SIRC, a multiple isolation level protocol for middleware-based data replication

One of the weaknesses of database replication protocols, compared to centralized DBMSs, is that they are unable to manage concurrent execution of transactions at different isolation levels. In the last years, some theoretical works related to this research line have appeared but none of them has proposed and implemented a real replication protocol with support to multiple isolation levels. This paper takes advantage of our MADIS middleware and one of its implemented Snapshot Isolation protocols to design and implement SIRC, a protocol that is able to execute concurrently both generalized snapshot isolation (GSI) and generalized loose read committed (GLRC) transactions. We have also made a performance analysis to show how this kind of protocols can improve the system performance and decrease the transaction abortion rate in applications that do not require the strictest isolation level in every transaction.