Replication management in large networks

The replication of data objects in a large computer network is a difficult task which cannot be approached by simply employing the techniques used in small networks, because the high replication factors possible raise new issues which must be addressed. The paper presents a solution to the problem of managing replicas in a large scale environment. The solution is based on a multi-level quorum algorithm for maintaining the consistency of replicas, a probabilistic addressing mechanism for efficiently locating replicas in the system and an efficient scheme for handling dynamic changes in the number of replicas. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by presenting performance measurements in a simulated network.<>