diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 9634c635c37dd93bfb0bb0f6ef9641cbf0432cb2..c97acd1628e7816e70d7791d5702f4dcf4680c42 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 workflow:
   rules:
     - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
-    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH && $CI_OPEN_MERGE_REQUESTS && $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "push"'
+    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH && $CI_OPEN_MERGE_REQUESTS && $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "push" && $CI_COMMIT_REF_PROTECTED != "true"'
       when: never
     - when: always
 
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ stages:
   - test
   - check
   - deploy
+  - smoketest
 
 default:
   tags:
@@ -20,9 +21,9 @@ default:
     - exec-dind
   # see https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/docker/using_docker_build.html#tls-enabled
   # for image usage and settings for building with TLS and docker in docker
-  image: docker:19.03.1
+  image: docker:20.10.12
   services:
-    - docker:19.03.1-dind
+    - docker:20.10.12-dind
   variables:
     DOCKER_TLS_CERTDIR: "/certs"
 
@@ -45,6 +46,10 @@ default:
       fi
     - "[ $DOCKERFILE ] && KANIKO_DOCKERFILE=\"--dockerfile $DOCKERFILE\""
     - /kaniko/executor --context `pwd`/$CONTEXT $KANIKO_DOCKERFILE $KANIKO_D
+    - echo "PUBLISHED_IMAGE_TAG=${CI_COMMIT_TAG-$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA}" >> build.env
+  artifacts:
+    reports:
+      dotenv: build.env
 
 
 # Theodolite Docs
@@ -372,7 +377,174 @@ deploy-uc4-load-generator:
     IMAGE_NAME: "theodolite-uc4-workload-generator"
     JAVA_PROJECT_NAME: "uc4-load-generator"
     JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "load-generator-commons"
-      
+
+deploy-http-bridge:
+  extends: .deploy-benchmarks
+  variables:
+    IMAGE_NAME: "theodolite-http-bridge"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_NAME: "http-bridge"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "load-generator-commons"
+
+.smoketest-benchmarks:
+  stage: smoketest
+  extends:
+    - .dind
+  image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-build-docker-compose-jq:20.10.12
+  before_script:
+    - cd theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test
+  # variables:
+  #   TEST_LOG_FILE: "test.log"
+  script:
+    - export THEODOLITE_TAG=$PUBLISHED_IMAGE_TAG
+    - ./smoketest-runner.sh ./$DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR
+    # - cat test.log
+  after_script:
+    - cd ./$DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR
+    - docker-compose down
+  rules:
+    - changes:
+      - theodolite-benchmarks/*
+      - theodolite-benchmarks/{$JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS}/**/*
+      if: "$CR_HOST && $CR_ORG && $CR_USER && $CR_PW && $DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR && $JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS"
+    - if: "$CR_HOST && $CR_ORG && $CR_USER && $CR_PW && $DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR && $JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS"
+      when: manual
+      allow_failure: true
+
+smoketest-uc1-kstreams:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc1-kstreams
+    - deploy-uc1-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc1-kstreams"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc1-kstreams,kstreams-commons,uc1-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc1-flink:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc1-flink
+    - deploy-uc1-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc1-flink"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc1-flink,flink-commons,uc1-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc1-beam-flink:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc1-beam-flink
+    - deploy-uc1-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc1-beam-flink"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc1-beam-flink,uc1-beam,beam-commons,uc1-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc1-beam-samza:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc1-beam-samza
+    - deploy-uc1-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc1-beam-samza"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc1-beam-samza,uc1-beam,beam-commons,uc1-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc2-kstreams:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc2-kstreams
+    - deploy-uc2-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc2-kstreams"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc2-kstreams,kstreams-commons,uc2-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc2-flink:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc2-flink
+    - deploy-uc2-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc2-flink"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc2-flink,flink-commons,uc2-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc2-beam-flink:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc2-beam-flink
+    - deploy-uc2-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc2-beam-flink"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc2-beam-flink,uc2-beam,beam-commons,uc2-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc2-beam-samza:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc2-beam-samza
+    - deploy-uc2-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc2-beam-samza"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc2-beam-samza,uc2-beam,beam-commons,uc2-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc3-kstreams:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc3-kstreams
+    - deploy-uc3-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc3-kstreams"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc3-kstreams,kstreams-commons,uc3-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc3-beam-flink:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc3-beam-flink
+    - deploy-uc3-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc3-beam-flink"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc3-beam-flink,uc3-beam,beam-commons,uc3-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc3-beam-samza:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc3-beam-samza
+    - deploy-uc3-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc3-beam-samza"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc3-beam-samza,uc3-beam,beam-commons,uc3-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc4-kstreams:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc4-kstreams
+    - deploy-uc4-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc4-kstreams"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc4-kstreams,kstreams-commons,uc4-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc4-flink:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc4-flink
+    - deploy-uc4-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc4-flink"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc4-flink,flink-commons,uc4-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc4-beam-flink:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc4-beam-flink
+    - deploy-uc4-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc4-beam-flink"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc4-beam-flink,uc4-beam,beam-commons,uc4-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
+smoketest-uc4-beam-samza:
+  extends: .smoketest-benchmarks
+  needs:
+    - deploy-uc4-beam-samza
+    - deploy-uc4-load-generator
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_COMPOSE_DIR: "uc4-beam-samza"
+    JAVA_PROJECT_DEPS: "uc4-beam-samza,uc4-beam,beam-commons,uc4-load-generator,load-generator-commons"
+
 
 # Theodolite Framework
 
diff --git a/CITATION.cff b/CITATION.cff
index 04640de442f4458b09e11ce3d2939c850f594556..b6ca4542010b83e12206fbc0d9841683b43e1d57 100644
--- a/CITATION.cff
+++ b/CITATION.cff
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ authors:
     given-names: Wilhelm
     orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6625-4335"
 title: Theodolite
-version: "0.6.3"
+version: "0.6.4"
 repository-code: "https://github.com/cau-se/theodolite"
 license: "Apache-2.0"
 doi: "10.1016/j.bdr.2021.100209"
diff --git a/codemeta.json b/codemeta.json
index 832b570681afb143978698fd47dad5d2835c700b..948a34628ec919e2492b61e3ac9997392dc5e030 100644
--- a/codemeta.json
+++ b/codemeta.json
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
     "dateModified": "2022-01-24",
     "downloadUrl": "https://github.com/cau-se/theodolite/releases",
     "name": "Theodolite",
-    "version": "0.6.3",
+    "version": "0.6.4",
     "description": "Theodolite is a framework for benchmarking the horizontal and vertical scalability of cloud-native applications.",
     "developmentStatus": "active",
     "relatedLink": [
diff --git a/docs/api-reference/patchers.md b/docs/api-reference/patchers.md
index 77f937e38f6a0ee4084cb0ad5b5838718eabff10..bea63ccd23decef5654f257221ce0358b4f68e45 100644
--- a/docs/api-reference/patchers.md
+++ b/docs/api-reference/patchers.md
@@ -53,6 +53,27 @@ Patchers can be seen as functions which take a value as input and modify a Kuber
   * **resource**: "uc1-kstreams-deployment.yaml"
   * **example value**: "random-scheduler"
 
+* **LabelPatcher**: Changes the label of a Kubernetes Deployment or StatefulSet. The patched field is: `metadata.labels`
+  * **type**: "LabelPatcher"
+  * **resource**: "uc1-kstreams-deployment.yaml"
+  * **properties**:
+    * variableName: "app"
+  * **example value**: "theodolite-sut"
+
+* **MatchLabelPatcher**: Changes the match labels of a Kubernetes Deployment or StatefulSet. The patched field is: `spec.selector.matchLabels`
+  * **type**: "MatchLabelPatcher"
+  * **resource**: "uc1-kstreams-deployment.yaml"
+  * **properties**:
+    * variableName: "app"
+  * **example value**: "theodolite-sut"
+
+* **TemplateLabelPatcher**: Changes the template labels of a Kubernetes Deployment or StatefulSet. The patched field is: `spec.template.metadata.labels`
+  * **type**: "MatchLabelPatcher"
+  * **resource**: "uc1-kstreams-deployment.yaml"
+  * **properties**:
+    * variableName: "app"
+  * **example value**: "theodolite-sut"
+
 * **ImagePatcher**: Changes the image of a Kubernetes resource. **Currently not fully implemented.**
   * **type**: "ImagePatcher"
   * **resource**: "uc1-kstreams-deployment.yaml"
diff --git a/docs/index.yaml b/docs/index.yaml
index 509844ab0bc371d29302f90f69e769cd52a8e11b..3e0de103a78f3529d314727ed59be3dcdc333fc9 100644
--- a/docs/index.yaml
+++ b/docs/index.yaml
@@ -1,6 +1,41 @@
 apiVersion: v1
 entries:
   theodolite:
+  - apiVersion: v2
+    appVersion: 0.6.4
+    created: "2022-02-16T16:09:11.967649304+01:00"
+    dependencies:
+    - condition: grafana.enabled
+      name: grafana
+      repository: https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
+      version: 6.17.5
+    - condition: kube-prometheus-stack.enabled
+      name: kube-prometheus-stack
+      repository: https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
+      version: 20.0.1
+    - condition: cp-helm-charts.enabled
+      name: cp-helm-charts
+      repository: https://soerenhenning.github.io/cp-helm-charts
+      version: 0.6.0
+    - condition: kafka-lag-exporter.enabled
+      name: kafka-lag-exporter
+      repository: https://seanglover.com/kafka-lag-exporter/repo
+      version: 0.6.7
+    description: Theodolite is a framework for benchmarking the horizontal and vertical
+      scalability of cloud-native applications.
+    digest: 10156d9917233ffa297aab093532038667d25b2babb2b2058a0a32e1dccb0cca
+    home: https://www.theodolite.rocks
+    maintainers:
+    - email: soeren.henning@email.uni-kiel.de
+      name: Sören Henning
+      url: https://www.se.informatik.uni-kiel.de/en/team/soeren-henning-m-sc
+    name: theodolite
+    sources:
+    - https://github.com/cau-se/theodolite
+    type: application
+    urls:
+    - https://github.com/cau-se/theodolite/releases/download/v0.6.4/theodolite-0.6.4.tgz
+    version: 0.6.4
   - apiVersion: v2
     appVersion: 0.6.3
     created: "2022-01-24T13:40:40.07330713+01:00"
@@ -141,6 +176,41 @@ entries:
     urls:
     - https://github.com/cau-se/theodolite/releases/download/v0.6.0/theodolite-0.6.0.tgz
     version: 0.6.0
+  - apiVersion: v2
+    appVersion: 0.5.2
+    created: "2022-02-16T15:43:43.534374597+01:00"
+    dependencies:
+    - condition: grafana.enabled
+      name: grafana
+      repository: https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
+      version: 6.17.5
+    - condition: kube-prometheus-stack.enabled
+      name: kube-prometheus-stack
+      repository: https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
+      version: 12.0.0
+    - condition: cp-helm-charts.enabled
+      name: cp-helm-charts
+      repository: https://soerenhenning.github.io/cp-helm-charts
+      version: 0.6.0
+    - condition: kafka-lag-exporter.enabled
+      name: kafka-lag-exporter
+      repository: https://seanglover.com/kafka-lag-exporter/repo
+      version: 0.6.6
+    description: Theodolite is a framework for benchmarking the scalability stream
+      processing engines.
+    digest: 72df752883d2161fdfc0e96bb90fe11f9c0ed4f71013e588ec170f2cbb178e9c
+    home: https://cau-se.github.io/theodolite
+    maintainers:
+    - email: soeren.henning@email.uni-kiel.de
+      name: Sören Henning
+      url: https://www.se.informatik.uni-kiel.de/en/team/soeren-henning-m-sc
+    name: theodolite
+    sources:
+    - https://github.com/cau-se/theodolite
+    type: application
+    urls:
+    - https://github.com/cau-se/theodolite/releases/download/v0.5.2/theodolite-0.5.2.tgz
+    version: 0.5.2
   - apiVersion: v2
     appVersion: 0.5.1
     created: "2021-11-12T16:15:01.629937292+01:00"
@@ -246,4 +316,4 @@ entries:
     urls:
     - https://github.com/cau-se/theodolite/releases/download/v0.4.0/theodolite-0.4.0.tgz
     version: 0.4.0
-generated: "2022-01-24T13:40:40.036786105+01:00"
+generated: "2022-02-16T16:09:11.93111234+01:00"
diff --git a/docs/theodolite-benchmarks/load-generator.md b/docs/theodolite-benchmarks/load-generator.md
index 6d42ea06d9cb008a9aeddcc8145a2868c8d916b1..17845c42d47e94a5b696dee1d774890de8d6fff1 100644
--- a/docs/theodolite-benchmarks/load-generator.md
+++ b/docs/theodolite-benchmarks/load-generator.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ For each benchmark, we provide a [load generator as OCI container image](https:/
 You can simply run a load generator container, for example, for benchmark UC1 with:
 
 ```sh
-docker run ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc1-workload-generator
+docker run -it ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc1-workload-generator
 ```
 
