Erasure-Coded Data Fragmentation for Secure Distributed Storage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional network storage systems face challenges in securing data from theft and hacking, particularly in cloud storage, where data can be intercepted during transfer and storage, and encryption alone may not be sufficient to prevent data breaches.
Innovation Solution
A distributed network data storage system uses erasure codes to encode data blocks, generating encoded data blocks with parity data, which are then distributed across multiple network storage locations, ensuring that no single location stores the entire data block. This approach enhances security by dispersing data across multiple nodes, making it harder for hackers to access all the data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If data is stored in cloud storage systems, then data accessibility and convenience are improved, but data security and protection from theft are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides data into multiple separate data blocks and distributes them across different storage locations. Each block is further encoded with erasure codes and split into segments stored at different nodes. This segmentation ensures that no single node contains the complete data, preventing data theft even if some nodes are compromised, while maintaining data accessibility through distributed storage.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If encryption is used to protect data, then data security is improved, but data complexity and processing overhead are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms data from its original form into encoded representations using erasure codes, changing the parameter of data representation. This encoding converts data into a format that is inherently more secure and distributed, providing protection without requiring additional encryption layers, thus reducing system complexity while maintaining security.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If data is distributed across multiple storage locations, then data security is improved, but system complexity and management difficulty are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces encoding servers as intermediary components that manage the complex tasks of data segmentation, erasure code encoding, and distribution to storage nodes. These intermediaries handle the complexity of distributed storage management, allowing the actual storage nodes to remain simple while achieving enhanced security through distributed architecture.
4Reliability
If erasure codes are used to encode data blocks, then data security and redundancy are improved, but processing time and computational resources are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs erasure code encoding in advance during the data storage process, before data is needed. By preprocessing data into encoded segments and distributing them beforehand, the system ensures data integrity and security are established prior to retrieval, avoiding time-critical processing during data access operations.
Data Source
AI summary
Storing and accessing information in a distributed data storage system includes: using erasure code, encoding a data block of the information to generate an encoded data block comprising both parity data and the data block, wherein by using the erasure code the data block may be reconstituted from a subset of the encoded data block, the subset comprising less than all of the data block; distributing, for storage, portions of the subset across a plurality of network storage locations such that the subset is not stored in its entirety at any one of the plurality of network storage locations; retrieving the distributed portions from the plurality of network storage locations; reconstituting the subset from the distributed portions that are retrieved; and using the erasure code, reconstituting the data block from the reconstituted subset of the encoded data block.