Dynamic Replica Location Service Supporting Data Grid Systems

Data grid is a kind of wide-area, distributed storage system. It can provide huge storage capacity. There are millions of files in data grid, distributed on 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. It is one of the most important components of data grid. Grid users are dynamic and widely distributed. To provide good performance to all the users, we proposed a design of dynamic replica location service. New replica location service providers can be easily constructed at any time and any location. Users that are away from any of the existing replica location service providers are allowed to construct their own replica location service providers. In this way, good performance can always be achieved. Such design can also enhance the stability of the data grid system and simplify the recovery from replica location service failure.