Data Transport Network

Features

Publish and subscribe
Data files are posted as attachments in messages to a local news server. This mechanism provides a uniform means for instruments to post data (publish) and for client programs to access them (subscribe). Multiple clients can simulatneously access the same data files.
Multiple data feeds
The system can easily scale to handle hundreds of different data sources. Separate news groups are used to hold the messages for each source of data.
Store and forward
The messages held in the news groups are transferred at periodic intervals with other news servers that you have set up. If the network connection to these server is down, the messages remained queued up and will be sent once the link is up. Messages remain in the system for a few weeks, after which they are automatically removed.
Distribution
The same store and forward mechanism used to mitigate network outages can be applied to distribute data files other sites. By setting up a local news server, you can subscribe to specific news groups and automatically receive data files as they are delivered from the remote sites.
Computation
Client programs can easily access the data files stored in the news group messages. You can write programs that subscribe to data feeds and are automatically called when new messages arrive. These programs can do anything with data. Common applications include status monitoring, post-processing and data archiving.