A Reliable Storage Management Layer for a Distributed Information Retrieval System by Philip Tilker

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. I authorize the University of Waterloo to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I authorize the University of Waterloo to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. ii The University of Waterloo requires the signatures of all persons using or photocopying this thesis. Please sign below, and give address and date. iii Abstract iv Acknowledgements v Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.