Performance Optimization of High-Conflict Transactions within the Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain

TL;DR

The paper addresses throughput and latency degradation in Hyperledger Fabric caused by high-conflict transactions. It introduces two modifications, OEMVCC and OEMVCC-EA, that relocate MVCC logic to the ordering service to enable early detection of conflicts, while preserving the overall EOV order. Through a detailed evaluation on a realistic HLF deployment, the authors show substantial improvements in execution duration, latency, and throughput compared to the standard EOV flow, with OEMVCC-EA offering particular advantages in handling invalid transactions at the cost of some overhead at certain conflict rates. The work demonstrates a practical pathway to scale high-conflict applications and suggests dynamic switching between OEMVCC variants as a future enhancement to adapt to changing conflict rates.

Abstract

Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) is a secure and robust blockchain (BC) platform that supports high-throughput and low-latency transactions. However, it encounters challenges in managing conflicting transactions that negatively affect throughput and latency. This paper proposes a novel solution to address these challenges and improve performance, especially in applications incorporating extensive volumes of highly conflicting transactions. Our solution involves reallocating the Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) of the validation phase to a preceding stage in the transaction flow to enable early detection of conflicting transactions. Specifically, we propose and evaluate two innovative modifications, called Orderer Early MVCC (OEMVCC) and OEMVCC with Execution Avoidance (OEMVCC-EA). Our experimental evaluation results demonstrate significant throughput and latency improvements, providing a practical solution for high-conflict applications that demand high performance and scalability.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: The EOV Transaction Flow.
• Figure 2: Transaction Ordering Phase with OEMVCC and OEMVCC-EA.
• Figure 3: Transaction Execution Phase.
• Figure 4: Transaction Validation Phase.
• Figure 5: Execution duration relative to the rate of conflicting transactions.