Performance model for waiting times in cloud file synchronization services

Over the last few years, the importance of cloud services for file synchronization has been increasing. With the release of network enabled cameras like Google Glass the trend of synchronizing new photos with the cloud has emerged as an important new use case for mobile networks. Multiple stakeholder are interested in optimizing this synchronization process according to different orthogonal metrics. The end user is interested in a fast synchronization of images as well as a low energy consumption of the client used for upload to the network. The network operator requires a low number of network connections per synchronization of a batch of images in order to reduce the signalling load of the mobile network. This paper answers the question if the goals of the stakeholders can be achieved by selecting an appropriate synchronization scheduling mechanism. Therefore, we first present a model for the waiting time of cloud file synchronization services. Second, we perform measurements on the popular Dropbox service to obtain parameters required in the model. Finally, we perform a parameter study over the considered mechanisms and parameters, suggest a preferable algorithm and identify trade-offs favorable for all stakeholders.