Optimised Data Storage Caching with High Availability Data Delivery within a Distributed Storage Network

The current technologies and network architectures for the storage network support high quality multimedia data delivery for mobile or remote computing users in the distributed or wireless environments but at a high cost of ownership. As more and more network subscribers join existing distributed storage network the costs of maintaining the reliability and data delivery performance will grow significantly. The research proposal is focussed on a novel distributed storage architecture which addresses the concerns over scalability, reliability and speed. We aim to tackle these problems by introducing a combined strategy for the storage network to efficiently distribute data objects over the storage nodes through intelligent caching, eliminate the need for retransmission by properly controlling packet loss, and subsequently ensure reliable and speedy delivery of high-quality data to mobile computing users. In the new storage system proposed, storage nodes or multiple mirror sites store a sub-set of properly encoded packets of the files with a substantially large size. Upon the request of a file at an access node, the neighbouring nodes will contribute their sub-set of the packets towards the reconstruction of the file requested. This scheme saves storage space, distributes traffic loads across different links, and enables reliable data transfer from source nodes to the clients in parallel. It is intended that the performance gains achieved by using the new scheme will be examined against the costs and overheads involved for different types and scales of applications. The research will be carried out at Aston University and partnered by Xyratex, a technology and market leader in the OEM storage network industry.