 ### Message format
diff --git a/helm/Chart.yaml b/helm/Chart.yaml
index 27451ad55ce75592db9dc7550b1f81dced3951bc..52fda2bbc83c722d70f6179c4ec53fb3775bd436 100644
--- a/helm/Chart.yaml
+++ b/helm/Chart.yaml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ dependencies:
     condition: cp-helm-charts.enabled
   - name: kafka-lag-exporter
     version: 0.6.7
-    repository: https://lightbend.github.io/kafka-lag-exporter/repo/
+    repository: https://seanglover.com/kafka-lag-exporter/repo
     condition: kafka-lag-exporter.enabled
 
 version: 0.7.0-SNAPSHOT
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/beam-commons/build.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/beam-commons/build.gradle
index a15b388a33ce53b0f1b8f2f0567996917b9f18d1..64ac2bb51ae1e6d741749a81e5c6c9e296d14d68 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/beam-commons/build.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/beam-commons/build.gradle
@@ -16,14 +16,14 @@ dependencies {
   implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
   implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common-kafka:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
 
-  implementation group: 'org.apache.beam', name: 'beam-sdks-java-core', version: '2.22.0'
-  implementation('org.apache.beam:beam-sdks-java-io-kafka:2.22.0'){
+  implementation group: 'org.apache.beam', name: 'beam-sdks-java-core', version: '2.35.0'
+  implementation('org.apache.beam:beam-sdks-java-io-kafka:2.35.0'){
     exclude group: 'org.apache.kafka', module: 'kafka-clients'
   }
   implementation ('io.confluent:kafka-streams-avro-serde:5.3.2') 
   
   implementation group: 'org.slf4j', name: 'slf4j-simple', version: '1.7.30'
-  
+
   runtimeOnly 'org.slf4j:slf4j-api:1.7.32'
   runtimeOnly 'org.slf4j:slf4j-jdk14:1.7.32'
 
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.flink.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.flink.gradle
index eb9bda1f84c4f20568fca1498462dff9082ea1fa..02bf925f8dc29456f9eeaddeef800d2edcf837f8 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.flink.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.flink.gradle
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@ plugins {
 }
 
 dependencies {
-    implementation group: 'org.apache.beam', name: 'beam-runners-flink-1.12', version: '2.27.0'
-    implementation group: 'org.apache.flink', name: 'flink-statebackend-rocksdb_2.11', version: '1.12.0'
+    implementation group: 'org.apache.beam', name: 'beam-runners-flink-1.13', version: '2.35.0'
+    implementation group: 'org.apache.flink', name: 'flink-statebackend-rocksdb_2.11', version: '1.13.0'
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.gradle
index 41d1ae4f2bdfa358aca3fca2b91ea2b57e4c3405..5849bd93221794d135f1c6cb3bcb62d2174724b5 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.gradle
@@ -18,13 +18,12 @@ repositories {
     }
 }
 
-def apacheBeamVersion =  '2.22.0' //'2.27.0' // '2.34.0'
+def apacheBeamVersion =  '2.35.0'
 
 dependencies {
     // These dependencies are used internally, and not exposed to consumers on their own compile classpath.
     implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
     implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common-kafka:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
-    implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.2'
     implementation 'com.google.guava:guava:24.1-jre'
     implementation 'org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:1.7.25'
     implementation project(':beam-commons')
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.samza.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.samza.gradle
index 73e916ccc867b9b3316776192f0dab56fa0710f0..44c59317472686cae88d6992382ae081c9b64ace 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.samza.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.beam.samza.gradle
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ plugins {
 }
 
 dependencies {
-    implementation('org.apache.beam:beam-runners-samza:2.22.0') {
+    implementation('org.apache.beam:beam-runners-samza:2.35.0') {
         exclude group: 'org.apache.samza', module: 'samza-yarn_2.11'
     }
+    implementation 'org.apache.samza:samza-kafka_2.11:1.5.0'
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.flink.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.flink.gradle
index f5e93dd88d2234f8a9b0d6fea880f47d652dccfa..7671e602211b6d9e923a3b2a4c87f40fff84c6ec 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.flink.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.flink.gradle
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ shadowJar {
 tasks.distZip.enabled = false
 
 ext {
-  flinkVersion = '1.12.2'
+  flinkVersion = '1.13.5'
   scalaBinaryVersion = '2.12'
 }
 
@@ -41,7 +41,6 @@ dependencies {
 
     implementation 'org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients:2.2.0'
     implementation 'com.google.guava:guava:30.1-jre'
-    implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.2'
     implementation 'org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:1.6.1'
     implementation project(':flink-commons')
 
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.kstreams.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.kstreams.gradle
index da2d42176ac0ddc9a157f843e3268b37ac4397e2..bf533915a8fdf4a712754857702373264a30f80a 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.kstreams.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/theodolite.kstreams.gradle
@@ -22,8 +22,7 @@ dependencies {
     // These dependencies are used internally, and not exposed to consumers on their own compile classpath.
     implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
     implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common-kafka:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
-    implementation 'org.apache.kafka:kafka-streams:2.6.0' // enable TransformerSuppliers
-    implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.2'
+    implementation 'org.apache.kafka:kafka-streams:3.1.0'
     implementation 'com.google.guava:guava:24.1-jre'
     implementation 'org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:1.7.25'
     implementation project(':kstreams-commons')
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/config/spotbugs-exclude-filter.xml b/theodolite-benchmarks/config/spotbugs-exclude-filter.xml
index 38cd4b6914b3f0cbdeac2a22bf29ce0d7cf487ee..4bc9e048fb20e27feb793d4c6c398345cd599cff 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/config/spotbugs-exclude-filter.xml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/config/spotbugs-exclude-filter.xml
@@ -5,4 +5,7 @@
     <Rank value="16" />
   </Match>
 
+  <!-- Temporary disabled due to potential false positive reported in https://github.com/spotbugs/spotbugs/issues/1923. -->
+  <Bug code="NP" />
+
 </FindBugsFilter>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/README.md b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/README.md
index fd1e9bf4730f897273be45a022ad2adeae1b7e6e..5d7ca3f4ac470202579f154fe8f066a246c84d23 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/README.md
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/README.md
@@ -36,3 +36,19 @@ the host, for example, from the IDE or Gradle. In such cases, the following adju
 
