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At its 18th meeting held December 09, 2001 in
San Francisco, the IGS Governing Board recommended the formation
of a working group to focus on data center issues. This working
group will tackle many of the problems facing the IGS data
centers as well as develop new ideas to aid users both internal
and external to the IGS. The direction of the IGS has changed
since its start in 1992 and many new working groups, projects,
data sets, and products have been created and incorporated
into the service since that time. Therefore, this may be an
appropriate time to revisit the requirements of data centers
within the IGS. The IGS Data Center Working Group (DCWG) will
address issues relevant to effective operation of all IGS data
centers, operational, regional, and global. Some of these issues
include:
- effective data flow
- backup of the operational data flow
- security issues at data centers
- consistency of data holdings among data centers
- timely archive and dissemination of data as the IGS movesinto
a real-time mode for selected products
Some straightforward, initial activities, such as a review
of data center information at the IGS Central Bureau and the
creation of a working group exploder, can be undertaken soon
after the working group is officially established. One major,
initial task will be to assess the current level of service
offered by the IGS regional and global data centers. The best
way to ensure the data centers are performing as expected is
to ask the user community. A web-based survey will be developed
and made available to the user community to encourage feedback
on how the data centers are performing and where improvement
is required. Another initial activity for the group will be
to examine the current structure for data dissemination, identifying
data currently archived, the mechanisms for delivering and
archiving the data (from operational data center to global/regional
data center). This process will identify both strengths and
weaknesses in the current data flow. After the present topology
has been mapped, the group can then identify where improvements
can be made and redundant data flow paths can be recommended.
The group will also identify/clarify existing procedures for
communications between the various levels of data centers,
particularly in the area of replacement data sets.
A list of proposed near-term activities for the working group
is as follows:
- ensure data center information at IGS CB is current
- establish DCWG email exploder
- develop a user survey form and compile results
- develop a topology of the current IGS data flow
- develop data flow redundancy procedures at key data centers
- develop procedures for identifying and notification of
problem/replacement data sets
Activities that could be addressed over a longer period of
time include:
- study of web-based enhancements
- interface with real-time working group and assess requirements
- study seamless archive and how effort can be utilized
by and of benefit to the IGS data centers
The confirmed (C) and proposed (P) membership of this working
group is as follows:
- Carey Noll/ GSFC (C), Chair
- Gordan Adams/NOAA (C)
- Miranda Chin/NOAA (C)
- Ludwig Combrinck/HartRAO (C)
- Loic Daniel/IGN (C)
- Roman Galas/GFZ (C)
- Edouard Gaulue/IGN (C)
- Werner Gurtner/AIUB (C)
- Heinz Habrich/BKG (C)
- Angelyn Moore/JPL (C)
- Nacho Romero/ESA/ESOC (C)
- Michael Scharber/SIO (C)
- Mike Schmidt/NRCan (C)
- Grigory Steblov/RDAAC (P)
- Dave Stowers/JPL (C)
- Bob Twilley/AUSLIG (C)
- Ruth Neilan/JPL, ex-officio
- Robert Weber/TUVienna, ex-officio
February 25, 2005
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