Dispersed Storage Network Data Slicing for Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional computer storage systems face issues with data integrity and security due to the failure of physical movement-based memory devices, such as disc drives, which can lead to data loss and unauthorized access, especially as the amount of data grows and maintenance demands increase.
Innovation Solution
A dispersed storage network (DSN) system that uses error coding dispersal storage to distribute data across multiple physically diverse locations, employing a distributed storage processing unit to encode data into slices, which are then stored across multiple DS units, ensuring data integrity and security through redundancy and error correction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If physical movement-based memory devices (disc drives) are used for data storage, then data can be stored and accessed, but data integrity and security deteriorate due to device failure and unauthorized access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides data into multiple slices and distributes them across multiple physically diverse storage locations. Each slice is stored in a separate DS unit, so that no single device holds the complete data set. This segmentation approach improves reliability by ensuring that failure of one device does not result in data loss, while avoiding the complexity of single-device redundancy solutions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a dispersed storage network as an intermediary layer between the user and physical storage devices. The DSN handles data encoding, slicing, distribution, and reconstruction, abstracting away the complexity of individual device management. This intermediary layer improves data integrity through error correction coding while managing the overall system complexity centrally.
2Reliability
If multiple redundant disc drives are used to protect against data loss, then data security improves, but maintenance demands and storage overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-healing capabilities through error correction coding. The system can automatically detect and correct errors in stored slices without human intervention. Additionally, if slices are lost or corrupted, the system can reconstruct them using the remaining slices and error correction codes, reducing maintenance demands while maintaining data security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the storage parameter from complete data copies to encoded data slices with redundancy distributed across multiple locations. By using error correction coding schemes, the system achieves data security with less overhead compared to traditional redundant copying methods, as the redundancy is embedded in the encoding rather than requiring separate full copies.
3Reliability
If data is distributed across multiple physically diverse locations, then data integrity improves through error correction, but device complexity increases due to the distributed architecture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal dispersed storage network that can store and retrieve various types of data across diverse physical locations using a common protocol and architecture. The DSN infrastructure provides multi-functional capabilities including error correction, data slicing, and reconstruction, which simplifies the complexity compared to implementing separate specialized storage systems for each function.
4Ease of operation
If conventional storage systems are used, then data access is straightforward, but unauthorized access and data loss risks increase with growing data amounts
Solution Approach 1:
By dividing data into slices distributed across multiple locations, the system inherently protects against unauthorized access - an attacker would need to compromise multiple physically diverse DS units to access complete data. This segmentation maintains ease of operation through the DSN interface while dramatically improving security posture.
Data Source
AI summary
A method begins with a computing device receiving a request to acquire digital content from a digital content provider and forwarding the request to a dispersed storage network (DSN) pre-paid module. The method continues with the DSN pre-paid module validating the request, generating a plurality of sets of at least a threshold number of digital content read requests, and sending the plurality of sets of the at least a threshold number of digital content read requests to the digital content provider via the computing device when the request to acquire the digital content is validated. The method continues with at least one of the DSN pre-paid module and the computing device receiving a plurality of sets of at least a decoded threshold number of encoded data slices and decoding the plurality of sets of the at least a decoded threshold number of encoded data slices to produce the digital content.