 You can now connect to Kafka from your host system with bootstrap server `localhost:19092` and contact the Schema
 Registry via `localhost:8081`. **Pay attention to the Kafka port, which is *19092* instead of the default one *9092*.**
+
+## Running Smoke Tests
+
+The `smoketest-runner.sh` script can be used to run a simple test for a specific Docker Compose file. You can call it with
+
+```sh
+./smoketest-runner.sh <docker-compose-dir>
+```
+
+where `<docker-compose-dir>` is the directory of a Docker-Compose file, for example, `uc2-beam-samza`. The script exists with a zero exit code in case of success and a non-zero exit code otherwise.
+
+You can also run the set of all smoke test with:
+
+```sh
+./smoketest-runner-all.sh
+```
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/smoketest-runner-all.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/smoketest-runner-all.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0129a485d98a90d453b284408b755986f64208de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/smoketest-runner-all.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+find . -name 'test.sh' -type f -exec dirname {} \; |
+    sort |
+    xargs -I %s sh -c "./smoketest-runner.sh %s 1>&2; echo $?" |
+    sort |
+    awk 'BEGIN {count[0]=0; count[1]=0} {count[$1!=0]++} END {print count[0] " tests successful, " count[1] " test failed."; exit count[1]}'
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/smoketest-runner.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/smoketest-runner.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3167c90a567eed3cc2678c80c722dbd0b8684f1e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/smoketest-runner.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+COMPOSE_FILE_PATH=$1
+echo "Run test for '$COMPOSE_FILE_PATH'."
+
+cd $COMPOSE_FILE_PATH
+docker-compose pull -q
+docker-compose up -d kafka zookeeper schema-registry
+sleep 30s
+docker-compose up -d
+sleep 5s
+docker-compose ps
+
+if test -f "./test.sh"; then
+    #timeout --foreground 3m ./test.sh
+    ./test.sh
+    RETURN=$?
+else
+    RETURN=$?
+    echo "test.sh does not exists for '$COMPOSE_FILE_PATH'." 
+fi
+if [ $RETURN -eq 0 ]; then
+    echo "Test for '$COMPOSE_FILE_PATH' has passed."
+else
+    echo "Test for '$COMPOSE_FILE_PATH' has failed."
+fi
+
+docker-compose down
+exit $RETURN
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
index 1b683b4ca65a2582aa6a4d68444c4bbef7895b73..69de6049aca50a6a8e10a9e709b38d322bc8cf61 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   load-generator: 
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc1-workload-generator:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-flink/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-flink/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ebbecd1c5336c5dd907db11b8c8c45924e5924a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-flink/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+sleep 55s # to let the benchmark and produce some output
+docker-compose logs --tail 100 benchmark-taskmanager |
+    sed -n "s/^.*Key:\s\(\S*\), Value:\s\(\S*\).*$/\2/p" |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    jq .identifier |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
index f5213799daa2d51eea53e794becdffc151a4da56..2212c3b539045114f31760d605ad928e237ed924 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
@@ -22,18 +22,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   benchmark:
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc1-beam-samza:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     scale: 1
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-samza/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-samza/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ed17db3a44d5c4a8dacfbc956c2f36dd47503508
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-beam-samza/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+sleep 55s # to let the benchmark and produce some output
+docker-compose logs --tail 100 benchmark |
+    sed -n "s/^.*Key:\s\(\S*\), Value:\s\(\S*\).*$/\2/p" |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    jq .identifier |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
+
+
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 90%
rename from theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
rename to theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink/docker-compose.yml
index 6c661bb49cb4173357acc89c06783fe5e0a2ce49..55e359665de56cb03a5049c299761cb07690df30 100755
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-version: '2'
+version: '2.2'
 services:
   zookeeper:
     image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   load-generator: 
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc1-workload-generator:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7c7f11a94f42d56d91d383f27d58ad9a09a918e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-flink/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+sleep 55s # to let the benchmark and produce some output
+docker-compose logs --tail 100 benchmark-taskmanager |
+    sed -n "s/^.*Record:\s\(\S*\)$/\1/p" |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    jq .identifier |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 83%
rename from theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
rename to theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
index 25c19e35e5dae1807ef46fb8ade4e888dff0c2d8..c85ce305c2f1383a77d4c405d52089ec1d2b02a6 100755
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-version: '2'
+version: '2.2'
 services:
   zookeeper:
     image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper
@@ -20,20 +20,25 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   benchmark:
-    image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc1-kstreams-app:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
+    image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc1-kstreams-app:latest
     depends_on:
       - schema-registry
       - kafka
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..da711e3fac1b1d664b1c8487687ceacdddce6efa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc1-kstreams/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+sleep 55s # to let the benchmark and produce some output
+docker-compose logs --tail 100 benchmark |
+    sed -n "s/^.*Record:\s\(\S*\)$/\1/p" |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    jq .identifier |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
index 8427161e43faa920e011973d76f32f9cc9d62f8c..79f6f040144d3c4da56d469095ad3ddce90026a2 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   load-generator: 
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc2-workload-generator:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-flink/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-flink/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3c33834b0b21bc5dbe4e6a7c3ff947121bb2ce71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-flink/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=s -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 20 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
index 820bb25dd370cf6c7410b20fbdbdb1d4281f47d3..cc6bc7a7112c35f11ce9cfd27d09aebe401c8c51 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
@@ -22,18 +22,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   benchmark:
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc2-beam-samza:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     scale: 1
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-samza/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-samza/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3c33834b0b21bc5dbe4e6a7c3ff947121bb2ce71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-beam-samza/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=s -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 20 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 89%
rename from theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
rename to theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink/docker-compose.yml
index e51c544bfd64c6f540f5a84a5f617de745a1a6b6..1397c8ab0e7bb8d7ee67b7fa9c18143c404fd9ff 100755
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-version: '2'
+version: '2.2'
 services:
   zookeeper:
     image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
-    #ports:
-    #  - "8081:8081"
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
+    #ports:
+    #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   load-generator: 
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc2-workload-generator:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3c33834b0b21bc5dbe4e6a7c3ff947121bb2ce71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-flink/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=s -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 20 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 86%
rename from theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
rename to theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
index 4cc4978d844a8b361af4061ab41d1adc4e7a1813..efdba90bef634bab76012316f67b0f9be9f79c77 100755
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-version: '2'
+version: '2.2'
 services:
   zookeeper:
     image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
-    #ports:
-    #  - "8081:8081"
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
+    #ports:
+    #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   benchmark:
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc2-kstreams-app:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3c33834b0b21bc5dbe4e6a7c3ff947121bb2ce71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc2-kstreams/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=s -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 20 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
index b9e934b61f9742ad4e83601ff13707be0641c875..e68dc94d4185d789272279e8fa2e5d178ffdd14b 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   load-generator: 
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc3-workload-generator:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-flink/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-flink/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0612838a3973a302c9acb3bbfa6b8d59ea2596c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-flink/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=s -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 600 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
index 3ae3a2faa7c0849b76ea838b09ba0254bdfea936..bf120f31dbfda2384b314ba4a90a25362f37b6c2 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
@@ -22,18 +22,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   benchmark:
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc3-beam-samza:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     scale: 1
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-samza/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-samza/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0612838a3973a302c9acb3bbfa6b8d59ea2596c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-beam-samza/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=s -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 600 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-flink/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 89%
rename from theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
rename to theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-flink/docker-compose.yml
index 42c55950fbea022f00019699ae72678fbe88b8cb..0c83d8a25d19d4989f982d251893635ea1222cb0 100755
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-flink/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-version: '2'
+version: '2.2'
 services:
   zookeeper:
     image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
-    #ports:
-    #  - "8081:8081"
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
+    #ports:
+    #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   load-generator: 
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc3-workload-generator:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 85%
rename from theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
rename to theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
index f943de372b75bf64df0028679d56950fedfaec48..7da1fa3b420e2dfa0d6d357723583bc3a256823e 100755
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-version: '2'
+version: '2.2'
 services:
   zookeeper:
     image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
-    #ports:
-    #  - "8081:8081"
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
+    #ports:
+    #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   benchmark:
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc3-kstreams-app:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0612838a3973a302c9acb3bbfa6b8d59ea2596c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc3-kstreams/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=s -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 600 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b10\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
index b0d18dfe34c23847b3cc0b04d788fdc4b3552e68..2968b718eb06ade4d42bbe104e214d573881ac14 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-flink/docker-compose.yml
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1,configuration:3:1,aggregation-feedback:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   load-generator: 
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc4-workload-generator:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
@@ -43,7 +48,7 @@ services:
       KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_URL: http://schema-registry:8081
       NUM_SENSORS: 4
-      NUM_NESTED_GROUPS: 4
+      NUM_NESTED_GROUPS: 3
   benchmark-jobmanager:
       image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc4-beam-flink:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
       #ports:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-flink/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-flink/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6a4c6dbf4f583e7598baefae8f48136bb2113630
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-flink/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=avro -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 2000 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b21\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
index b9e4142cb0be2701f7772cff5725b524aaffcbc7..d236af7d284ebb085c78110feb6001cb28d18290 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-samza/docker-compose.yml
@@ -22,18 +22,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1,configuration:3:1,aggregation-feedback:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   benchmark:
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc4-beam-samza:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     scale: 1
@@ -57,4 +62,4 @@ services:
       KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_URL: http://schema-registry:8081
       NUM_SENSORS: 4
-      NUM_NESTED_GROUPS: 4
+      NUM_NESTED_GROUPS: 3
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-samza/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-samza/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6a4c6dbf4f583e7598baefae8f48136bb2113630
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-beam-samza/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=avro -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 2000 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b21\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 89%
rename from theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
rename to theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink/docker-compose.yml
index 5a5a5924ef13cc9691b267ce6169bdb85a1e267b..24e5acdf94d1ba3d5c2807d172ba054309a2ef4a 100755
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-version: '2'
+version: '2.2'
 services:
   zookeeper:
     image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1,configuration:3:1,aggregation-feedback:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   load-generator: 
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc4-workload-generator:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
@@ -43,7 +48,7 @@ services:
       KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_URL: http://schema-registry:8081
       NUM_SENSORS: 4
-      NUM_NESTED_GROUPS: 4
+      NUM_NESTED_GROUPS: 3
   benchmark-jobmanager:
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc4-flink:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     #ports:
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0a478cf6641a1333f65281ae43cb525e32cb2510
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-flink/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=avro -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 500 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b21\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 86%
rename from theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
rename to theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
index 1818505787f662d57f1a96c8c79b03d61cf9da2a..6aaa02990841547edb6059e4e2fbf3b28b50985c 100755
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-version: '2'
+version: '2.2'
 services:
   zookeeper:
     image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper
@@ -20,18 +20,23 @@ services:
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MS: 30000
       KAFKA_AUTO_CREATE_TOPICS_ENABLE: "false"
       KAFKA_CREATE_TOPICS: "input:3:1,output:3:1,configuration:3:1,aggregation-feedback:3:1"
+  kcat:
+    image: edenhill/kcat:1.7.1
+    entrypoint: "sh"
+    tty: true
   schema-registry:
-    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:5.3.1
+    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.0.1
     depends_on:
       - zookeeper
       - kafka
+    restart: "on-failure"
     expose:
       - "8081"
     #ports:
     #  - 8081:8081
     environment:
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
-      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_CONNECTION_URL: 'zookeeper:2181'
+      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
   benchmark:
     image: ghcr.io/cau-se/theodolite-uc4-kstreams-app:${THEODOLITE_TAG:-latest}
     depends_on:
@@ -51,4 +56,4 @@ services:
       KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: kafka:9092
       SCHEMA_REGISTRY_URL: http://schema-registry:8081
       NUM_SENSORS: 4
-      NUM_NESTED_GROUPS: 4
\ No newline at end of file
+      NUM_NESTED_GROUPS: 3
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams/test.sh b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9b9dee7dc78e7a587b9f2e5b778066e5bc099755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/docker-test/uc4-kstreams/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+until docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -L -b kafka:9092 -t output -J | jq -r '.topics[0].partitions | length' | grep "\b3\b"; do sleep 5s; done
+
+docker-compose exec -T kcat kcat -C -b kafka:9092 -t output -s key=s -s value=avro -r http://schema-registry:8081 -f '%k:%s\n' -c 32 |
+    tee /dev/stderr |
+    awk -F ':' '!/^%/ {print $1}' |
+    sort |
+    uniq |
+    wc -l |
+    grep "\b16\b"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/flink-commons/build.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/flink-commons/build.gradle
index a3a4a35752006bb10e15ff508ce0b37f70adc57d..bd07f1ca51ae6b781a92ae06ba8b2555fa83b873 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/flink-commons/build.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/flink-commons/build.gradle
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ plugins {
 }
 
 ext {
-    flinkVersion = '1.12.0'
+    flinkVersion = '1.13.5'
     scalaBinaryVersion = '2.12'
 }
 
