The recent developments and research in distributed ledger technologies and blockchain have contributed to the increasing adoption of distributed systems. To collect relevant insights into systems' behavior, we observe many evaluation frameworks focusing mainly on the system under test throughput. However, these frameworks often need more comprehensiveness and generality, particularly in adopting a distributed applications' cross-layer approach. This work analyses in detail the requirements for distributed systems assessment. We summarize these findings into a structured methodology and experimentation framework called METHODA. Our approach emphasizes setting up and assessing a broader spectrum of distributed systems and addresses a notable research gap. We showcase the effectiveness of the framework by evaluating four distinct systems and their interaction, leveraging a diverse set of eight carefully selected metrics and 12 essential parameters. Through experimentation and analysis we demonstrate the framework's capabilities to provide valuable insights across various use cases. For instance, we identify that a combination of Trusted Execution Environments with threshold signature scheme FROST introduces minimal overhead on the performance with average latency around \SI{40}{\ms}. We showcase an emulation of realistic systems behavior, e.g., Maximal Extractable Value is possible and could be used to further model such dynamics. The METHODA framework enables a deeper understanding of distributed systems and is a powerful tool for researchers and practitioners navigating the complex landscape of modern computing infrastructures.

翻译：近年来，分布式账本技术与区块链的发展推动了分布式系统的广泛应用。为深入了解系统行为，我们观察到多数评估框架主要关注被测系统的吞吐量。然而，这些框架往往缺乏全面性与通用性，尤其在采用分布式应用跨层方法方面存在不足。本研究详细分析了分布式系统评估的需求，并将这些发现归纳为名为METHODA的结构化方法论与实验框架。该方法强调构建并评估更广泛的分布式系统，填补了显著的研究空白。通过评估四个不同系统及其交互，并利用八项精心选择的指标与12个关键参数，我们展示了该框架的有效性。实验与分析表明，该框架能在多种用例中提供有价值的见解。例如，我们发现将可信执行环境与阈值签名方案FROST结合使用时，性能开销极小，平均延迟约为\SI{40}{\ms}。我们模拟了真实系统行为，如最大可提取价值的存在性，并可用于进一步建模此类动态。METHODA框架加深了对分布式系统的理解，为研究人员和实践者在现代计算基础设施的复杂领域中导航提供了有力工具。