Economy-based data replication broker

Data replication is one of the key components in data grid architecture as it enhances data access and reliability and minimises the cost of data transmission. In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the overheads of the replication mechanisms that drive the data management components of a data grid. We propose an approach that extends the resource broker with policies that factor in user quality of service as well as service costs when replicating and transferring data. A realistic model of the data grid was created to simulate and explore the performance of the proposed policy. The policy displayed an effective means of improving the performance of the grid network traffic and is indicated by the improvement of speed and cost of transfers by brokers.