personal devices
INTRODUCTION
Personal electronic devices that include a large
amount of storage are increasingly common. Al-
ready, many households use multiple mobile
phones, digital cameras, MP3 players and gam-
ing devices, in addition to desktop and notebook
computers. Today, users must individually manage
these devices to ensure the durability and availability
of the data they store.
Ensuring that data is durable, or regularly
backed up, is an onerous task even for a single home
computer. As the number of devices increases, it is
difficult for the user to ensure that no data is lost
in the event of a loss or failure of any one device.
Even with the help of device-specific maintenance
software, the user must keep track of all devices
that need to be backed up and perform the appro-
priate actions on a regular basis. Anecdotal evi-
dence suggests that many users fail to ensure the
durability of their data [5, 6]. Thus, users face the
risk of data loss as they are increasingly dependent
on digital information.
Making sure that data is available on the de-
vices where it is needed is equally difficult. A user
must regularly connect and synchronize devices to
ensure, for instance, that changes to her address
book are propagated to all communications devices
and additions to her music library eventually is
present on all devices capable of playing music.
Currently, keeping devices synchronized is an in-
convenient and error-prone task.
In this paper, we sketch the design of PodBase,
a system that automatically manages the data and
storage across a household’s personal devices and
frees users from the responsibility of manual data
management. Data is automatically replicated to
ensure both durability of data and availability of
the latest data on relevant devices. The system op-
erates transparently and takes advantage of avail-
able storage space and incidental connectivity that
occurs among the devices.
Once a household’s devices are introduced to
PodBase, metadata is gossiped whenever devices
are connected via a network, Bluetooth or USB.
amount of storage are increasingly common. Al-
ready, many households use multiple mobile
phones, digital cameras, MP3 players and gam-
ing devices, in addition to desktop and notebook
computers. Today, users must individually manage
these devices to ensure the durability and availability
of the data they store.
Ensuring that data is durable, or regularly
backed up, is an onerous task even for a single home
computer. As the number of devices increases, it is
difficult for the user to ensure that no data is lost
in the event of a loss or failure of any one device.
Even with the help of device-specific maintenance
software, the user must keep track of all devices
that need to be backed up and perform the appro-
priate actions on a regular basis. Anecdotal evi-
dence suggests that many users fail to ensure the
durability of their data [5, 6]. Thus, users face the
risk of data loss as they are increasingly dependent
on digital information.
Making sure that data is available on the de-
vices where it is needed is equally difficult. A user
must regularly connect and synchronize devices to
ensure, for instance, that changes to her address
book are propagated to all communications devices
and additions to her music library eventually is
present on all devices capable of playing music.
Currently, keeping devices synchronized is an in-
convenient and error-prone task.
In this paper, we sketch the design of PodBase,
a system that automatically manages the data and
storage across a household’s personal devices and
frees users from the responsibility of manual data
management. Data is automatically replicated to
ensure both durability of data and availability of
the latest data on relevant devices. The system op-
erates transparently and takes advantage of avail-
able storage space and incidental connectivity that
occurs among the devices.
Once a household’s devices are introduced to
PodBase, metadata is gossiped whenever devices
are connected via a network, Bluetooth or USB.
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