主從式架構下的多重客戶端檔案傳輸與同步機制

Abstract

在這個人電子產品數量持續擴增的數位年代，可靠的資料儲存與備份技術越來越重要。在過去，我們依賴硬體的方式來解決備份問題（例如磁碟鏡像），與使用傳輸線來傳遞手持裝置的資料，亦或是使用中介儲存媒體。然而在近年，網路與無線的解決方式是比較首選的（如基於雲端儲存的架構）。但是一般使用者有需要將全部要備份的資料，全部都存到並同步到所有的指定裝置上嗎？然而面對數百萬的使用者與數百吉位元組的資料，伺服器會發生什麼事呢？為了強調這問題，一個叫syx的系統被提了出來。他的主要優點在於在同一網路下，將大部份的計算、儲存與網路流量分散到客戶端。使用者可自行選擇任何目標裝置上，需要存的檔案或資料夾。這樣的架構在舊有的伺服器在小型的網路中的解決方案中，有明顯的改善。同時在直接傳輸整個資料夾或檔案時，保有較小的消耗。

In the digital era, with the expanding quantity of personal electronic devices, grows the importance of reliable data storage and distribution. In the past, we could rely on hardware solutions for backup, such as disk mirroring, and operated with data on handheld devices through wired transfers over cable, or by intermediate storage. These days, on the other hand, network and wireless solutions are preferred, e.g. cloud storage-based architectures. But does average user really need uploading to a reliable server for all the data to be transferred or synchronized among target devices? And what happens to the server which has to deal with hundreds of gigabytes of files from millions of users? To address these issues, a new system called syx is introduced. Its main advantages are possibility of local file distribution within the same network which doesn’t require internet connection. Also, it offloads most of the computational, storage and networking load to clients. Moreover, it allows flexibility in terms of file distribution, when it is decided for each client or device whether to get the specific file or folder onto it. Such architecture shows significant improvement over the traditional server solutions in case of small networks, while having only small overhead compared to direct file or folder transfer.