17.op/DF.RHK.seshan.etal
.ls 2
.na
.LP
A High-Speed, High-Capacity Storage System for Real-Time Image
Delivery over Gigabit Networks

Srinivasan Seshan, Kimberly Keeton, and Bruce A. Mah

(Professors D. Ferrari and R. H. Katz)

Array Technologies, AT&T Bell Labs, 
Auspex, Control Data, 
The Corporation for National Research Initiatives, 
Digital Equipment, (DOE) DE-FD03-92ER25135, 
Emulex, Exabyte, Hewlett-Packard,
Hitachi, IBM, Int. Computer Sci. Institute,
MICRO, NCR, (NSF/ARPA) NCR-89-19038, 
Pacific Bell, Seagate, Sequent Computers, 
StorageTek, Sun Microsystems, 
Thinking Machines Corporation, and Xerox 

It has been predicted that the number of multimedia
applications, such as image browsing, scientific visualization, and
video playback, will grow rapidly over the next few years. The
feasibility of these applications is dependent on fast network
communication and fast network file servers. Many of these
applications will also require real-time performance guarantees from
both the file server and the network.

Members of the Tenet and RAID Groups of UC Berkeley, along
with researchers in the Imaging Technologies Group of Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory, are collaborating to provide an environment to
explore these issues. This work will capitalize on the groups'
combined resources and interest areas. Efforts are directed towards
providing a high-speed, high-capacity storage system, gigabit
networks, and protocols designed for real-time image delivery. These
facilities will support a high-speed, distributed scientific imaging
system.

The high-speed network will be based on HiPPI technology. The
Tenet Suite of real-time protocols [2] will be used to provide
performance guarantees across this network, through the use of
admission control, rate control, and scheduling. Among the unique
issues to consider is the fact that HiPPI is a circuit-switching
network, as opposed to typical computer data networks, which are
packet-switched. This aspect of HiPPI will require new solutions to
the problem of providing real-time communication.

Various computers and devices will be attached to the network,
such as a high-performance PsiTech HiPPI frame buffer, a MasPar MP-2,
and the RAID-II disk array prototype [2]. The architectures of these
systems (embedded processors and massively parallel computers) imply
new challenges for the design and implementation of the network and
protocols.

This testbed facility will allow experimentation with
applications under development by the Imaging Technologies Group.
These include user interfaces for workstation-based video, video
hardware interfaces, multiple data streams, local ATM interfaces,
video encoding, and real-time data.

[1]	D. Ferrari, A. Banerjea, and H. Zhang, Network Support for
Multimedia\(emA Discussion of the Tenet Approach, Int. Computer Sci. Institute Technical Report No. TR-92-072, October
1992.

[2]	E. K. Lee, P. M. Chen, J. H. Hartman, A. L. Drapeau, 
E. L. Miller, R. H. Katz, G. A. Gibson, D. A. Patterson, 
RAID-II: A Scalable
Storage Architecture for High-Bandwidth Network File Service, UC
Berkeley Computer Science Division, Report No. UCB/CSD 92/672, 
February 1992.