A new popularity-based data replication strategy in cloud systems

Data-intensive cloud computing systems are growing year by year due to the increasing volume of data. In this context, data replication technique is frequently used to ensure a Quality of service, e.g., performance. However, most of the existing data replication strategies just reproduce the same number of replicas on some nodes, which is certainly not enough for more accurate results. To solve these problems, we propose a new data Replication and Placement strategy based on popularity of User Requests Group (RPURG). It aims to reduce the tenant response time and maximize benefit for the cloud provider while satisfying the Service Level Agreement (SLA). We demonstrate the validity of our strategy in a performance evaluation study. The result of experimentation shown robustness of RPURG.

A Robust Distributed Clustering of Large Data Sets on a Grid of Commodity Machines

Distributed clustering algorithms have proven to be effective in dramatically reducing execution time. However, distributed environments are characterized by a high rate of failure. Nodes can easily become unreachable. Furthermore, it is not guaranteed that messages are delivered to their destination. As a result, fault tolerance mechanisms are of paramount importance to achieve resiliency and guarantee continuous progress. In this paper, a fault-tolerant distributed k-means algorithm is proposed on a grid of commodity machines. Machines in such an environment are connected in a peer-to-peer fashion and managed by a gossip protocol with the actor model used as the concurrency model. The fact that no synchronization is needed makes it a good fit for parallel processing. Using the passive replication technique for the leader node and the active replication technique for the workers, the system exhibited robustness against failures. The results showed that the distributed k-means algorithm with no fault-tolerant mechanisms achieved up to a 34% improvement over the Hadoop-based k-means algorithm, while the robust one achieved up to a 12% improvement. The experiments also showed that the overhead, using such techniques, was negligible. Moreover, the results indicated that losing up to 10% of the messages had no real impact on the overall performance.

Erasure-Coding-Based Storage and Recovery for Distributed Exascale Storage Systems

Various techniques have been used in distributed file systems for data availability and stability. Typically, a method for storing data in a replication technique-based distributed file system is used, but due to the problem of space efficiency, an erasure-coding (EC) technique has been utilized more recently. The EC technique improves the space efficiency problem more than the replication technique does. However, the EC technique has various performance degradation factors, such as encoding and decoding and input and output (I/O) degradation. Thus, this study proposes a buffering and combining technique in which various I/O requests that occurred during encoding in an EC-based distributed file system are combined into one and processed. In addition, it proposes four recovery measures (disk input/output load distribution, random block layout, multi-thread-based parallel recovery, and matrix recycle technique) to distribute the disk input/output loads generated during decoding.

Open-Cellular Alumina Foams with Hierarchical Strut Porosity by Ice Templating: A Thickening Agent Study

Alumina replica foams were manufactured by the Schwartzwalder sponge replication technique and were provided with an additional strut porosity by a freeze-drying/ice-templating step prior to thermal processing. A variety of thickeners in combination with different alumina solid loads in the dispersion used for polyurethane foam template coating were studied. An additional strut porosity as generated by freeze-drying was found to be in the order of ~20%, and the spacings between the strut pores generated by ice-templating were in the range between 20 µm and 32 µm. In spite of the lamellar strut pore structure and a total porosity exceeding 90%, the compressive strength was found to be up to 1.3 MPa. Combining the replica process with freeze-drying proves to be a suitable method to enhance foams with respect to their surface area accessible for active coatings while preserving the advantageous flow properties of the cellular structure. A two-to-threefold object surface-to-object volume ratio of 55 to 77 mm−1 was achieved for samples with 30 vol% solid load compared to 26 mm−1 for non-freeze-dried samples. The freeze-drying technique allows the control of the proportion and properties of the introduced pores in an uncomplicated and predictable way by adjusting the process parameters. Nevertheless, the present article demonstrates that a suitable thickener in the dispersion used for the Schwartzwalder process is inevitable to obtain ceramic foams with sufficient mechanical strength due to the necessarily increased water content of the ceramic dispersion used for foam manufacturing.

SEM analysis of PA38-T6 aluminum alloy thin-walled tubular specimen fatigue fracture, and comparison to surface replication results

The paper presents results of SEM analysis of fatigue fracture surface of thin-walled tubular specimen manufactured from PA38-T6 aluminum alloy. In the previous research specimens were subjected to multiaxial loadings. They were axial, torsional, in-phase, 90º out-of-phase and asynchronous loadings. During the fatigue experiments, the process of initiation and development of cracks was tracked using the surface replication technique, using cellulose acetate thin foils. In the present work, SEM observations of fatigue fracture surface were conducted and compared to previously obtained data. It was confirmed, that the dominating mechanism of fatigue crack formation was the coalescence of small crack, regardless of loading type and level.