Implementation of a Peer-to-Peer Distributed Disk Storage Application within Wireless Networks

21-November-2002 (last updated 01-April-2004)

Overview

Distributed Server (DS) is a P2P application that allows the creation of a virtual network disk between cooperating computers. DS relies on a P2P meta-network known as serverless (P2P) layer. These two projects have been developed for the conventional 10/100 Mbps networks.  We would extend these projects to enable wireless devices to participate in the serverless community; which at present is limited to the desktop computers. In such a scenario PDAs and other wireless devices may contribute to as well as access services from the serverless layer and the virtual network disk application. The set of wireless networking equipment and the analyser software, requested under this proposal, would provide us with a test bed for benchmarking the serverless layer and the virtual network disk application. It would also provide a different infrastructure (broadcast based) for service discovery and communication optimisation.

Outcomes and Milestones

It’s envisaged that four of the PCs in the lab would be equipped with 54Mbps PCI wireless cards and another four with the Bluetooth ones. An in-house access point would service the PC clients in the lab. An 802.11a Cardbus adapter would be available for a notebook connection. A wireless protocol analyser will be installed on one of the lab PCs; allowing packet decoding, VoIP features, and wireless features (including support for 54Mbps, 802.11a standard).

The prototype application and the network would be migrated to a high speed wireless LAN (802.11a) for a full two-way disk sharing access between the peers and then to a low-speed network (Bluetooth) for a one-way access between the mobile devices and the disk sharing community.

Cost Estimate

Hardware Cost

Hardware costs are carried by the SNC Cool Campus Wireless Lab.

Research Assistants

Samantha Senaratna, who is completing his PhD on the serverless (P2P) networks, for the conversion of serverless layer to the wireless networks.

Wei Ye, who has developed the prototype for the virtual network disk application, would be converting the application for use within the wireless networks.

Programmer

A part-time final year/honours student would be engaged to assist with the migration of the P2P applications to the wireless networks over a period of 12 months.

Results

A Wireless/P2P Network Research Lab has been setup with the equipment purchased under the grant and the equipment contributed by the
School. At present the lab is supporting minor thesis projects in the areas of Serverless Mobile IP, Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, and P2P Security, a Honours thesis, and several Masters of Networking projects.

The outcome of the related research in Severless Network Storage for CoolCampus resulted in a prototype application implemented for IPAQs by Wei Ye. Posters for this project can be viewed here: SNS-poster01.pdf and SNS-poster02.pdf. A paper on Distributed Network File Storage for a Serverless (P2P) Network was presented at IEEE International Conference on Networks (ICON), Sep. 28 - Oct. 1, 2003, Sydney, Australia.

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