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a375cb792eeb842ecfd1f789fbf6a716df43e9c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+cleanup.add_default_serial_version_id=true
+cleanup.add_generated_serial_version_id=false
+cleanup.add_missing_annotations=true
+cleanup.add_missing_deprecated_annotations=true
+cleanup.add_missing_methods=false
+cleanup.add_missing_nls_tags=false
+cleanup.add_missing_override_annotations=true
+cleanup.add_missing_override_annotations_interface_methods=true
+cleanup.add_serial_version_id=false
+cleanup.always_use_blocks=true
+cleanup.always_use_parentheses_in_expressions=false
+cleanup.always_use_this_for_non_static_field_access=true
+cleanup.always_use_this_for_non_static_method_access=true
+cleanup.convert_functional_interfaces=false
+cleanup.convert_to_enhanced_for_loop=true
+cleanup.correct_indentation=true
+cleanup.format_source_code=true
+cleanup.format_source_code_changes_only=false
+cleanup.insert_inferred_type_arguments=false
+cleanup.make_local_variable_final=true
+cleanup.make_parameters_final=true
+cleanup.make_private_fields_final=true
+cleanup.make_type_abstract_if_missing_method=false
+cleanup.make_variable_declarations_final=true
+cleanup.never_use_blocks=false
+cleanup.never_use_parentheses_in_expressions=true
+cleanup.organize_imports=true
+cleanup.qualify_static_field_accesses_with_declaring_class=false
+cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_through_instances_with_declaring_class=true
+cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_through_subtypes_with_declaring_class=true
+cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_with_declaring_class=true
+cleanup.qualify_static_method_accesses_with_declaring_class=false
+cleanup.remove_private_constructors=true
+cleanup.remove_redundant_modifiers=false
+cleanup.remove_redundant_semicolons=true
+cleanup.remove_redundant_type_arguments=true
+cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces=true
+cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces_all=true
+cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces_ignore_empty=false
+cleanup.remove_unnecessary_casts=true
+cleanup.remove_unnecessary_nls_tags=true
+cleanup.remove_unused_imports=true
+cleanup.remove_unused_local_variables=false
+cleanup.remove_unused_private_fields=true
+cleanup.remove_unused_private_members=false
+cleanup.remove_unused_private_methods=true
+cleanup.remove_unused_private_types=true
+cleanup.sort_members=false
+cleanup.sort_members_all=false
+cleanup.use_anonymous_class_creation=false
+cleanup.use_blocks=true
+cleanup.use_blocks_only_for_return_and_throw=false
+cleanup.use_lambda=true
+cleanup.use_parentheses_in_expressions=true
+cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_field_access=true
+cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_field_access_only_if_necessary=false
+cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_method_access=true
+cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_method_access_only_if_necessary=false
+cleanup_profile=_CAU-SE-Style
+cleanup_settings_version=2
+eclipse.preferences.version=1
+editor_save_participant_org.eclipse.jdt.ui.postsavelistener.cleanup=true
+formatter_profile=_CAU-SE-Style
+formatter_settings_version=21
+org.eclipse.jdt.ui.ignorelowercasenames=true
+org.eclipse.jdt.ui.importorder=;
+org.eclipse.jdt.ui.ondemandthreshold=99
+org.eclipse.jdt.ui.staticondemandthreshold=99
+sp_cleanup.add_default_serial_version_id=true
+sp_cleanup.add_generated_serial_version_id=false
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_annotations=true
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_deprecated_annotations=true
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_methods=false
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_nls_tags=false
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_override_annotations=true
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_override_annotations_interface_methods=true
+sp_cleanup.add_serial_version_id=false
+sp_cleanup.always_use_blocks=true
+sp_cleanup.always_use_parentheses_in_expressions=false
+sp_cleanup.always_use_this_for_non_static_field_access=true
+sp_cleanup.always_use_this_for_non_static_method_access=true
+sp_cleanup.convert_functional_interfaces=false
+sp_cleanup.convert_to_enhanced_for_loop=true
+sp_cleanup.correct_indentation=true
+sp_cleanup.format_source_code=true
+sp_cleanup.format_source_code_changes_only=false
+sp_cleanup.insert_inferred_type_arguments=false
+sp_cleanup.make_local_variable_final=true
+sp_cleanup.make_parameters_final=true
+sp_cleanup.make_private_fields_final=true
+sp_cleanup.make_type_abstract_if_missing_method=false
+sp_cleanup.make_variable_declarations_final=true
+sp_cleanup.never_use_blocks=false
+sp_cleanup.never_use_parentheses_in_expressions=true
+sp_cleanup.on_save_use_additional_actions=true
+sp_cleanup.organize_imports=true
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_field_accesses_with_declaring_class=false
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_through_instances_with_declaring_class=true
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_through_subtypes_with_declaring_class=true
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_with_declaring_class=true
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_method_accesses_with_declaring_class=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_private_constructors=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_redundant_modifiers=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_redundant_semicolons=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_redundant_type_arguments=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces_all=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces_ignore_empty=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_unnecessary_casts=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unnecessary_nls_tags=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_imports=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_local_variables=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_private_fields=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_private_members=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_private_methods=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_private_types=true
+sp_cleanup.sort_members=false
+sp_cleanup.sort_members_all=false
+sp_cleanup.use_anonymous_class_creation=false
+sp_cleanup.use_blocks=true
+sp_cleanup.use_blocks_only_for_return_and_throw=false
+sp_cleanup.use_lambda=true
+sp_cleanup.use_parentheses_in_expressions=true
+sp_cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_field_access=true
+sp_cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_field_access_only_if_necessary=false
+sp_cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_method_access=true
+sp_cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_method_access_only_if_necessary=false
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.checkstyle.prefs b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.checkstyle.prefs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..87860c815222845c1d264d7d0ce498d3397f8280
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.checkstyle.prefs
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+configFilePath=../config/checkstyle.xml
+customModulesJarPaths=
+eclipse.preferences.version=1
+enabled=true
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.pmd.prefs b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.pmd.prefs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..efbcb8c9e5d449194a48ca1ea42b7d807b573db9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.pmd.prefs
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+customRulesJars=
+eclipse.preferences.version=1
+enabled=true
+ruleSetFilePath=../config/pmd.xml
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b31dbcdef48f3b9eadf81a35c95e441c4b54955b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+FROM openjdk:11-slim
+
+ADD build/distributions/http-bridge.tar /
+
+CMD  JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Dorg.slf4j.simpleLogger.defaultLogLevel=$LOG_LEVEL" \
+     /http-bridge/bin/http-bridge
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/build.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/build.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0377eefc76b456d8e0f94087b06d0c2689f977cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/build.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+plugins {
+  // common java conventions
+  id 'theodolite.java-conventions'
+
+  // make executable
+  id 'application'
+}
+
+tasks.distZip.enabled = false
+
+repositories {
+  mavenCentral()
+  maven {
+    url "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/"
+  }
+  maven {
+      url 'https://packages.confluent.io/maven/'
+  }
+}
+
+dependencies {
+  implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
+  implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common-kafka:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
+  implementation project(':load-generator-commons')
+  
+  implementation 'io.javalin:javalin:4.3.0'
+  implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.2'
+  runtimeOnly 'org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:1.7.25'
+
+  testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/Deserializer.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/Deserializer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f25c120d2165c4a1f747fdba32de43d4e4d157a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/Deserializer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+package theodolite.commons.httpbridge;
+
+/**
+ * A class for converting objects to strings.
+ *
+ * @param <T> Type to be deserialized from.
+ */
+@FunctionalInterface
+public interface Deserializer<T> {
+
+  T deserialize(String json);
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/Endpoint.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/Endpoint.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..43850d80699a0db0b0fcebd76f625a17f8133f30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/Endpoint.java
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+package theodolite.commons.httpbridge;
+
+import theodolite.commons.workloadgeneration.RecordSender;
+
+/**
+ * Class describing an endpoint of the {@link HttpBridge}, which converts JSON objects to Java
+ * objects and sends them using a {@link RecordSender}.
+ *
+ * @param <T> Type of objects this endpoint receives and converts.
+ */
+public class Endpoint<T> {
+
+  private final String path;
+
+  private final Deserializer<? extends T> recordDeserializer;
+
+  private final RecordSender<? super T> recordSender;
+
+  /**
+   * Create a new {@link Endpoint} at the given path.
+   */
+  public Endpoint(
+      final String path,
+      final Deserializer<? extends T> recordDeserializer,
+      final RecordSender<? super T> recordSender) {
+    this.path = path;
+    this.recordDeserializer = recordDeserializer;
+    this.recordSender = recordSender;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Create a new {@link Endpoint} at the given path with a {@link GsonDeserializer}.
+   */
+  public Endpoint(
+      final String path,
+      final Class<T> recordType,
+      final RecordSender<? super T> recordSender) {
+    this.path = path;
+    this.recordDeserializer = new GsonDeserializer<>(recordType);
+    this.recordSender = recordSender;
+  }
+
+  public String getPath() {
+    return this.path;
+  }
+
+  public void convert(final String json) {
+    final T record = this.recordDeserializer.deserialize(json);
+    this.recordSender.send(record);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/EnvVarHttpBridgeFactory.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/EnvVarHttpBridgeFactory.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..97956b8d47185c90efdc03393c03c8c44aea2335
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/EnvVarHttpBridgeFactory.java
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package theodolite.commons.httpbridge;
+
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Objects;
+import java.util.Optional;
+import theodolite.commons.workloadgeneration.ConfigurationKeys;
+import theodolite.commons.workloadgeneration.TitanKafkaSenderFactory;
+import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
+
+class EnvVarHttpBridgeFactory {
+
+  private static final String PORT_KEY = "PORT";
+  private static final int PORT_DEFAULT = 8080;
+
+  private static final String HOST_KEY = "HOST";
+  private static final String HOST_DEFAULT = "0.0.0.0"; // NOPMD
+
+  private static final String KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_DEFAULT = "localhost:9092"; // NOPMD
+  private static final String KAFKA_TOPIC_DEFAULT = "input";
+  private static final String SCHEMA_REGISTRY_URL_DEFAULT = "http://localhost:8081";
+
+  public HttpBridge create() {
+    final Endpoint<?> converter = new Endpoint<>(
+        "/",
+        ActivePowerRecord.class,
+        TitanKafkaSenderFactory.forKafkaConfig(
+            this.getKafkaBootstrapServer(),
+            this.getKafkaTopic(),
+            this.getSchemaRegistryUrl()));
+    return new HttpBridge(this.getHost(), this.getPort(), List.of(converter));
+  }
+
+  private String getHost() {
+    return Objects.requireNonNullElse(System.getenv(HOST_KEY), HOST_DEFAULT);
+  }
+
+  private int getPort() {
+    return Optional.ofNullable(System.getenv(PORT_KEY)).map(Integer::parseInt).orElse(PORT_DEFAULT);
+  }
+
+  private String getKafkaBootstrapServer() {
+    return Objects.requireNonNullElse(
+        System.getenv(ConfigurationKeys.KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS),
+        KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_DEFAULT);
+  }
+
+  private String getKafkaTopic() {
+    return Objects.requireNonNullElse(
+        System.getenv(ConfigurationKeys.KAFKA_INPUT_TOPIC),
+        KAFKA_TOPIC_DEFAULT);
+  }
+
+  private String getSchemaRegistryUrl() {
+    return Objects.requireNonNullElse(
+        System.getenv(ConfigurationKeys.SCHEMA_REGISTRY_URL),
+        SCHEMA_REGISTRY_URL_DEFAULT);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/GsonDeserializer.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/GsonDeserializer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..42220617546527157d5463d6b9ce9208abc66d58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/GsonDeserializer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+package theodolite.commons.httpbridge;
+
+import com.google.gson.Gson;
+
+/**
+ * A {@link Deserializer} based on GSON.
+ *
+ * @param <T> Type to be serialized from.
+ */
+public class GsonDeserializer<T> implements Deserializer<T> {
+
+  private final Gson gson;
+  private final Class<T> targetClass;
+
+  public GsonDeserializer(final Class<T> targetClass) {
+    this(new Gson(), targetClass);
+  }
+
+  public GsonDeserializer(final Gson gson, final Class<T> targetClass) {
+    this.gson = gson;
+    this.targetClass = targetClass;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public T deserialize(final String json) {
+    return this.gson.fromJson(json, this.targetClass);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/HttpBridge.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/HttpBridge.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d36e191c8b0a591107de796f511aa853063dff73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/HttpBridge.java
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+package theodolite.commons.httpbridge;
+
+import java.util.List;
+import theodolite.commons.workloadgeneration.RecordSender;
+
+/**
+ * Class that creates a webserver with potentially multiple {@link Endpoint}s, which receives JSON
+ * objects at these endpoints, converts them to Java objects and send them using
+ * {@link RecordSender}s.
+ */
+public class HttpBridge {
+
+  private final JavalinWebServer webServer;
+
+  public HttpBridge(final String host, final int port, final List<Endpoint<?>> converters) {
+    this.webServer = new JavalinWebServer(converters, host, port);
+  }
+
+  public void start() {
+    this.webServer.start();
+  }
+
+  public void stop() {
+    this.webServer.stop();
+  }
+
+  public void runAsStandalone() {
+    Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread(() -> this.stop()));
+    this.start();
+  }
+
+  public static HttpBridge fromEnvironment() {
+    return new EnvVarHttpBridgeFactory().create();
+  }
+
+  public static void main(final String[] args) {
+    HttpBridge.fromEnvironment().runAsStandalone();
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/JavalinWebServer.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/JavalinWebServer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c23a17588d661fc5d1c6e9eb294d2d29fc165675
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/http-bridge/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/httpbridge/JavalinWebServer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+package theodolite.commons.httpbridge;
+
+import io.javalin.Javalin;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+/**
+ * Implementation of a webserver based on the Javalin framework.
+ */
+public class JavalinWebServer {
+
+  private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(JavalinWebServer.class);
+
+  private static final int HTTP_SUCCESS = 200;
+
+  private final Javalin app = Javalin.create();
+
+  private final String host;
+  private final int port;
+
+  /**
+   * Create a new instance, running on the specified host and port with the configured endpoints.
+   */
+  public JavalinWebServer(
+      final Collection<Endpoint<?>> converters,
+      final String host,
+      final int port) {
+    this.host = host;
+    this.port = port;
+    this.configureRoutes(converters);
+  }
+
+  private void configureRoutes(final Collection<Endpoint<?>> endpoints) {
+    for (final Endpoint<?> endpoint : endpoints) {
+      this.app.post(endpoint.getPath(), ctx -> {
+        final String record = ctx.body();
+        LOGGER.debug("Received record at '{}': {}", ctx.path(), record);
+        endpoint.convert(record);
+        ctx.status(HTTP_SUCCESS);
+      });
+    }
+  }
+
+  public void start() {
+    this.app.start(this.host, this.port);
+  }
+
+  public void stop() {
+    this.app.close();
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/kstreams-commons/build.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/kstreams-commons/build.gradle
index 7683ffe39314ec375eda0ed4e139d618d44a7328..167a75327b251af20b1142fe42c82b3bbedfe62b 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/kstreams-commons/build.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/kstreams-commons/build.gradle
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ dependencies {
   // implementation 'org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:1.7.25'
   implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
   implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common-kafka:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
-  implementation 'org.apache.kafka:kafka-streams:2.6.0'
+  implementation 'org.apache.kafka:kafka-streams:3.1.0'
 
   // Use JUnit test framework
   testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/kstreams-commons/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/kafkastreams/KafkaStreamsBuilder.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/kstreams-commons/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/kafkastreams/KafkaStreamsBuilder.java
index 89bd3147f0d3bb7a5fecc5d8c7d277bd294494ad..fe3cf484a81ee3561ad17b6b25d218cd011f2d5d 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/kstreams-commons/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/kafkastreams/KafkaStreamsBuilder.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/kstreams-commons/src/main/java/theodolite/commons/kafkastreams/KafkaStreamsBuilder.java
@@ -70,18 +70,15 @@ public abstract class KafkaStreamsBuilder {
 
     // optional configurations
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.ACCEPTABLE_RECOVERY_LAG_CONFIG,
-        this.config::getLong,
-        p -> p >= 0);
+        this.config::getLong, p -> p >= 0);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.BUFFERED_RECORDS_PER_PARTITION_CONFIG,
         this.config::getInt, p -> p > 0);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.CACHE_MAX_BYTES_BUFFERING_CONFIG,
-        this.config::getInt,
-        p -> p >= 0);
+        this.config::getInt, p -> p >= 0);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.COMMIT_INTERVAL_MS_CONFIG,
         this.config::getInt, p -> p >= 0);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.MAX_TASK_IDLE_MS_CONFIG,
-        this.config::getLong,
-        p -> p >= 0);
+        this.config::getLong, p -> p >= 0);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.MAX_WARMUP_REPLICAS_CONFIG,
         this.config::getInt, p -> p >= 1);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.NUM_STANDBY_REPLICAS_CONFIG,
@@ -89,22 +86,28 @@ public abstract class KafkaStreamsBuilder {
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.NUM_STREAM_THREADS_CONFIG,
         this.config::getInt, p -> p > 0);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.POLL_MS_CONFIG,
-        this.config::getLong,
-        p -> p >= 0);
+        this.config::getLong, p -> p >= 0);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.PROCESSING_GUARANTEE_CONFIG,
-        this.config::getString, p -> StreamsConfig.AT_LEAST_ONCE.equals(p)
-            || StreamsConfig.EXACTLY_ONCE.equals(p) || StreamsConfig.EXACTLY_ONCE_BETA.equals(p));
+        this.config::getString, this::validateProcessingGuarantee);
     this.setOptionalProperty(propBuilder, StreamsConfig.REPLICATION_FACTOR_CONFIG,
         this.config::getInt, p -> p >= 0);
 
