Context-Based Storage Management for Wearable and Portable Devices

In our information-rich world, managing the data we collect is becoming a significant bottleneck for users. This issue has triggered considerable research in so-called semantic file systems, relying on the attachment of meta-data to files. Such data is useful for dynamically arranging files in virtual directories, according to the user’s request or task at hand. However, current research typically concerns the desktop and little work has been done taking into account mobile devices, which in addition to being generators of data themselves are now also capable of carrying significant amounts of information. In this paper we discuss how context information can be exploited to attach semantics to files residing on portable devices, and we show how such information can be used by the storage system itself to enhance data management while on the move. We also describe a storage framework which integrates smoothly with semantic file systems by facilitating automatic annotation of files generated by portables, as well as by exploiting this information to better integrate with infrastructure data stores.