Data Reservoir: Utilization of Multi-Gigabit Backbone Network for Data-Intensive Research

Abstract

We propose data sharing facility for data intensive scientific research, "Data Reservoir"; which is optimized to transfer huge amount of data files between distant places fully Utilizing multi-gigabit backbone network. In addition, "Data Reservoir" can be used as an ordinary UNIX server in local network without any modification of server softwares. We use low-level protocol and hierarchical striping to realize (1) separation of bulk data transfer and local accesses by cashing, (2) file-system transparency, I.e. interoperable whatever in higher layer than disk driver, including file system. (3) scalability for network and storage. This paper shows our design, implementation using iSCSI protocol [1] and their performances for both 1Gbps model in the real network and 10Gbps model in our laboratory.