Hydra - Serialization-Free Network Ordering for Strongly Consistent Distributed Applications

Explore a conference talk that introduces Hydra, a novel approach to network ordering for strongly consistent distributed applications. Delve into the challenges of establishing consistent operation order in distributed systems and learn how Hydra overcomes limitations of traditional methods. Discover how this innovative system utilizes a distributed set of network sequencers, leveraging loosely synchronized clocks, per-sequencer sequence numbers, and periodic timestamp messages to achieve improved performance. Examine the co-designed state machine replication protocol and distributed transactional system that demonstrate Hydra's benefits, including enhanced scalability, faster sequencer failover, and superior network-level load balancing compared to serialization-based network ordering systems.

NSDI '23-Hydra: Serialization-Free Network Ordering for Strongly Consistent Distributed Applications