MARS-S extends the v1.0 protocol with a two-tier registry topology:
- Global Anchor Layer (GAL) — sees only roots and revocations.
- Regional Shard Layer (RSL) — distributes full entry data across regions.
When MARS-S kicks in
MARS-S is fully backward-compatible. A v1.0 implementation operates as a degenerate single-shard MARS-S. You only need to think about MARS-S when:
- Entry count exceeds ~10M per shard.
- P95 lookup latency from your region exceeds 100ms.
- You have regulatory requirements forcing data residency.
Three-hop cascade
local shard → regional cluster → global anchor
<12 ms <48 ms <320 ms
The vast majority of resolutions stop at hop 1.