Distributed Data Storage and Access Systems

• US 20100011003A1
• Filed: 07/10/2008
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Blackwave Inc.
• Inventors: Gerovac, Branko J., Carver, David C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,099,402 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A distributed system for content storage and access includes a storage platform having at least a first storage component, and an access platform having one or multiple access components. Each access component is associated with at least one access service. The access service may be an administrative service for receiving a service request initiated by a first user, the service request being associated with a first item of content, and for identifying a characteristic of the service request, a content management service for determining, based at least in part on the characteristic of the service request, a specification of a data transfer operation to be executed in association with the first storage component, and a directory service for maintaining information associated with the first item of content.

Claims

1. A distributed system for content storage and access comprising:

a storage platform having at least a first storage component; and

an access platform having one or multiple access components, each access component associated with at least one of a plurality of access services including;

an administrative service for receiving a service request initiated by a first user, the service request being associated with a first item of content, and for identifying a characteristic of the service request;

a content management service for determining, based at least in part on the characteristic of the service request, a specification of a data transfer operation to be executed in association with the first storage component; and

a directory service for maintaining information associated with the first item of content.

2. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the specification of the data transfer operation includes an identifier of a data transfer operation type and a persistent fully-resolvable identifier for an element of the first storage component.

3. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the service request includes an upload request.

4. The distributed system of claim 3, wherein the content management service comprises:

an upload service for allocating resources of the first storage component to determine a partial resource allocation arrangement in response to the upload request, and further to commit a complete resource allocation arrangement according to the partial resource allocation arrangement;

wherein the specification of the data transfer operation includes a description of the complete resource allocation arrangement.

5. The distributed system of claim 4, wherein the upload request includes a first set of attributes that characterizes one or more operational objectives of a first item of content, and the upload service determines the complete resource allocation arrangement based at least in part on one or more of the first set of attributes.

6. The distributed system of claim 5, wherein the upload request further includes the first item of content, and the data transfer operation includes storing elements of the first item of content in respective elements of the allocated resources of the first storage component according to the complete resource allocation arrangement.

7. The distributed system of claim 6, wherein the directory service maintains a description of a result of storing elements of the first item of content in respective elements of the allocation resources of the first storage component.

8. The distributed system of claim 7, wherein the description of the result of storing elements of the first item of content enables locating the first item of content in the allocated resources of the first storage component with specificity for further access operations.

9. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the service request includes a download request.

10. The distributed system of claim 9, wherein the content management service comprises:

a download service for identifying, by interacting with the directory service, an existing resource allocation arrangement associated with the first item of content in response to the download request;

wherein the data transfer operation includes a download operation.

11. The distributed system of claim 10, wherein the directory service maintains a description of the existing resource allocation arrangement, including associations of elements of the first item of content with respective elements of the first storage component allocated to the first item.

12. The distributed system of claim 11, wherein the download service performs a set of inquires to determine whether a condition for initiating the download operation is satisfied.

13. The distributed system of claim 12, wherein the set of inquires include an assessment of one or more of the following:

an overall workload condition of the first storage component, a deviation in load across the respective elements of the first storage component associated with the element of the first item, availability of resources to be involved with the data transfer operation, and a present level of resource utilization by various operations in the distributes system associated with first item of content.

14. The distributed system of claim 13, wherein, upon satisfaction of the condition for initiating the data transfer operation, the download service determines the specification of the download operation, including a selected set of elements among the elements of the first storage component associated with the first item to be accessed for the download operation.

15. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the first storage component includes one or multiple storage devices selected from at least one of the following types:

disk drives, solid-state memories, and non-volatile memories.

16. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the service requests includes a plurality of attributes comprising one or more of the following:

name, data length, data type, and a set of attributes characterizing one or more operational objectives of a plurality of items of the content.

17. The distributed system of claim 16, wherein the one or more operational objectives includes one or more of the following:

popularity, integrity, resilience, accessibility, power consumption, geographical affinity and exclusion, and topological affinity and exclusion.

18. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of access services further comprises a system management service for coordinating operations performed by one or multiple of the plurality of access services in the distributed system.

19. The distributed system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of access service platforms, each having one or multiple access components, wherein at least one of the plurality of access services provided by the access components is distributed in multiple instances across one or multiple access service platforms.

20. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the directory service provides an interface to a persistent database that is used to store information associated with content being handled by the distributed system.

21. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the administrative service provides a secure means to receive a particular type of service request based on a verification of an identity of the first user.

22. The distributed system of claim 1, wherein the data transfer operation includes one or more of the following types:

upload, download, delete, and move.