Check out the new USENIX Web site.

Home About USENIX Events Membership Publications Students
9th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems (HotOS IX) — Abstract

Towards a Semantic-Aware File Store

Zhichen Xu, Magnus Karlsson, Chunqiang Tang, and Christos Karamanolis, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

Abstract

Traditional hierarchical namespaces are not sufficient for representing and managing the rich semantics of today's storage systems. In this paper, we discuss the principles of semantic-aware file stores. We identify the requirements of applications and end-users and propose to use a generic data model to capture and represent file semantics. A distinct challenge that we face is to handle dynamic evolution of the data schemas. Further, we outline a framework of basic relations and tools for generating and using semantic metadata. The proposed data model and framework are aimed to be more generic and flexible than what is offered by existing semantic file systems. We envision a range of applications and tools that will exploit semantic information, ranging from personal storage systems with features for advanced searching and roaming access, to enterprise systems supporting distributed data location or archiving.
  • View the full text of this paper in HTML and PDF, or the talk slides in PDF.
    The Proceedings are published as a collective work, © 2003 by the USENIX Association. All Rights Reserved. Rights to individual papers remain with the author or the author's employer. Permission is granted for the noncommercial reproduction of the complete work for educational or research purposes. USENIX acknowledges all trademarks within this paper.

  • If you need the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it from Adobe's site.
To become a USENIX Member, please see our Membership Information.

?Need help? Use our Contacts page.

Last changed: 24 July 2003 aw
Technical Program
9th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems (HotOS IX) Home
USENIX home