Data Transport Network
A SYSTEM FOR DATA RETRIEVAL FROM REMOTE FIELD SITES
The Data Transport Network is a software project designed to automate the transfer of data collected by scientific instruments located at remote field stations with poor network connectivity. The system employs a store-and-forward architecture based on sending data files as attachments to Usenet messages. This scheme not only isolates the instruments from network outages, but provides a unified mechanism for accessing the data.
Potential uses include:
- Data transfer
- System monitoring
- Automated processing
- Email alerts
- Instrument coordination
- more...
As the system scales to handle a number of different instruments, the collection of programs running to collect and process data grows as well. To manage this complexity, the programs are grouped together in a hierarchical fashion and controlled through a central server process via a well-defined XML-RPC interface. A set of Python classes distributed with the system provide an easy means to integrate new programs and features.
The Data Transport Network is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants ATM-0113422, ATM-9873025 and ATM-9813556. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).