Sumeet Sobti, Junwen Lai, Yilei Shao, Nitin Garg, Chi Zhang, Ming
Zhang, Fengzhou Zheng, Arvind Krishnamurthy and Randolph Wang.
Network-Embedded Programmable Storage and Its Applications.
Proc. 3rd IFIP-TC6 Networking Conference (NETWORKING 2004). May 2004.
We consider the utility of two key properties of network-embedded storage: programmability and network-awareness. We describe two extensive applications, whose performance and functionalities are significantly enhanced through innovative combination of the two properties. One is an incremental file-transfer system tailor-made for low-bandwidth conditions. The other is a ``customizable'' distributed file system that can assume very different personalities in different topological and workload environments. The applications show how both properties are necessary to exploit the full potential of network-embedded storage. We also discuss the requirements of a general infrastructure to support easy and effective access to network-embedded storage, and describe a prototype implementation of such an infrastructure.