-    if (this.config.containsKey(StreamsConfig.TOPOLOGY_OPTIMIZATION)
-        && this.config.getBoolean(StreamsConfig.TOPOLOGY_OPTIMIZATION)) {
-      propBuilder.set(StreamsConfig.TOPOLOGY_OPTIMIZATION, StreamsConfig.OPTIMIZE);
+    if (this.config.containsKey(StreamsConfig.TOPOLOGY_OPTIMIZATION_CONFIG)
+        && this.config.getBoolean(StreamsConfig.TOPOLOGY_OPTIMIZATION_CONFIG)) {
+      propBuilder.set(StreamsConfig.TOPOLOGY_OPTIMIZATION_CONFIG, StreamsConfig.OPTIMIZE);
     }
 
     return propBuilder.build();
   }
 
+  @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
+  private boolean validateProcessingGuarantee(final String processingGuarantee) {
+    return StreamsConfig.AT_LEAST_ONCE.equals(processingGuarantee)
+        // We continue support EXACTLY_ONCE to allow benchmarking it against v2
+        || StreamsConfig.EXACTLY_ONCE.equals(processingGuarantee)
+        || StreamsConfig.EXACTLY_ONCE_V2.equals(processingGuarantee);
+  }
+
   /**
    * Method to implement a {@link Topology} for a {@code KafkaStreams} application.
    *
@@ -116,7 +119,7 @@ public abstract class KafkaStreamsBuilder {
    * Builds the {@link KafkaStreams} instance.
    */
   public KafkaStreams build() {
-    // Create the Kafka streams instance.
+    // Create the Kafka Streams instance.
     final Properties properties = this.buildProperties();
     return new KafkaStreams(this.buildTopology(properties), properties);
   }
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/settings.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/settings.gradle
index ae4254e968a0bc09970752f95c6a40db86ae775c..776e7d8e4fe132839b6e27c70c368720415721ea 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/settings.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/settings.gradle
@@ -5,32 +5,33 @@ include 'kstreams-commons'
 include 'flink-commons'
 include 'beam-commons'
 
-include 'uc1-beam'
-include 'uc2-beam'
-include 'uc3-beam'
-include 'uc4-beam'
-
 include 'uc1-load-generator'
+include 'uc1-commons'
 include 'uc1-kstreams'
 include 'uc1-flink'
+include 'uc1-beam'
 include 'uc1-beam-flink'
 include 'uc1-beam-samza'
 
 include 'uc2-load-generator'
 include 'uc2-kstreams'
 include 'uc2-flink'
+include 'uc2-beam'
 include 'uc2-beam-flink'
 include 'uc2-beam-samza'
 
 include 'uc3-load-generator'
 include 'uc3-kstreams'
 include 'uc3-flink'
+include 'uc3-beam'
 include 'uc3-beam-flink'
 include 'uc3-beam-samza'
 
 include 'uc4-load-generator'
 include 'uc4-kstreams'
 include 'uc4-flink'
+include 'uc4-beam'
 include 'uc4-beam-flink'
 include 'uc4-beam-samza'
 
+include 'http-bridge'
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam-samza/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam-samza/Dockerfile
index 9b729060532ea3a242ac3084ba0bebf88ca2e9b6..cf6ef6675464e3c9d37db492b39fd8a71ec60e63 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam-samza/Dockerfile
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam-samza/Dockerfile
@@ -5,5 +5,5 @@ ENV MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM=1024
 ADD build/distributions/uc1-beam-samza.tar /
 ADD samza-standalone.properties /
 
-CMD /uc1-beam-samza/bin/uc1-beam-samza --configFactory=org.apache.samza.config.factories.PropertiesConfigFactory --configFilePath=samza-standalone.properties --samzaExecutionEnvironment=STANDALONE --maxSourceParallelism=$MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM --enableMetrics=false --configOverride="{\"job.coordinator.zk.connect\":\"$SAMZA_JOB_COORDINATOR_ZK_CONNECT\"}"
+CMD /uc1-beam-samza/bin/uc1-beam-samza --configFilePath=samza-standalone.properties --samzaExecutionEnvironment=STANDALONE --maxSourceParallelism=$MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM --enableMetrics=false --configOverride="{\"job.coordinator.zk.connect\":\"$SAMZA_JOB_COORDINATOR_ZK_CONNECT\"}"
 
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/build.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/build.gradle
index 502e94fa737fb2ae1bab861407b27575cd8766ca..ae80dcd8c5b263892f4539098a9a29b25c133819 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/build.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/build.gradle
@@ -2,4 +2,6 @@ plugins {
   id 'theodolite.beam'
 }
 
-
+dependencies {
+    implementation project(':uc1-commons')
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/ConverterAdapter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/ConverterAdapter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e368c3a06cde50ea8d49d84b038fb2ec5aa97d1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/ConverterAdapter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+package application;
+
+import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.SimpleFunction;
+import org.apache.beam.sdk.values.TypeDescriptor;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.RecordConverter;
+import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
+
+/**
+ * {@link SimpleFunction} which wraps a {@link RecordConverter} to be used with Beam.
+ * 
+ * @param <T> type the {@link RecordConverter} is associated with.
+ */
+public class ConverterAdapter<T> extends SimpleFunction<ActivePowerRecord, T> {
+
+  private static final long serialVersionUID = -5263671231838353747L; // NOPMD
+
+  private final RecordConverter<T> recordConverter;
+  private final TypeDescriptor<T> type;
+
+  /**
+   * Create a new {@link ConverterAdapter} with a given {@link RecordConverter} and the associated
+   * type.
+   */
+  public ConverterAdapter(final RecordConverter<T> recordConverter, final Class<T> type) {
+    super();
+    this.recordConverter = recordConverter;
+    this.type = TypeDescriptor.of(type);
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public T apply(final ActivePowerRecord record) {
+    return this.recordConverter.convert(record);
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public TypeDescriptor<T> getOutputTypeDescriptor() {
+    return this.type;
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/LogKeyValue.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/LogKeyValue.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 251523441e339cbaf58c7e3a1b30e97cc354df18..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/LogKeyValue.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-package application;
-
-import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.DoFn;
-import org.apache.beam.sdk.values.KV;
-import org.slf4j.Logger;
-import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
-
-/**
- * Logs all Key Value pairs.
- */
-public class LogKeyValue extends DoFn<KV<String, String>, KV<String, String>> {
-  private static final long serialVersionUID = 4328743;
-  private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(LogKeyValue.class);
-
-  /**
-   * Logs all key value pairs it processes.
-   */
-  @ProcessElement
-  public void processElement(@Element final KV<String, String> kv,
-      final OutputReceiver<KV<String, String>> out) {
-    LOGGER.info("Key: {}, Value: {}", kv.getKey(), kv.getValue());
-    out.output(kv);
-  }
-}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/MapToGson.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/MapToGson.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 6b0c6bc4ddfe78c22028da5b8cf7dde7ed57fced..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/MapToGson.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
-package application;
-
-import com.google.gson.Gson;
-import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.SimpleFunction;
-import org.apache.beam.sdk.values.KV;
-import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
-
-/**
- * Converts a Map into a json String.
- */
-public class MapToGson extends SimpleFunction<KV<String, ActivePowerRecord>, KV<String, String>> {
-  private static final long serialVersionUID = 7168356203579050214L;
-  private transient Gson gsonObj = new Gson();
-
-  @Override
-  public KV<String, String> apply(
-      final KV<String, ActivePowerRecord> kv) {
-
-    if (this.gsonObj == null) {
-      this.gsonObj = new Gson();
-    }
-
-    final String gson = this.gsonObj.toJson(kv.getValue());
-    return KV.of(kv.getKey(), gson);
-  }
-}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/Uc1BeamPipeline.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/Uc1BeamPipeline.java
index eaff08ac78cd18ddfd47eb2949ca13340ecc27b8..dde2bc064af9b21e11b859fdbf3f6ba1374d17d7 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/Uc1BeamPipeline.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/Uc1BeamPipeline.java
@@ -6,7 +6,10 @@ import org.apache.beam.sdk.coders.CoderRegistry;
 import org.apache.beam.sdk.options.PipelineOptions;
 import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.MapElements;
 import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.ParDo;
+import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.Values;
 import org.apache.commons.configuration2.Configuration;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseAdapter;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.logger.LogWriterFactory;
 import theodolite.commons.beam.AbstractPipeline;
 import theodolite.commons.beam.kafka.KafkaActivePowerTimestampReader;
 import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
@@ -22,6 +25,8 @@ import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
  */
 public final class Uc1BeamPipeline extends AbstractPipeline {
 
+  private final DatabaseAdapter<String> databaseAdapter = LogWriterFactory.forJson();
+
   protected Uc1BeamPipeline(final PipelineOptions options, final Configuration config) {
     super(options, config);
 
@@ -36,17 +41,14 @@ public final class Uc1BeamPipeline extends AbstractPipeline {
     final KafkaActivePowerTimestampReader kafka =
         new KafkaActivePowerTimestampReader(this.bootstrapServer, this.inputTopic, consumerConfig);
 
