Dispersed Storage Virtualization Using Local and Remote Memory
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing distributed storage networks face challenges in efficiently storing and retrieving data across geographically dispersed storage units while maintaining data integrity and security, particularly in the presence of storage unit failures and unauthorized access.
Innovation Solution
A dispersed storage network (DSN) utilizing a managing unit for DS management, integrity processing unit for rebuilding corrupted data slices, and computing devices with dispersed storage error encoding and decoding capabilities, employing Cauchy Reed-Solomon encoding to distribute data across multiple storage units with secure and redundant storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is distributed across multiple geographically dispersed storage units, then data security and fault tolerance are improved, but system complexity and data retrieval efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data into multiple data slices that are distributed across different storage units. Each data slice is independently stored, allowing the system to tolerate failures of individual storage units while maintaining overall data integrity. This segmentation approach directly addresses the contradiction by improving reliability through distribution while managing complexity through standardized slice structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a coordinating entity that manages data slice distribution, tracking, and retrieval across storage units. This intermediary component abstracts the complexity of distributed storage management, allowing individual storage units to operate independently while maintaining system-wide data integrity through centralized coordination.
2Reliability
If data is distributed across multiple storage units, then fault tolerance against storage unit failures is improved, but data retrieval time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-distributing data slices across multiple storage units and maintaining metadata about slice locations. When data retrieval is needed, the system can quickly locate and retrieve the necessary slices without having to search the entire distributed network, significantly reducing retrieval time while maintaining fault tolerance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent retrieves only the necessary number of data slices required to reconstruct the original data, rather than retrieving all distributed slices. This partial action approach minimizes retrieval time while ensuring sufficient data is obtained to maintain fault tolerance and successfully reconstruct the original information.
3Reliability
If error correction encoding is applied to distributed data, then data security against corruption is improved, but processing overhead and storage efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies error correction encoding to segmented data slices rather than to the entire data set. This segmentation approach allows error correction to be applied efficiently at the slice level, improving data security against corruption while reducing processing overhead compared to encoding entire data sets. The standardized slice structure enables parallel processing of encoding operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for a storage network computing device includes receiving a request to store a data object and generating a plurality of write slice requests, where the plurality of write slice requests includes a set of encoded data slices to be stored in the storage network and at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices of the set of encoded data slices is required to recover a corresponding portion of a data object. The method continues by identifying a set of storage devices (from a plurality) for storage of the set of encoded data slices, where the plurality of storage devices includes one or more first memory devices local to the computing device and one or more second memory devices that are remote from the computing device. The method then continues, by storing the set of encoded data slices in the identified set of storage devices, generating a set of write slice responses relating to the set of encoded data slices and outputting the set of write slice responses.