Distributed File System for an Edge-Based Environment

TL;DR

This paper explores the design and implementation of a distributed file system tailored for highly mobile and partition-prone edge device environments, aiming to enable reliable storage and access similar to cloud systems.

Contribution

It proposes a system model and architecture for a DFS in edge environments considering mobility and network issues, serving as a reference for future development.

Findings

Designed a system model for edge device DFS considering mobility and partitioning

Developed an architecture that supports DFS capabilities in edge environments

Identified challenges and future directions for edge-based distributed file systems

Abstract

Recent developments in the industry of personal computing led to a greater number of the so-called edge devices. Such devices typically do not collaborate or foresee the possibility of collaboration to offer aggregated storage and computing capabilities. The concept of distributed file system (DFS) is not new to the field of distributed systems, in fact, it is widely used in dedicated infrastructures, for example, in cloud computing applications. In this work, we discuss reasonable assumptions for an environment composed of edge devices, the main design issues and implementation challenges of a DFS in the given environment and how they would impact this application. Thereafter we define a system model for an environment composed of edge devices while taking into consideration their high mobility and common cases of network partitioning. Next, we describe an architecture for a DFS that withstands the proposed system model while offering most capabilities that a DFS at a dedicated infrastructure would. We conclude that the development of a distributed file system is a very complex task and, given the broad assumptions of the system model, also hard to verify. Some important aspects of the development lie as future work, but we believe that the developed DFS can be used not only as a tool on it's own, but also as a reference for further development of distributed file systems and, specially, of systems for infrastructures composed of edge devices.