The architecture and performance evaluation of iSCSI-based United Storage Network merging NAS and SAN

Author： Fu Xianglin Xie Changsheng Liu Ruifang Pan Shenggang

ISSN： 0952-8091

Source： International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, Vol.19, Iss.2, 2003-09, pp. : 84-92

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Abstract

With the ever increasing amount of data in network, the traditional storage architecture is challenged greatly, more and more people are beginning to pay attention to network storage. Currently, the main technologies of network storage are Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Network (SAN).They are different, but they are mutually complementary and used in different occasions, it is possible that both NAS and SAN are needed in the same company. To reduce the total of cost (TOC), and simple to implement and so on, people hope to merge the two technologies. Additionally, the main internetworking technology of SAN is Fibre Channel, but its poor interoperability, lack of trained personnel and high implementation costs, etc., remain major obstacles. To solve the above-mentioned issues, this paper introduces creatively, a novel storage architecture called United Storage Networks (USN), which uses the iSCSI to build the storage network, and merges the NAS and SAN, supplying the virtues and overcoming the drawbacks of the NAS and SAN, and providing both file I/O and block I/O service simultaneously.