Meeting Data Sharing Needs of Heterogeneous Distributed Users

To my parents, wife, and daughter for their love and support. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I want to express my special thanks to my advisor, Prof. Mustaque Ahamad, for his continuous guidance, encouragement and support through so many years. He provided me with great flexibility on my research topic and carefully guided me with dedication and patience. His vision, wisdom, and knowledge have greatly impacted my understanding of the distributed computing field. He also gave me invaluable advice on many issues outside research topics, which I will forever cherish. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee members, Prof. research has deeply impacted me. Without the help of people acknowledged here, I could not imagine finishing up the degree. I am also thankful for being a member of the College of Computing family, where I received inspiration, encouragement and help from many faculty members outside my com-iv Many CoC friends have helped me in various ways over the years: Michael Coving-of them have already left Georgia Tech and I wish them the best of luck in their new endeavours. have made my life ourside research interesting and fun. I will cherish their frienship forever. Special thanks to my parents, Huaichen Zhan and Shuxiang Shen. They always have faith in me, which gives me the ultimate strength to go through this long journey. And to my little brother, Zhiwei Zhan, who can always cheer me up by his courage, unique sense of humor and optimism. Finally and most importantly, I have to thank my wife, Weiyun Huang. We met each other 14 years ago. Since then, we have become classmates, best friends, partners, husband and wife, and recently parents along the way. I cannot express how much I am thankful for her love, support, patience and understanding over so many years. Without her, my life will be totally different. And my special thanks to our little angel, Chloe Junyi Zhan, who has brought incredible joy to us ever since she was born. Her smile brightens even the darkest time.