A Multi-key Transactions Model for NoSQL Cloud Database Systems

NoSQL cloud database systems are new types of databases that are built across thousands of cloud nodes and are capable of storing and processing Big Data. NoSQL systems have increasingly been used in large scale applications that need high availability and efficiency but with weaker consistency. Consequently, such systems lack support for standard transactions which provide stronger consistency. This paper proposes a new multi-key transactional model which provides NoSQL systems with standard transaction support and stronger level of data consistency. The strategy is to supplement current NoSQL architecture with an extra layer that manages transactions. The proposed model is configurable where consistency, availability and efficiency can be adjusted based on application requirements. The proposed model is validated through a prototype system using MongoDB. Preliminary experiments show that it ensures stronger consistency and maintains good performance.