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#REDIRECT [[Network block device]]
{{Orphan|date=November 2006}}
{{primarysources|date=April 2007}}
{{wikify|date=February 2012}}
A '''Distributed Network Block Device (DNBD)''' is a read-only and caching [[network block device]] and supports following main features:
* replication of [[server (computing)|server]]s for robustness
* multicast communication and [[web cache|caching]] of network traffic for [[scalability]]
These characteristics make it suitable especially for use in [[wireless networks]],
e.g. for [[diskless client]]s or to share multimedia files in such an environment.
The servers can export a file or block device equipped with an operating system,
movies, music, etc. Several clients can import the block device and access it
like a local [[hard disk]]. However, each block transfer over the network can be
cached by all clients: If several users on each client start to watch a movie
within a certain time interval, the movie data has to be transmitted only once
(depending on the cache size). The network is not burdened with unnecessary
traffic.
DNBD can be used together with [[cowloop]] [1] or [[unionfs]] [2] in order to get local
write [[semantics]], e.g. for diskless clients. Especially in wireless environments
with limited [[Bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]], caching can increase [[boot-up]] time enormously.
==External links==
* [https://sourceforge.net/projects/dnbd/ Sourceforge.net]
[[Category:Computer networking]]
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