Distributed Data Decoding and Decryption From Encoded Storage Slices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current data storage solutions, such as RAID systems, face challenges in providing effective and efficient data continuity, security, and adaptability to various storage standards, particularly due to the risks of multiple disk failures and unauthorized access when replicating data across multiple sites.
Innovation Solution
A dispersed data storage system that uses a combination of transposition ciphers, information dispersal algorithms, and encryption to distribute data across physically diverse locations, ensuring data integrity and security through error encoding and decoding, and providing a framework for secure data storage and retrieval.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is replicated across multiple storage sites, then data availability and continuity are improved, but security risks and vulnerability to unauthorized access increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data into multiple fragments using information dispersal algorithms and distributes these fragments across different storage locations. Each fragment alone is insufficient to reconstruct the original data, providing both availability (data can be retrieved from any sufficient number of fragments) and security (authorized access is required to reconstruct meaningful information).
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces encryption as an intermediary layer between the original data and its stored fragments. Encryption keys act as mediators that control access to the data fragments, ensuring that even if fragments are accessed without authorization, the original data cannot be reconstructed without the proper keys.
2Reliability
If redundant data storage is implemented, then data continuity is improved, but storage overhead and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a unified system that simultaneously provides data redundancy, security encryption, and distributed storage management through integrated algorithms. The information dispersal algorithm serves multiple functions: creating redundant fragments, distributing them across locations, and enabling reconstruction from any sufficient subset, thereby reducing overall system complexity despite the multifunctional requirements.
3Reliability
If multiple storage devices are used for redundancy, then data security against failures is improved, but the overhead of managing redundant data increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-healing capabilities through automated monitoring and reconstruction algorithms. When data fragments are lost or corrupted, the system automatically detects the failure and reconstructs the missing data using the remaining fragments and the information dispersal algorithm, without requiring manual intervention or complex management procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for execution by a processing module of a distributed storage includes transmitting a request to retrieve a set of encoded data slices (EDSs) to a plurality of storage nodes followed by receiving a threshold number of EDSs from one or more of the plurality of storage nodes, and decoding the EDSs to produce a transposed encrypted data segment. The method continues with the processing module partitioning the encrypted data segment into an encoded encryption key and encrypted data, performing a hash function on the encrypted data to produce a digest resultant and combining the digest resultant with the encoded encryption key to generate combined key data. The method then continues with decoding the combined key data to recover an encryption key and decrypting the encrypted data using the encryption key to recover a data segment.