An Effective Replica Location Algorithm Based on Routing-Forward in Data Grid

Data Grid is a kind of wide-area, distributed storage system, which can provide huge storage capacity. There are millions of files in data grid, distributed in hundreds of geographically dispersed storage resources. Given a unique logical identifier for desired content, replica location service can be used to determine the physical locations of one or more copies of this content. This paper analyzes the existing replica location methods, points out their insufficiency and then proposes an effective replica location algorithm based on Routing-Forward mechanism. Meanwhile, we analyze the time cost and space cost of all these algorithms, the result shows that the Routing-Forward algorithm costs lest time and tolerable space. As a conclusion, Routing-Forward algorithm is an effective replica location algorithm in Data Grid.