R-Drive: Resilient Data Storage and Sharing for Mobile Edge Computing Systems

Mobile edge computing (MEC) systems (in which intensive computation and data storage tasks are performed locally, due to the absence of communication infrastructure for connectivity to the cloud) are currently being developed for disaster response applications and for tactical environments. MEC applications for these scenarios generate and process significant mission-critical and personal data that require resilient and secure storage and sharing. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of R-Drive, a resilient data storage and sharing framework for disaster response and tactical MEC applications. R-Drive employs erasure coding and data encryption, ensuring resilient and secure data storage against device failure. R-Drive adaptively chooses erasure coding parameters to ensure the highest data availability with a minimal storage cost. R-Drive's distributed directory service provides a resilient and secure namespace for files with rigorous access control management. R-Drive leverages opportunistic networking, allowing data storage and sharing in mobile and loosely connected edge computing environments. We implemented R-Drive on Android, and integrated it with existing MEC applications. Performance evaluation results show that R-Drive enables resilient and secure data storage and sharing.