文件名称：A Critique of the CAP Theorem.pdf
文件大小：189KB
文件格式：PDF
更新时间：2022-10-29 07:02:40
CAP Theorem
The CAP Theorem is a frequently cited impossibility result in distributed systems, especially among NoSQL distributed databases. In this paper we survey some of the confusion about the meaning of CAP, includ- ing inconsistencies and ambiguities in its definitions, and we highlight some problems in its formalization. CAP is often interpreted as proof that eventually con- sistent databases have better availability properties than strongly consistent databases; although there is some truth in this, we show that more careful reasoning is required. These problems cast doubt on the utility of CAP as a tool for reasoning about trade-offs in practi- cal systems. As alternative to CAP, we propose a delay- sensitivity framework, which analyzes the sensitivity of operation latency to network delay, and which may help practitioners reason about the trade-offs between con- sistency guarantees and tolerance of network faults.