Distributed storage in wireless mesh networks Navy SBIR FY2012.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2012.1 Topic No.: N121-003 Topic Title: Distributed storage in wireless mesh networks Proposal No.: N121-003-0124 Firm: InfoBeyond Technology LLC Suite 220 10400 Linn Station Road Louisville, Kentucky 40223-3839 Contact: Bin Xie Phone: (502) 742-9770 Abstract: Simply encrypted data storage is unable to prevent data loss or compromise if the storage device is damaged or compromised by an adversary. Distributed data storage is the alternative that divides the original data into fragments and secretly stored them on distributed devices with certain redundancy. The original data can be fully recovered by a user from a subset of storage nodes and the adversary knows nothing from the partial information. The current distributed storage approaches are developed for the Internet and inapplicable to a mobile wireless mesh network. In this proposal, we develop Secure, Resilient, and Faulty-tolerant Distributed Storage (SRFDS) to meet the needs of distributed storage in the military mesh network. SRFDS optimizes the erasure coding parameters with the consideration of node communication capacity, number of storage nodes, and file size. The storage nodes are optimally selected from the storage capable nodes to improve the storage performance. The faulty-handling model ensures the success of storing a file. Furthermore, a novel keying algorithm is proposed for key generation and EAP (Extensive Authentication Protocol) is improved for user and device authentication. When a storage node is compromised, self-regeneration scheme regenerates the fragment to maintain the data completion. Benefits: Instead of Internet, SRFDS is designed for distributed storage in wireless networks where the storages as well as the users are mobile. Our market analysis shows that there are many applications such as military wireless networks and remotely operated systems, having the need of secure and resilient data storage in a mobile environment. SRFDS can be delivered as COTS/GOTS products for military mesh network and Navy would gain significant value from the commercialized dual-use SRFDS products. It enhances Navy data security and resiliency in a hostile environment and provides a means for mobile soldiers to conduct ubiquitous data storage. Moreover, Navy Ocean underwater robots and vehicles can take advantage of the SRFDS to protect the non-volatile storage of data in a collection of unmanned mobile devices. MC2S could be our initial transition of the SRFDS into practical Navy products. SRFDS products can also be used in the commercial networks for distributed data storage. In the remote operations, for example, SRFDS software is installed at the mobile devices to enhance the data storage capability without the intervention of human being. These networking devices include underwater PDA, underwater phones (e.g., Buddy phone), underwater cameras, underwater vehicles, dive computers, shipboard computer system, robots, wireless sensors, and sonar system/Sonde, Submersibles, Alvin, Clelia, Tiburon, etc. The private market size is much larger than that of the military applications. To facilitate the commercialization, we will closely work with Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, and L3-communications to transfer this technology into the military and commercial worlds. Return