Data Synchronization - Theoretical Models - Unordered Data

Unordered Data

The problem of synchronizing unordered data (also known as the set reconciliation problem) is modeled as an attempt to compute the symmetric difference between two remote sets and of b-bit numbers. Some solutions to this problem are typified by:

Wholesale transfer

In this case all data is transferred to one host for a local comparison.

Timestamp synchronization

In this case all changes to the data are marked with timestamps. Synchronization proceeds by transferring all data with a timestamp later than the previous synchronization.

Mathematical synchronization

In this case data are treated as mathematical objects and synchronization corresponds to a mathematical process.