Coordinating Data Slice Arrival in Dispersed Storage Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional RAID systems face issues with effectiveness, efficiency, and security, particularly as the number of disks increases, leading to higher maintenance costs and risks of data loss due to disk failures and unauthorized access, especially in distributed environments where data is copied across multiple locations.
Innovation Solution
A dispersed storage network (DSN) coordinates the arrival times of data write requests across multiple storage units using dispersed storage error encoding and decoding, ensuring data integrity and security by generating sets of encoded data slices and determining a transmission schedule for simultaneous arrival, thereby reducing the risk of data loss and unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is copied across multiple RAID devices to reduce data loss risk, then reliability improves, but security deteriorates due to increased unauthorized access risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data into multiple encoded slices distributed across different storage units. Instead of storing complete redundant copies, the data is divided and encoded such that a threshold number of slices are needed for reconstruction, providing both reliability through distribution and security through fragmentation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of data representation from complete copies to encoded slices with specific reconstruction thresholds. This transformation allows the system to achieve reliability through error correction encoding while simultaneously improving security by requiring multiple slices and authorization keys for data reconstruction.
2Quantity of substance
If more disks are added to RAID array to increase storage capacity, then quantity of storage improves, but reliability deteriorates due to higher disk failure probability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary error correction encoding to data before storage, creating redundant information in advance. This allows the system to tolerate disk failures without compromising data integrity, as the encoded slices contain built-in error correction capability that recovers original data even when some slices are lost or corrupted.
3Productivity
If data write requests are sent to multiple storage units simultaneously, then productivity improves, but reliability deteriorates due to timing conflicts and data loss risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic transmission scheduling that adapts to network conditions and storage unit status. The system determines optimal transmission times for each slice group, coordinating arrivals at storage units to minimize conflicts while maintaining high throughput, thus achieving both productivity and reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods for use in a dispersed storage network (DSN) to coordinate data slice arrival times. In various examples, a DSN computing device receives a store data request, the store data request including a data object. A set of storage units associated with the store data request is identified, and the data object is dispersed storage error encoded to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices. One or more sets of write slice requests that include one or more sets of encoded data slices are also generated for reception by storage units of the set of storage units. For each set of write slice requests, a transmission schedule is determined for each write slice request such that the set of write slice requests arrives at corresponding storage units at substantially the same time frame. Each of the write slice requests is then transmitted in accordance with the transmission schedule.