Evaluation of the effect of stabilization time in eventually consistent systems

Abstract: The effect of using the eventual consistency model is evaluated, compared to the effect of immediate consistency, by increasing the stabilization time in both models and using the immediate consistent system as a baseline for evaluations. The immediate consistent system performs better if the information and the decisions are replicated adequately fast throughout the system. When the stabilization time increases the effectiveness of eventual consistency emerges, which is most obvious when time constraints make it difficult to propagate information and decisions. By using a simulation to extract data for evaluations, it is verified in this research that as the stabilization time between different parts of a system increases, the eventual consistency will always outperform the immediate consistent system. This statement is valid in all situations where consistency models are useful. Of secondary importance in the research, by adding more decision layers to the eventual consistency model, the performance output is increased significantly, as swift and less well calculated decisions can be thwarted and corrected using the second decision layer.