A signature efficient solution for remote file comparison

In distributed systems files are replicated to enhance availability and reliability. The authors provide an algorithm based on coding theory to significantly reduce the number of signatures needed to precisely diagnose differing pages in remotely located file copies. The method needs only one message transmission. A unique feature of this method is the ability to precisely diagnose up to t differing pages with just 2t signatures, independent of the files size. The maximum number of pages in a file is determined only by the number of bits in a signature. If a signature has m bits, the proposed technique can precisely identify t(t<2^m-1 page differences in a file that has up to 2^m-1 pages