Segank: A distributed mobile storage system

Abstract

This paper presents a distributed mobile storage system designed for storage elements connected by a network of non-uniform quality. Flexible data placement is crucial, and it leads to challenges for locating data and keeping it consistent. Our system employs a location- and topology-sensitive multicast-like solution for locating data, lazy peer-to-peer propagation of invalidation information for ensuring consistency, and a distributed snapshot mechanism for supporting sharing. The combination of these mechanisms allows a user to make the most of what a non-uniform network has to offer in terms of gaining fast access to fresh data, without incurring the foreground penalty of keeping distributed elements on a weak network consistent.