Hash Table Region Lock Bypass for Storage Overhead
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Solution Overview
Problem
Balanced-tree based region locking schemes in data storage systems introduce high overhead, slowing down performance as storage devices become faster, despite providing good predictive average and maximum response times.
Innovation Solution
A hash-table based method is used to determine whether region lock overlap checks can be bypassed for I/O commands, allowing processing to proceed with minimal overhead by mapping commands to hash slots with counters for different command types and determining if overlap checks are necessary, thereby reducing unnecessary checks in balanced-tree based mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If balanced-tree based region locking scheme is used, then data integrity is ensured through predictive average and maximum response time, but system overhead increases and performance decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the region locking mechanism into two parts: a hash table for quick no-conflict detection and a balanced tree for handling actual conflicts. This segmentation allows most operations to use the lightweight hash table while maintaining the reliability guarantees of the balanced tree only when necessary.
Solution Approach 2:
The hash table acts as an intermediary layer between the I/O command and the balanced-tree based region locking mechanism. It pre-filters commands that do not require full overlap checks, reducing the workload on the balanced tree and improving overall system performance while maintaining data integrity.
2Reliability
If balanced-tree based region locking scheme is used, then command order is preserved and data mangling is prohibited, but overhead becomes prohibitive as storage devices become faster
Solution Approach 1:
The hash table performs preliminary filtering of I/O commands before they reach the balanced-tree based region locking mechanism. By pre-checking for conflicts using the hash table, the system avoids unnecessary overhead of full balanced tree operations for commands that don't require them, while still preserving command order and preventing data mangling when conflicts do occur.
3Productivity
If hash-table based bypass method is used, then region lock overhead is reduced and system performance increases, but complexity of the locking mechanism increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the hash table and balanced tree into a unified region locking mechanism where they work together complementarily. The hash table handles the common case of no-conflict detection, while the balanced tree handles conflict resolution, creating a combined system that leverages the strengths of both data structures without requiring complete redesign of the locking mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
A region lock (RL) method and system for ensuring data integrity is disclosed. The method and system in accordance with the present disclosure works in conjunction with a balanced-tree based RL scheme. By eliminating steps and checks that in most cases are unnecessary, the relatively high overhead associated with the balanced-tree based RL scheme may be reduced. For instance, the solution in accordance with the present disclosure may utilize a hash table to determine whether RL overlap checks may be bypassed for certain I/O commands. Since the new solution requires very little processing, therefore by reducing unnecessary RL overlap checks, RL overhead may be dramatically reduced and may lead to significant increases in overall system performance.