The File Mover: an efficient data transfer system for Grid applications

In this paper we present the File Mover, a data transfer system designed to optimize the transfer of potentially very large files. The File Mover relies on an overlay network architecture, where a set of machines cooperate in the transfer by forwarding among them portions of the files being transferred. Data transfer times are minimized by choosing, for each transfer the set of relays that maximize the expected throughput. Preliminary experiments show that the File Mover is able to profitably exploit existing network paths not chosen by IP routing algorithms, thereby enhancing file transfer performance.