Separation and optimization of encryption and erasure coding in decentralized storage systems

Abstract

Entering the cloud storage market requires a high upfront investment, thus it is dominated by a few players with existing capacity. Decentralized cloud storage solutions can disrupt the status quo by allowing businesses and individuals to sell their unused storage capacity, reducing the need for large upfront investments in service infrastructure. We show that network operators providing such service can significantly decrease the traffic volume carried on the transport network, which is essential when serving mobile users, while maintaining high data security by implementing our proposed solution, of leveraging controlled replication inside the core network. Upon data uploads encryption and erasure encoding are separated, with the latter moved inside the network, enabling the arbitrary replication of storable data pieces without straining the access network. We present simulation results, showing that the proposed method reduces traffic by 20% compared to the out-of-the-box solution. Moreover, we elaborate on optimal multi-proxy placements and even optimal storage node choosings in complex ISP networks, where deep data penetration is desired, by giving ILP optimization methods and results, achieving minimal overall network load and maximum data security.