COOPERATIVE STORAGE SYSTEM UTILIZING DISPERSED STORAGE

1 . A method for use in a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprising:

receiving, from a user device, a plurality of data portions to be stored in a plurality of dispersed storage network (DSN) memories managed by a plurality of dispersed storage (DS) processing units;

determining portion affiliation information indicating particular DS processing units of the plurality of DS processing units to be used to process particular data portions of the plurality of data portions; and

encoding each of the particular data portions into at least a write threshold number of encoded slices and storing the encoded data slices in the plurality of DSN memories in accordance with the portion affiliation information.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

storing the portion affiliation information in a portion affiliation data structure maintained by a dispersed storage (DS) managing unit.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

receiving the portion affiliation information at the DS managing unit for storage therein.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a query from the user device, the query including a portion affiliation information assignment request.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the user device determines the portion affiliation information in accordance with at least one of a predetermination, a command, a message, a lookup, or information received in response to a query of a DS managing unit.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

wherein the DS processing unit determines a cooperative storage method, wherein the cooperative storage method include guidance on how to process data portions prior to storing the data portions.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

utilizing different error coding dispersal storage function parameters for different ones of the particular DSN memories.

8 . A dispersed storage (DS) unit for use in a dispersed storage network (DSN), the DS unit comprising:

an interface configured to receive a plurality of data portions to be stored in a plurality of dispersed storage network (DSN) memories managed by a plurality of dispersed storage (DS) processing units;

a processor configured to:

determine portion affiliation information indicating particular DS processing units of the plurality of DS processing units to associate with particular data portions of the plurality of data portions; and

send the particular data portions to the particular processing units in accordance with the portion affiliation information.

9 . The DS unit of claim 8 , wherein the particular DS processing units determine a cooperative storage method, wherein the cooperative storage method includes guidance on how to process data portions prior to storing the data portions.

10 . The DS unit of claim 9 , wherein the particular DS processing units encode each of the particular data portions into at least a write threshold number of encoded slices and storing the encoded data slices in the plurality of DSN memories.

11 . The DS unit of claim 10 , wherein at least one DS processing unit of the particular DS processing units encodes the encoded slices different from at least one other DS processing unit the particular DS processing units.

12 . The DS unit of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

send the portion affiliation information to a dispersed storage (DS) managing unit for storage therein.

13 . The DS unit of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine the portion affiliation information in accordance with at least one of a predetermination, a command, a message, a lookup, or information received in response to a query of a DS managing unit.

14 . The DS unit of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

transmit a query to the DS managing unit, the query including a portion affiliation information assignment request.

15 . A method for use in retrieving data stored in a dispersed storage network (DSN) including a plurality of dispersed storage (DS) processing units and a plurality of dispersed storage network (DSN) memories, the method comprising:

retrieving portion affiliation information from a dispersed storage (DS) managing unit, wherein the portion affiliation information associates particular DS processing units of the plurality of DS processing units with particular data portions of a full data set stored in the plurality of DSN memories;

determining, based on the portion affiliation information, the particular DS processing units to be used to retrieve the particular data portions from the plurality of DSN memories; and

requesting the particular data portions from the particular DS processing units.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein retrieving the portion affiliation information includes obtaining portion affiliation information from a portion affiliation table.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the portion affiliation table includes associations between one or more entries of a DS processing unit identifiers field and a corresponding one or more entries of a portion identifier field.

18 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

receiving the particular data portions from the particular DS processing units after the particular DS processing units have reconstructed the particular data portions from at least a read threshold number of encrypted data slices stored in the plurality of DSN memories.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein different particular DS processing units utilize different error coding dispersal storage function parameters to decrypt encrypted data slices stored in different DSN memories of the plurality of DSN memories.

20 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

aggregating storage of the particular data portions received from the particular DS processing units to produce the full data set.