Adaptive Mode-Switching for Write-amplification Reduction of SMR Disks

As storage capacity demands escalate, Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) disks have grown increasingly popular in the storage device market [1]. However, the overlapping tracks inherent to SMR disk drives cause write amplification during random writes, a phenomenon that degrades performance relative to traditional Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) disk drives [2]. While Skylight has offered a solution to this issue [7], we present a novel approach in MSMR, a mode-switching scheme for SMR disks. MSMR optimizes storage space by intelligently allocating data to either PMR or SMR based on predicted update frequency. This adaptive strategy enables disks to meet storage capacity needs and performance efficiency objectives. Upon evaluation, MSMR has exhibited a significant reduction in write amplification, averagely lowering total writes by 99.39% compared to Native SMR. Thus, MSMR presents an efficient solution for boosting performance while minimizing write amplification.