. Likewise, in multi-player games, each player wants to observe and manipulate the same shared virtual environment, even though the players are hosting their own copy locally. We observe that most applications, such as collaborative document editing, messaging apps, file backups, social media apps, and multiplayer games, as well as cloud services, are naturally expressed in this model. Our vision is to demonstrate that applications and systems that use a synchronization model that keeps shared information in sync, are significantly simpler, more efficient, and more trustworthy. This research will elaborate the fundamentals of the synchronization model of communication and will explore its relation to the transmit-receive and request-response models used in contemporary Internet protocols. This work pursues a new model because problems and challenges in today’s networked systems, such as infrastructure complexity, security and privacy, centralization of service providers, and application complexity, are likely properties of the underlying communication models rather than protocol implementation details. The synchronization model is inspired by the phenomenon of quantum entanglement, in which state changes made in one location are reflected in another. To express communication in this model, applications are concerned with the structure of the state they share with others, and how they make, detect, and react to state changes. This project will elaborate and formalize the semantics of the proposed model and will develop an analytical framework to enable comparison between the three models discussed.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.