-    final LogKeyValue logKeyValue = new LogKeyValue();
-    final MapToGson mapToGson = new MapToGson();
-
     // Apply pipeline transformations
     // Read from Kafka
     this.apply(kafka)
-        // Map to Gson
-        .apply(MapElements
-            .via(mapToGson))
-        // Print to console
-        .apply(ParDo.of(logKeyValue));
+        .apply(Values.create())
+        .apply(MapElements.via(new ConverterAdapter<>(
+            this.databaseAdapter.getRecordConverter(),
+            String.class)))
+        .apply(ParDo.of(new WriterAdapter<>(this.databaseAdapter.getDatabaseWriter())));
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/WriterAdapter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/WriterAdapter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..eb9a2670cd8e61ed103a277e9d26072dc926dbeb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-beam/src/main/java/application/WriterAdapter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+package application;
+
+import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.DoFn;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseAdapter;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseWriter;
+
+/**
+ * {@link DoFn} which wraps a {@link DatabaseAdapter} to be used with Beam.
+ * 
+ * @param <T> type the {@link DatabaseWriter} is associated with.
+ */
+public class WriterAdapter<T> extends DoFn<T, Void> {
+
+  private static final long serialVersionUID = -5263671231838353742L; // NOPMD
+
+  private final DatabaseWriter<T> databaseWriter;
+
+  public WriterAdapter(final DatabaseWriter<T> databaseWriter) {
+    super();
+    this.databaseWriter = databaseWriter;
+  }
+
+  @ProcessElement
+  public void processElement(@Element final T record, final OutputReceiver<Void> out) {
+    this.databaseWriter.write(record);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..713419c8d3d74d3bd7fd05c3e839367753fcdee0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+cleanup.add_default_serial_version_id=true
+cleanup.add_generated_serial_version_id=false
+cleanup.add_missing_annotations=true
+cleanup.add_missing_deprecated_annotations=true
+cleanup.add_missing_methods=false
+cleanup.add_missing_nls_tags=false
+cleanup.add_missing_override_annotations=true
+cleanup.add_missing_override_annotations_interface_methods=true
+cleanup.add_serial_version_id=false
+cleanup.always_use_blocks=true
+cleanup.always_use_parentheses_in_expressions=false
+cleanup.always_use_this_for_non_static_field_access=true
+cleanup.always_use_this_for_non_static_method_access=true
+cleanup.convert_functional_interfaces=false
+cleanup.convert_to_enhanced_for_loop=true
+cleanup.correct_indentation=true
+cleanup.format_source_code=true
+cleanup.format_source_code_changes_only=false
+cleanup.insert_inferred_type_arguments=false
+cleanup.make_local_variable_final=true
+cleanup.make_parameters_final=true
+cleanup.make_private_fields_final=true
+cleanup.make_type_abstract_if_missing_method=false
+cleanup.make_variable_declarations_final=true
+cleanup.never_use_blocks=false
+cleanup.never_use_parentheses_in_expressions=true
+cleanup.organize_imports=true
+cleanup.qualify_static_field_accesses_with_declaring_class=false
+cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_through_instances_with_declaring_class=true
+cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_through_subtypes_with_declaring_class=true
+cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_with_declaring_class=true
+cleanup.qualify_static_method_accesses_with_declaring_class=false
+cleanup.remove_private_constructors=true
+cleanup.remove_redundant_modifiers=false
+cleanup.remove_redundant_semicolons=false
+cleanup.remove_redundant_type_arguments=true
+cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces=true
+cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces_all=true
+cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces_ignore_empty=false
+cleanup.remove_unnecessary_casts=true
+cleanup.remove_unnecessary_nls_tags=true
+cleanup.remove_unused_imports=true
+cleanup.remove_unused_local_variables=false
+cleanup.remove_unused_private_fields=true
+cleanup.remove_unused_private_members=false
+cleanup.remove_unused_private_methods=true
+cleanup.remove_unused_private_types=true
+cleanup.sort_members=false
+cleanup.sort_members_all=false
+cleanup.use_anonymous_class_creation=false
+cleanup.use_blocks=true
+cleanup.use_blocks_only_for_return_and_throw=false
+cleanup.use_lambda=true
+cleanup.use_parentheses_in_expressions=true
+cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_field_access=true
+cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_field_access_only_if_necessary=false
+cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_method_access=true
+cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_method_access_only_if_necessary=false
+cleanup_profile=_CAU-SE-Style
+cleanup_settings_version=2
+eclipse.preferences.version=1
+editor_save_participant_org.eclipse.jdt.ui.postsavelistener.cleanup=true
+formatter_profile=_CAU-SE-Style
+formatter_settings_version=21
+org.eclipse.jdt.ui.ignorelowercasenames=true
+org.eclipse.jdt.ui.importorder=;
+org.eclipse.jdt.ui.ondemandthreshold=99
+org.eclipse.jdt.ui.staticondemandthreshold=99
+sp_cleanup.add_default_serial_version_id=true
+sp_cleanup.add_generated_serial_version_id=false
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_annotations=true
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_deprecated_annotations=true
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_methods=false
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_nls_tags=false
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_override_annotations=true
+sp_cleanup.add_missing_override_annotations_interface_methods=true
+sp_cleanup.add_serial_version_id=false
+sp_cleanup.always_use_blocks=true
+sp_cleanup.always_use_parentheses_in_expressions=false
+sp_cleanup.always_use_this_for_non_static_field_access=true
+sp_cleanup.always_use_this_for_non_static_method_access=true
+sp_cleanup.convert_functional_interfaces=false
+sp_cleanup.convert_to_enhanced_for_loop=true
+sp_cleanup.correct_indentation=true
+sp_cleanup.format_source_code=true
+sp_cleanup.format_source_code_changes_only=false
+sp_cleanup.insert_inferred_type_arguments=false
+sp_cleanup.make_local_variable_final=true
+sp_cleanup.make_parameters_final=true
+sp_cleanup.make_private_fields_final=true
+sp_cleanup.make_type_abstract_if_missing_method=false
+sp_cleanup.make_variable_declarations_final=true
+sp_cleanup.never_use_blocks=false
+sp_cleanup.never_use_parentheses_in_expressions=true
+sp_cleanup.on_save_use_additional_actions=true
+sp_cleanup.organize_imports=true
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_field_accesses_with_declaring_class=false
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_through_instances_with_declaring_class=true
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_through_subtypes_with_declaring_class=true
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_member_accesses_with_declaring_class=true
+sp_cleanup.qualify_static_method_accesses_with_declaring_class=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_private_constructors=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_redundant_modifiers=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_redundant_semicolons=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_redundant_type_arguments=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces_all=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_trailing_whitespaces_ignore_empty=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_unnecessary_casts=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unnecessary_nls_tags=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_imports=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_local_variables=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_private_fields=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_private_members=false
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_private_methods=true
+sp_cleanup.remove_unused_private_types=true
+sp_cleanup.sort_members=false
+sp_cleanup.sort_members_all=false
+sp_cleanup.use_anonymous_class_creation=false
+sp_cleanup.use_blocks=true
+sp_cleanup.use_blocks_only_for_return_and_throw=false
+sp_cleanup.use_lambda=true
+sp_cleanup.use_parentheses_in_expressions=true
+sp_cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_field_access=true
+sp_cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_field_access_only_if_necessary=false
+sp_cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_method_access=true
+sp_cleanup.use_this_for_non_static_method_access_only_if_necessary=false
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.checkstyle.prefs b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.checkstyle.prefs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..87860c815222845c1d264d7d0ce498d3397f8280
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.checkstyle.prefs
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+configFilePath=../config/checkstyle.xml
+customModulesJarPaths=
+eclipse.preferences.version=1
+enabled=true
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.pmd.prefs b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.pmd.prefs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..efbcb8c9e5d449194a48ca1ea42b7d807b573db9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/.settings/qa.eclipse.plugin.pmd.prefs
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+customRulesJars=
+eclipse.preferences.version=1
+enabled=true
+ruleSetFilePath=../config/pmd.xml
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/build.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/build.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cd95e28ed53cc8e33a416564e613574faf1fc6cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/build.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+plugins {
+    id 'theodolite.java-commons'
+}
+
+repositories {
+  mavenCentral()
+  maven {
+    url "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/"
+  }
+  maven {
+    url 'https://packages.confluent.io/maven/'
+  }
+}
+
+dependencies {
+  implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
+  implementation('org.industrial-devops:titan-ccp-common-kafka:0.1.0-SNAPSHOT') { changing = true }
+
+  implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.9'
+
+  testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/DatabaseAdapter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/DatabaseAdapter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a1cb1ade0dc76b168cf9ee54f64d5ac88d6b3a98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/DatabaseAdapter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+package rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons;
+
+import java.util.Objects;
+import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
+
+/**
+ * A database adapter consisting of a {@link RecordConverter} and a {@link DatabaseWriter}.
+ *
+ * @param <T> intermediate data type written to the database.
+ */
+public final class DatabaseAdapter<T> {
+
+  private final RecordConverter<T> recordConverter;
+
+  private final DatabaseWriter<T> databaseWriter;
+
+  private DatabaseAdapter(final RecordConverter<T> recordConverter,
+      final DatabaseWriter<T> databaseWriter) {
+    this.recordConverter = recordConverter;
+    this.databaseWriter = databaseWriter;
+  }
+
+  public RecordConverter<T> getRecordConverter() {
+    return this.recordConverter;
+  }
+
+  public DatabaseWriter<T> getDatabaseWriter() {
+    return this.databaseWriter;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Create a new {@link DatabaseAdapter}.
+   *
+   * @param <T> intermediate data type written to the database.
+   * @param recordConverter RecordConverter for converting {@link ActivePowerRecord}s to {@code T}
+   * @param databaseWriter DatabaseWriter for writing converted records to the database.
+   * @return the {@link DatabaseAdapter}.
+   */
+  public static <T> DatabaseAdapter<T> from(final RecordConverter<T> recordConverter,
+      final DatabaseWriter<T> databaseWriter) {
+    Objects.requireNonNull(recordConverter);
+    Objects.requireNonNull(databaseWriter);
+    return new DatabaseAdapter<>(recordConverter, databaseWriter);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/DatabaseWriter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/DatabaseWriter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1beb269e4b75252ac72f7c30c4a26f7a11de4fb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/DatabaseWriter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+package rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons;
+
+/**
+ * Writes an object to a database.
+ *
+ * @param <T> Type expected by the database.
+ */
+@FunctionalInterface
+public interface DatabaseWriter<T> {
+
+  void write(T record);
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/RecordConverter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/RecordConverter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..105f19e0e920e3516f7277cd7804dae210a7d0b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/RecordConverter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+package rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons;
+
+import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
+
+/**
+ * Converts an {@link ActivePowerRecord} to the type required by a database.
+ *
+ * @param <T> Type required by the database.
+ */
+@FunctionalInterface
+public interface RecordConverter<T> {
+
+  T convert(ActivePowerRecord record);
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/JsonConverter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/JsonConverter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f9974affb7bf57fc63e9bfe8ba92fd056da9a97b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/JsonConverter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.logger;
+
+import com.google.gson.Gson;
+import java.io.Serializable;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.RecordConverter;
+import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
+
+/**
+ * {@link RecordConverter} that converts {@link ActivePowerRecord}s to JSON strings.
+ */
+public class JsonConverter implements RecordConverter<String>, Serializable {
+
+  private static final long serialVersionUID = -5263671231838353748L; // NOPMD
+
+  private static final Gson GSON = new Gson();
+
+  @Override
+  public String convert(final ActivePowerRecord activePowerRecord) {
+    return GSON.toJson(activePowerRecord);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/LogWriter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/LogWriter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d606a6dffd01257b308bf2afebc3088b52793ccf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/LogWriter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.logger;
+
+import java.io.Serializable;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseWriter;
+
+/**
+ * Writes string records to a {@link Logger}.
+ */
+public class LogWriter implements DatabaseWriter<String>, Serializable {
+
+  private static final long serialVersionUID = -5263671231838353749L; // NOPMD
+
+  private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(LogWriter.class);
+
+  @Override
+  public void write(final String string) {
+    LOGGER.info("Record: {}", string);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/LogWriterFactory.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/LogWriterFactory.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..305ed933ba3e0d885de9c65aacc6ace8a0884621
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-commons/src/main/java/rocks/theodolite/benchmarks/uc1/commons/logger/LogWriterFactory.java
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.logger;
+
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseAdapter;
+
+/**
+ * Provides factory methods for creating a dummy {@link DatabaseAdapter} writing records as logs
+ * using a SLF4J {@link Logger}.
+ */
+public final class LogWriterFactory {
+
+  private LogWriterFactory() {}
+
+  public static DatabaseAdapter<String> forJson() {
+    return DatabaseAdapter.from(new JsonConverter(), new LogWriter());
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/Dockerfile
index 795b9e343a03cf0209e1625f5cbc3d45dcb77cda..fdaecd661e86275d670423351664e54221ce33cc 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/Dockerfile
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/Dockerfile
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-FROM flink:1.12-scala_2.12-java11
+FROM flink:1.13-java11
 
 ADD build/libs/uc1-flink-all.jar /opt/flink/usrlib/artifacts/uc1-flink-all.jar
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/build.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/build.gradle
index 8a2a359c4840e67581f7bc24f1544ff519f82525..681effe9a347f0fa9f26d6a2caf0668ade09d6c2 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/build.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/build.gradle
@@ -2,4 +2,8 @@ plugins {
   id 'theodolite.flink'
 }
 
+dependencies {
+    implementation project(':uc1-commons')
+}
+
 mainClassName = "theodolite.uc1.application.HistoryServiceFlinkJob"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/ConverterAdapter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/ConverterAdapter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..af0a0b1cf5a25d22c1fdc5e7adb7467be03f9b9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/ConverterAdapter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package theodolite.uc1.application;
+
+import org.apache.flink.api.common.functions.MapFunction;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.RecordConverter;
+import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
+
+/**
+ * {@link MapFunction} which wraps a {@link RecordConverter} to be used with Flink.
+ *
+ * @param <T> type the {@link RecordConverter} is associated with.
+ */
+public class ConverterAdapter<T> implements MapFunction<ActivePowerRecord, T> {
+
+  private static final long serialVersionUID = -5263671231838353747L; // NOPMD
+
+  private final RecordConverter<T> recordConverter;
+
+  public ConverterAdapter(final RecordConverter<T> recordConverter) {
+    this.recordConverter = recordConverter;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public T map(final ActivePowerRecord record) throws Exception {
+    return this.recordConverter.convert(record);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/GsonMapper.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/GsonMapper.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 831db7fe63be6529e6b7ba299dca92b138ff7d13..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/GsonMapper.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-package theodolite.uc1.application;
-
-import com.google.gson.Gson;
-import org.apache.flink.api.common.functions.MapFunction;
-import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
-
-/**
- * {@link MapFunction} which maps {@link ActivePowerRecord}s to their representation as JSON
- * strings.
- */
-public class GsonMapper implements MapFunction<ActivePowerRecord, String> {
-
-  private static final long serialVersionUID = -5263671231838353747L; // NOPMD
-
-  private static final Gson GSON = new Gson();
-
-  @Override
-  public String map(final ActivePowerRecord value) throws Exception {
-    return GSON.toJson(value);
-  }
-
-}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
index 0cb132e526486e71409736b843dd25bdfa52da4a..41131152734f68dd34489461b1ad31d94a970eac 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.environment.StreamExecutionEnvironment;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.connectors.kafka.FlinkKafkaConsumer;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseAdapter;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.logger.LogWriterFactory;
 import theodolite.commons.flink.KafkaConnectorFactory;
 import titan.ccp.common.configuration.ServiceConfigurations;
 import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
@@ -22,6 +24,8 @@ public final class HistoryServiceFlinkJob {
   private final StreamExecutionEnvironment env;
   private final String applicationId;
 
