pSync - A peer to peer sync tool for challenged networks

Seamless data synchronization among peer entities is a problem for any challenged network scenarios where in- frastructural supports for synchronization are not available or insufficient. Such a network follows a delay/disruption tolerant approach, in which connection or contact time among devices are intermittent and short-lived, agents may use devices of heterogeneous nature with different communication and pro- cessing powers, and the communication channel may have high loss rate that impacts the application layer file synchronization protocols. The bundle protocol specifications for delay tolerant networks only describe the semantics for data transmission between two distant devices, and do not specify how a peer-to- peer (P2P) file synchronization protocol can cater seamless data exchange among multiple heterogeneous communication devices. Here we propose a new P2P sync, called pSync , on the top of the bundle protocol which precisely takes care of prioritized file Sync with role based transfer applicable for challenged networks. Our testbed experiments conducted with information dropbox, ground and aerial data mule suggest that pSync is scalable and clearly outperforms BitTorrent Sync (now Resilio Sync) in delivering even 30% more priority packets in certain test cases.

Download JAR

Instructions

1. Create a working folder.

2. Add a subfolder named 'sync' which will contain all files that will be synced.

3. Run the jar:

   java -jar psync-pc-jar-with-dependencies.jar <PEER_ID> <ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_WORKING_FOLDER_WITH_TRAILING_SLASH> <priority_method (optional)> <restricted epidemic flag (optional)>
   

   Priority method:

   • 0: Random
   • 1: Based on Priority
   • 2: Based on Importance (default)
   • 3: KML based Chat priority

   Restricted epidemic flag:

   • true: restricted epidemic enabled (default)
   • false: restricted epidemic disabled

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

For any research work using this tool please cite the following:

1. On design and implementation of a scalable and reliable Sync system for delay tolerant challenged networks

@INPROCEEDINGS{7439949,
author={P. S. Paul and B. C. Ghosh and K. De and S. Saha and S. Nandi and S. Saha and I. Bhattacharya and S. Chakraborty},
booktitle={2016 8th International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS)},
title={On design and implementation of a scalable and reliable Sync system for delay tolerant challenged networks},
year={2016},
pages={1-8},
keywords={delay tolerant networks;peer-to-peer computing;protocols;synchronisation;telecommunication channels;application layer file synchronization protocols;bittorrent sync;bundle protocol specifications;communication channel;delay tolerant challenged networks;information dropbox;peer-to-peer file synchronization protocol;seamless data exchange;seamless data synchronization;Androids;Humanoid robots;Peer-to-peer computing;Portable computers;Ports (Computers);Protocols;Synchronization;DTN;challenged networks;peer-to-peer;sync},
doi={10.1109/COMSNETS.2016.7439949},
month={Jan},}

AUTHORS

1. Arka Prava Basu arkaprava94@gmail.com
2. Bishakh Chandra Ghosh ghoshbishakh@gmail.com

Developer Instructions

The project uses maven for managing dependencies.

Use java 1.7

To build jar use make package.

To make the distributable use:

make package
make dist