Decentralization != Distribution

Poster and Demonstration

Abstract: For years, terms "distributed computing" and "decentralized computing" have been treated as interchangeable. In my recent doctoral dissertation, I drew a formal distinction between these two classes of systems, and showed how to adapt existing client/server architectural styles to cope with this coming shift. In short, how to transform the Web into a real-time, peer-to-peer infrastructure.

Because it takes time and trust to establish agreement, traditional consensus-based architectural styles cannot safely accommodate resources that change faster than it takes to transmit notification of that change, nor resources that must be shared across independent agencies. There are physical and logical limits that make simultaneous agreement (a strong form of consensus for read/write variables) expensive and ultimately, impossible. In practice, software architects resolve this contradiction by assuming that network latency is negligible and that computers operated by independent agencies are reliable — two increasingly shaky assumptions about integrating services across the Internet.

Our approach to this challenge is architectural: proposing constraints on the configuration of com-ponents and connectors that induce desired properties of the whole application. Specifically, we present, implement, and evaluate variations of the World Wide Web’s Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style that are optimized for centralized, distributed, estimated, and decentral-ized systems.

Bio: Rohit Khare founded KnowNow in 2000 based on his doctoral research at the Information and Computer Science department at the University of California, Irvine, focusing on next-generation protocols for HTTP and proactive event notification services with Prof. Richard N. Taylor. Rohit's participation in Internet standards development with world renowned technical teams at MCI's Internet Architecture group and the World Wide Web Consortium at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, where he focused on security and eCommerce issues, led him to found 4K Associates as well as editing the World Wide Web Journal for O'Reilly & Associates. Rohit received a B.S. in Economics and in Engineering and Applied Science with honors from Caltech in 1995 and a Master's degree and Ph.D. in Software Engineering from UC Irvine in 2000 and 2003, respectively.