+  private final DatabaseAdapter<String> databaseAdapter = LogWriterFactory.forJson();
+
   /**
    * Create a new instance of the {@link HistoryServiceFlinkJob}.
    */
@@ -69,9 +73,10 @@ public final class HistoryServiceFlinkJob {
 
     stream
         // .rebalance()
-        .map(new GsonMapper())
-        .flatMap((record, c) -> LOGGER.info("Record: {}", record))
-        .returns(Types.GENERIC(Object.class)); // Will never be used
+        .map(new ConverterAdapter<>(this.databaseAdapter.getRecordConverter()))
+        .returns(Types.STRING)
+        .flatMap(new WriterAdapter<>(this.databaseAdapter.getDatabaseWriter()))
+        .returns(Types.VOID); // Will never be used
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/WriterAdapter.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/WriterAdapter.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b2f375ec5f5a66141a2551015fb9fbd013ab9c16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/application/WriterAdapter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+package theodolite.uc1.application;
+
+import org.apache.flink.api.common.functions.FlatMapFunction;
+import org.apache.flink.util.Collector;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseAdapter;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseWriter;
+
+/**
+ * {@link FlatMapFunction} which wraps a {@link DatabaseAdapter} to be used with Flink.
+ *
+ * @param <T> type the {@link DatabaseWriter} is associated with.
+ */
+public class WriterAdapter<T> implements FlatMapFunction<T, Void> {
+
+  private static final long serialVersionUID = -5263671231838353747L; // NOPMD
+
+  private final DatabaseWriter<T> databaseWriter;
+
+  public WriterAdapter(final DatabaseWriter<T> databaseWriter) {
+    this.databaseWriter = databaseWriter;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void flatMap(final T value, final Collector<Void> out) throws Exception {
+    this.databaseWriter.write(value);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-kstreams/build.gradle b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-kstreams/build.gradle
index 74cfb450ec80759f60582c25ab844e3398d5bf02..1460a99a2aad7767b84259494c4c231344862545 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-kstreams/build.gradle
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-kstreams/build.gradle
@@ -2,4 +2,8 @@ plugins {
   id 'theodolite.kstreams'
 }
 
+dependencies {
+    implementation project(':uc1-commons')
+}
+
 mainClassName = "theodolite.uc1.application.HistoryService"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
index 427a838f45f6807ede00dcb68ebf8c5580f28ce6..64d6d08c30c1a015c668e744fe164bda3f493aa4 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc1-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc1/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
@@ -1,13 +1,12 @@
 package theodolite.uc1.streamprocessing;
 
-import com.google.gson.Gson;
 import java.util.Properties;
 import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serdes;
 import org.apache.kafka.streams.StreamsBuilder;
 import org.apache.kafka.streams.Topology;
 import org.apache.kafka.streams.kstream.Consumed;
-import org.slf4j.Logger;
-import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.DatabaseAdapter;
+import rocks.theodolite.benchmarks.uc1.commons.logger.LogWriterFactory;
 import titan.ccp.common.kafka.avro.SchemaRegistryAvroSerdeFactory;
 import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
 
@@ -16,12 +15,11 @@ import titan.ccp.model.records.ActivePowerRecord;
  */
 public class TopologyBuilder {
 
-  private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(TopologyBuilder.class);
-  private static final Gson GSON = new Gson();
-
   private final String inputTopic;
   private final SchemaRegistryAvroSerdeFactory srAvroSerdeFactory;
 
+  private final DatabaseAdapter<String> databaseAdapter = LogWriterFactory.forJson();
+
   private final StreamsBuilder builder = new StreamsBuilder();
 
 
@@ -42,8 +40,8 @@ public class TopologyBuilder {
         .stream(this.inputTopic, Consumed.with(
             Serdes.String(),
             this.srAvroSerdeFactory.<ActivePowerRecord>forValues()))
-        .mapValues(v -> GSON.toJson(v))
-        .foreach((k, record) -> LOGGER.info("Record: {}", record));
+        .mapValues(this.databaseAdapter.getRecordConverter()::convert)
+        .foreach((k, record) -> this.databaseAdapter.getDatabaseWriter().write(record));
 
     return this.builder.build(properties);
   }
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-beam-samza/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-beam-samza/Dockerfile
index 22855cea279819cacbf6eee253c30c60409fdba3..ae762791c40fc6981ce7e5fd08bea860ed9208ec 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-beam-samza/Dockerfile
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-beam-samza/Dockerfile
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@ ENV MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM=1024
 ADD build/distributions/uc2-beam-samza.tar /
 ADD samza-standalone.properties /
 
-CMD /uc2-beam-samza/bin/uc2-beam-samza --configFactory=org.apache.samza.config.factories.PropertiesConfigFactory --configFilePath=samza-standalone.properties --samzaExecutionEnvironment=STANDALONE --maxSourceParallelism=$MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM --enableMetrics=false --configOverride="{\"job.coordinator.zk.connect\":\"$SAMZA_JOB_COORDINATOR_ZK_CONNECT\"}"
+CMD /uc2-beam-samza/bin/uc2-beam-samza --configFilePath=samza-standalone.properties --samzaExecutionEnvironment=STANDALONE --maxSourceParallelism=$MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM --enableMetrics=false --configOverride="{\"job.coordinator.zk.connect\":\"$SAMZA_JOB_COORDINATOR_ZK_CONNECT\"}"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-flink/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-flink/Dockerfile
index 537ab28e2d4e5fb8edfc2760142acc33cc49b91d..01a85c57b00ea8bb4af8faa697708fd2b650de50 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-flink/Dockerfile
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-flink/Dockerfile
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-FROM flink:1.12-scala_2.12-java11
+FROM flink:1.13-java11
 
 ADD build/libs/uc2-flink-all.jar /opt/flink/usrlib/artifacts/uc2-flink-all.jar
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc2/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc2/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
index d156d895d86bb01a31f96e08764df8b8df743c4d..7a97099c71a18449b7cc3f0413632b52fd5b69f5 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc2/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc2/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import org.apache.commons.configuration2.Configuration;
 import org.apache.flink.api.common.typeinfo.Types;
 import org.apache.flink.api.java.tuple.Tuple2;
 import org.apache.flink.runtime.state.StateBackend;
-import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.TimeCharacteristic;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.environment.StreamExecutionEnvironment;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.windowing.assigners.TumblingEventTimeWindows;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.windowing.time.Time;
@@ -48,8 +47,6 @@ public final class HistoryServiceFlinkJob {
   }
 
   private void configureEnv() {
-    this.env.setStreamTimeCharacteristic(TimeCharacteristic.EventTime);
-
     final boolean checkpointing = this.config.getBoolean(ConfigurationKeys.CHECKPOINTING, true);
     final int commitIntervalMs = this.config.getInt(ConfigurationKeys.COMMIT_INTERVAL_MS);
     if (checkpointing) {
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc2/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc2/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
index eda7c495a2cff6d58b62a8a6a74ea8e1b2d89aca..21dcf14a9322ce5a6381f96f22f5fadb85cc78f0 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc2/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc2-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc2/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ public class TopologyBuilder {
             Consumed.with(Serdes.String(),
                 this.srAvroSerdeFactory.<ActivePowerRecord>forValues()))
         .groupByKey()
-        .windowedBy(TimeWindows.of(this.duration))
+        .windowedBy(TimeWindows.ofSizeWithNoGrace(this.duration))
         // .aggregate(
         // () -> 0.0,
         // (key, activePowerRecord, agg) -> agg + activePowerRecord.getValueInW(),
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-beam-samza/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-beam-samza/Dockerfile
index d3e860bd72c54121d616bc5562d519e6e1e21dec..54979b8e1fa8aa9ac7d073302301bd10cbff5f34 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-beam-samza/Dockerfile
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-beam-samza/Dockerfile
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@ ENV MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM=1024
 ADD build/distributions/uc3-beam-samza.tar /
 ADD samza-standalone.properties /
 
-CMD /uc3-beam-samza/bin/uc3-beam-samza --configFactory=org.apache.samza.config.factories.PropertiesConfigFactory --configFilePath=samza-standalone.properties --samzaExecutionEnvironment=STANDALONE --maxSourceParallelism=$MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM --enableMetrics=false --configOverride="{\"job.coordinator.zk.connect\":\"$SAMZA_JOB_COORDINATOR_ZK_CONNECT\"}"
+CMD /uc3-beam-samza/bin/uc3-beam-samza --configFilePath=samza-standalone.properties --samzaExecutionEnvironment=STANDALONE --maxSourceParallelism=$MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM --enableMetrics=false --configOverride="{\"job.coordinator.zk.connect\":\"$SAMZA_JOB_COORDINATOR_ZK_CONNECT\"}"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-flink/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-flink/Dockerfile
index 34c6da692cb30b738adf47b9d4ca893e72f330e4..cef05c0296f55f0cf7391dd35dd1806ec0efa287 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-flink/Dockerfile
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-flink/Dockerfile
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-FROM flink:1.12-scala_2.12-java11
+FROM flink:1.13-java11
 
 ADD build/libs/uc3-flink-all.jar /opt/flink/usrlib/artifacts/uc3-flink-all.jar
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc3/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc3/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
index 091b25674a2a31671ca68bd2076c694da9533d77..621146864fc84d032a7dc3c65fa253df9b940b2d 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc3/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc3/application/HistoryServiceFlinkJob.java
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ import org.apache.flink.api.common.typeinfo.Types;
 import org.apache.flink.api.java.functions.KeySelector;
 import org.apache.flink.api.java.tuple.Tuple2;
 import org.apache.flink.runtime.state.StateBackend;
-import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.TimeCharacteristic;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.environment.StreamExecutionEnvironment;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.windowing.assigners.SlidingEventTimeWindows;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.windowing.time.Time;
@@ -55,8 +54,6 @@ public final class HistoryServiceFlinkJob {
   }
 
   private void configureEnv() {
-    this.env.setStreamTimeCharacteristic(TimeCharacteristic.EventTime);
-
     final boolean checkpointing = this.config.getBoolean(ConfigurationKeys.CHECKPOINTING, true);
     final int commitIntervalMs = this.config.getInt(ConfigurationKeys.COMMIT_INTERVAL_MS);
     if (checkpointing) {
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc3/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc3/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
index 1e976c07158720b3681d89413a5f277b1395f32d..4c63e21f3d9f1af6c9ef0363d7d01939faae9aef 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc3/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc3-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc3/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
@@ -60,17 +60,18 @@ public class TopologyBuilder {
     final Serde<HourOfDayKey> keySerde = HourOfDayKeySerde.create();
 
     this.builder
-        .stream(this.inputTopic,
-            Consumed.with(Serdes.String(),
-                this.srAvroSerdeFactory.<ActivePowerRecord>forValues()))
+        .stream(this.inputTopic, Consumed.with(
+            Serdes.String(),
+            this.srAvroSerdeFactory.<ActivePowerRecord>forValues()))
         .selectKey((key, value) -> {
           final Instant instant = Instant.ofEpochMilli(value.getTimestamp());
           final LocalDateTime dateTime = LocalDateTime.ofInstant(instant, this.zone);
           return keyFactory.createKey(value.getIdentifier(), dateTime);
         })
-        .groupByKey(
-            Grouped.with(keySerde, this.srAvroSerdeFactory.forValues()))
-        .windowedBy(TimeWindows.of(this.aggregtionDuration).advanceBy(this.aggregationAdvance))
+        .groupByKey(Grouped.with(keySerde, this.srAvroSerdeFactory.forValues()))
+        .windowedBy(TimeWindows
+            .ofSizeWithNoGrace(this.aggregtionDuration)
+            .advanceBy(this.aggregationAdvance))
         .aggregate(
             () -> Stats.of(),
             (k, record, stats) -> StatsFactory.accumulate(stats, record.getValueInW()),
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-beam-samza/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-beam-samza/Dockerfile
index ffb82ee09e99384d4914a0f86b6d9214fc161381..b59585f748b95cf62e59be01c8fa9dc0d919f43a 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-beam-samza/Dockerfile
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-beam-samza/Dockerfile
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@ ENV MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM=1024
 ADD build/distributions/uc4-beam-samza.tar /
 ADD samza-standalone.properties /
 
