Research for Practice: Distributed Transactions and Networks as Physical Sensors

First, Irene Zhang delivers a whirlwind tour of recent developments in distributed concurrency control. If you thought distributed transactions were prohibitively expensive, Irene’s selections may prompt you to reconsider: the use of atomic clocks, clever replication protocols, and new means of commit ordering all improve performance at scale. Second, Fadel Adib provides a fascinating look at using computer networks as physical sensors. It turns out that the radio waves passing through our environment and bodies are subtly modulated as they do so. As Fadel’s selection shows, new techniques for sensing and interpreting these modulations allow us to perform tasks previously reserved for science fiction: seeing through walls, performing gesture recognition, and monitoring breathing.