Network-Aware Adaptation Techniques for Mobile File Systems

Wireless networks present unusual challenges for mobile file system clients, since they are characterised by unpredictable connectivity and widely-varying bandwidth. The traditional approach to adapting network communication to these conditions is to write back file updates asynchronously when bandw...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Atkin, B., Birman, K.P.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Bandwidth
Base stations
Computer networks
Delay
File servers
File systems
Interference
Mobile communication
Time sharing computer systems
Wireless networks
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:Wireless networks present unusual challenges for mobile file system clients, since they are characterised by unpredictable connectivity and widely-varying bandwidth. The traditional approach to adapting network communication to these conditions is to write back file updates asynchronously when bandwidth is low. Unfortunately, this can lead to underutilisation of bandwidth and inconsistencies between clients. We describe a new mobile file system, MAFS, that supports graceful degradation of file system performance as bandwidth is reduced, as well as rapid propagation of essential file updates. MAFS is able to achieve 10-20% improvements in execution time for real-life file system traces featuring read-write contention
DOI:10.1109/NCA.2006.42