-CMD /uc4-beam-samza/bin/uc4-beam-samza --configFactory=org.apache.samza.config.factories.PropertiesConfigFactory --configFilePath=samza-standalone.properties --samzaExecutionEnvironment=STANDALONE --maxSourceParallelism=$MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM --enableMetrics=false --configOverride="{\"job.coordinator.zk.connect\":\"$SAMZA_JOB_COORDINATOR_ZK_CONNECT\"}"
+CMD /uc4-beam-samza/bin/uc4-beam-samza --configFilePath=samza-standalone.properties --samzaExecutionEnvironment=STANDALONE --maxSourceParallelism=$MAX_SOURCE_PARALLELISM --enableMetrics=false --configOverride="{\"job.coordinator.zk.connect\":\"$SAMZA_JOB_COORDINATOR_ZK_CONNECT\"}"
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-flink/Dockerfile b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-flink/Dockerfile
index 4f51f379e5da436104bb8c914e3233d6ecb4ec1f..1fe58e9930db0ef30fa10d12519dd68ccdb2e97e 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-flink/Dockerfile
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-flink/Dockerfile
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-FROM flink:1.12-scala_2.12-java11
+FROM flink:1.13-java11
 
 ADD build/libs/uc4-flink-all.jar /opt/flink/usrlib/artifacts/uc4-flink-all.jar
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc4/application/AggregationServiceFlinkJob.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc4/application/AggregationServiceFlinkJob.java
index 3e2878a893057024de00333492462f5029eb6d77..48eadff101905b746ab239f6030decb728c12475 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc4/application/AggregationServiceFlinkJob.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-flink/src/main/java/theodolite/uc4/application/AggregationServiceFlinkJob.java
@@ -9,12 +9,12 @@ import org.apache.flink.api.common.typeinfo.Types;
 import org.apache.flink.api.java.functions.KeySelector;
 import org.apache.flink.api.java.tuple.Tuple2;
 import org.apache.flink.runtime.state.StateBackend;
-import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.TimeCharacteristic;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.datastream.DataStream;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.environment.StreamExecutionEnvironment;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.windowing.assigners.TumblingEventTimeWindows;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.api.windowing.time.Time;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.connectors.kafka.FlinkKafkaConsumer;
+import org.apache.flink.streaming.connectors.kafka.FlinkKafkaConsumerBase;
 import org.apache.flink.streaming.connectors.kafka.FlinkKafkaProducer;
 import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serdes;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
@@ -68,8 +68,6 @@ public final class AggregationServiceFlinkJob {
   }
 
   private void configureEnv() {
-    this.env.setStreamTimeCharacteristic(TimeCharacteristic.EventTime);
-
     final boolean checkpointing = this.config.getBoolean(ConfigurationKeys.CHECKPOINTING, true);
     final int commitIntervalMs = this.config.getInt(ConfigurationKeys.COMMIT_INTERVAL_MS);
     if (checkpointing) {
@@ -103,9 +101,11 @@ public final class AggregationServiceFlinkJob {
     this.env.getConfig().registerTypeWithKryoSerializer(Set.of(1, 2, 3, 4).getClass(), // NOCS
         new ImmutableSetSerializer());
 
-    this.env.getConfig().getRegisteredTypesWithKryoSerializers()
-        .forEach((c, s) -> LOGGER.info("Class " + c.getName() + " registered with serializer "
-            + s.getSerializer().getClass().getName()));
+    this.env
+        .getConfig()
+        .getRegisteredTypesWithKryoSerializers()
+        .forEach((c, s) -> LOGGER.info("Class '{}' registered with serializer '{}'.", c.getName(),
+            s.getSerializer().getClass().getName()));
   }
 
   private void buildPipeline() {
@@ -134,12 +134,13 @@ public final class AggregationServiceFlinkJob {
     final FlinkKafkaConsumer<AggregatedActivePowerRecord> kafkaOutputSource =
         kafkaConnector.createConsumer(outputTopic, AggregatedActivePowerRecord.class);
 
-    final FlinkKafkaConsumer<Tuple2<Event, String>> kafkaConfigSource =
+    final FlinkKafkaConsumerBase<Tuple2<Event, String>> kafkaConfigSource =
         kafkaConnector.createConsumer(
             configurationTopic,
             EventSerde::serde,
             Serdes::String,
-            TupleType.of(TypeInformation.of(Event.class), Types.STRING));
+            TupleType.of(TypeInformation.of(Event.class), Types.STRING))
+            .setStartFromEarliest();
 
     // Sink to output topic with SensorId, AggregatedActivePowerRecord
     final FlinkKafkaProducer<Tuple2<String, AggregatedActivePowerRecord>> kafkaAggregationSink =
diff --git a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc4/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc4/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
index 623870313cd341d0594fee38d2fd0ae297abbeae..712b20cb63c2d9f6b77321eaf18eafe4b16854d2 100644
--- a/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc4/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
+++ b/theodolite-benchmarks/uc4-kstreams/src/main/java/theodolite/uc4/streamprocessing/TopologyBuilder.java
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ public class TopologyBuilder {
         .groupByKey(Grouped.with(
             SensorParentKeySerde.serde(),
             this.srAvroSerdeFactory.forValues()))
-        .windowedBy(TimeWindows.of(this.emitPeriod).grace(this.gracePeriod))
+        .windowedBy(TimeWindows.ofSizeAndGrace(this.emitPeriod, this.gracePeriod))
         .reduce(
             // TODO Configurable window aggregation function
             (oldVal, newVal) -> newVal.getTimestamp() >= oldVal.getTimestamp() ? newVal : oldVal,
diff --git a/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/resourceLoader/AbstractK8sLoader.kt b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/resourceLoader/AbstractK8sLoader.kt
index 871b8cf43907fcb8b0b5ea501c6b47f82e56ff69..36cfef9ce912886a638c200b502923dfe03ef5d0 100644
--- a/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/resourceLoader/AbstractK8sLoader.kt
+++ b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/resourceLoader/AbstractK8sLoader.kt
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ abstract class AbstractK8sLoader: K8sResourceLoader {
             "Deployment" -> loadDeployment(resourceString)
             "Service" -> loadService(resourceString)
             "ServiceMonitor" -> loadServiceMonitor(resourceString)
+            "PodMonitor" -> loadPodMonitor(resourceString)
             "ConfigMap" -> loadConfigmap(resourceString)
             "StatefulSet" -> loadStatefulSet(resourceString)
             "Execution" -> loadExecution(resourceString)
@@ -51,6 +52,16 @@ abstract class AbstractK8sLoader: K8sResourceLoader {
         return loadCustomResourceWrapper(resource, context)
     }
 
+    override fun loadPodMonitor(resource: String): KubernetesResource {
+        val context = K8sContextFactory().create(
+            api = "v1",
+            scope = "Namespaced",
+            group = "monitoring.coreos.com",
+            plural = "podmonitors"
+        )
+        return loadCustomResourceWrapper(resource, context)
+    }
+
     override fun loadExecution(resource: String): KubernetesResource {
         val context = K8sContextFactory().create(
             api = "v1",
diff --git a/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/resourceLoader/K8sResourceLoader.kt b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/resourceLoader/K8sResourceLoader.kt
index c123ab2958132cb43ad188136f738b561e91310b..1487b64bf4f7fbcc735539a429be9237d41205bc 100644
--- a/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/resourceLoader/K8sResourceLoader.kt
+++ b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/k8s/resourceLoader/K8sResourceLoader.kt
@@ -11,5 +11,6 @@ interface K8sResourceLoader {
     fun loadBenchmark(resource: String): KubernetesResource
     fun loadConfigmap(resource: String): KubernetesResource
     fun loadServiceMonitor(resource: String): KubernetesResource
+    fun loadPodMonitor(resource: String): KubernetesResource
     fun loadCustomResourceWrapper(resource: String, context: CustomResourceDefinitionContext): KubernetesResource
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/MatchLabelPatcher.kt b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/MatchLabelPatcher.kt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..30ff73b5da3b551119ad085adbc982180e4fc066
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/MatchLabelPatcher.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+package theodolite.patcher
+
+import io.fabric8.kubernetes.api.model.KubernetesResource
+import io.fabric8.kubernetes.api.model.apps.Deployment
+import io.fabric8.kubernetes.api.model.apps.StatefulSet
+
+/**
+ * This patcher is able to set the `spec.selector.matchLabels` for a `Deployment` or `StatefulSet` Kubernetes resource.
+ *
+ * @property k8sResource The Kubernetes manifests to patch
+ * @property variableName The matchLabel which should be set
+ */
+class MatchLabelPatcher(private val k8sResource: KubernetesResource, val variableName: String) :
+    AbstractPatcher(k8sResource) {
+
+    override fun <String> patch(labelValue: String) {
+        if (labelValue is kotlin.String) {
+            when (k8sResource) {
+                is Deployment -> {
+                    if (k8sResource.spec.selector.matchLabels == null) {
+                        k8sResource.spec.selector.matchLabels = mutableMapOf()
+                    }
+                    k8sResource.spec.selector.matchLabels[this.variableName] = labelValue
+                }
+                is StatefulSet -> {
+                    if (k8sResource.spec.selector.matchLabels == null) {
+                        k8sResource.spec.selector.matchLabels = mutableMapOf()
+                    }
+                    k8sResource.spec.selector.matchLabels[this.variableName] = labelValue
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/PatcherFactory.kt b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/PatcherFactory.kt
index 88b3e19e999a889cdcb8345ca7c90c37a6e6d275..e92de4dba7de298c9df76600f2c6785f5878103e 100644
--- a/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/PatcherFactory.kt
+++ b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/PatcherFactory.kt
@@ -79,6 +79,14 @@ class PatcherFactory {
                     k8sResource = resource,
                     variableName = patcherDefinition.properties["variableName"]!!
                 )
+                "MatchLabelPatcher" -> MatchLabelPatcher(
+                    k8sResource = resource,
+                    variableName = patcherDefinition.properties["variableName"]!!
+                )
+                "TemplateLabelPatcher" -> TemplateLabelPatcher(
+                    k8sResource = resource,
+                    variableName = patcherDefinition.properties["variableName"]!!
+                )
                 "ImagePatcher" -> ImagePatcher(
                     k8sResource = resource,
                     container = patcherDefinition.properties["container"]!!
diff --git a/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/TemplateLabelPatcher.kt b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/TemplateLabelPatcher.kt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a524e5c40f90ccf98dc95003cc33dcfceb6f8598
--- /dev/null
+++ b/theodolite/src/main/kotlin/theodolite/patcher/TemplateLabelPatcher.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+package theodolite.patcher
+
+import io.fabric8.kubernetes.api.model.KubernetesResource
+import io.fabric8.kubernetes.api.model.apps.Deployment
+import io.fabric8.kubernetes.api.model.apps.StatefulSet
+
+/**
+ * This patcher is able to set the field `spec.template.metadata.labels` for a `Deployment` or `StatefulSet` Kubernetes resource.
+ *
+ * @property k8sResource The Kubernetes manifests to patch
+ * @property variableName The label which should be set
+ */
+class TemplateLabelPatcher(private val k8sResource: KubernetesResource, val variableName: String) :
+    AbstractPatcher(k8sResource) {
+
+    override fun <String> patch(labelValue: String) {
+        if (labelValue is kotlin.String) {
+            when (k8sResource) {
+                is Deployment -> {
+                    if (k8sResource.spec.template.metadata.labels == null) {
+                        k8sResource.spec.template.metadata.labels = mutableMapOf()
+                    }
+                    k8sResource.spec.template.metadata.labels[this.variableName] = labelValue
+                }
+                is StatefulSet -> {
+                    if (k8sResource.spec.template.metadata.labels == null) {
+                        k8sResource.spec.template.metadata.labels = mutableMapOf()
+                    }
+                    k8sResource.spec.template.metadata.labels[this.variableName] = labelValue
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file