Academic Storage Cluster

TL;DR

This paper evaluates a private IPFS cluster for academic data storage, demonstrating its potential to improve data availability and performance in university environments through containerized deployment.

Contribution

It presents an experimental setup of a Docker-based IPFS cluster tailored for academic data, analyzing performance, storage, and network requirements.

Findings

A bandwidth of at least 100 kbit/s is necessary for IPFS operation.

1000 kbit/s bandwidth is recommended for smooth functioning.

CPU power and internet delay do not significantly impact IPFS cluster performance.

Abstract

Decentralized storage is still rarely used in an academic and educational environment, although it offers better availability than conventional systems. It still happens that data is not available at a certain time due to heavy load or maintenance on university servers. A decentralized solution can help keep the data available and distribute the load among several peers. In our experiment, we created a cluster of containers in Docker to evaluate a private IPFS cluster for an academic data store focusing on availability, GET/PUT performance, and storage needs. As sample data, we used PDF files to analyze the data transport in our peer-to-peer network with Wireshark. We found that a bandwidth of at least 100 kbit/s is required for IPFS to function but recommend at least 1000 kbit/s for smooth operation. Also, the hard disk and memory size should be adapted to the data. Other limiting factors such as CPU power and delay in the internet connection did not affect the operation of the IPFS cluster.