115 documents were found.

Connecting Cameras to the Data Turbine - TR-2004-31 [PDF]
v1.0.1, 09-30-2004 Paul Hubbard
This report documents how to interface a digital camera, frame grabber or telepresence system into the Data Turbine, and thence NEESGrid. Also covered are uses of the live data, debugging tools, and interface methods.

NEESport User Guide - TR-2004-49 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-30-2004 Tomasz Haupt and Anand Kalyanasundaram
The objective of NEESport is to provide a computational simulation component for the NEESgrid. This is accomplished by providing a Grid Portal for the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees), a software framework for simulating the seismic response of structural and geotechnical systems.

NFMS API Reference Guide - TR-2004-39 [PDF]
v2.0, 09-29-2004 Jeff Gaynor, Joe Futrelle
This reference guide is for the NEESgrid File Management Service alias NFMS in the sequel. NFMS is a secure remote web-based archiving system. This means that you may access its files from anyplace on the web.

GettingStarted with OpenSees - TR-2004-21 [PDF]
09-28-2004 Silvia Mazzoni, Frank McKenna, Gregory L. Fenves
OpenSees is a software platform for research and application of simulation for structural and geotechnical systems. The OpenSees software framework uses object-oriented methodologies to maximize modularity and extensibility for implementing models for behavior, solution methods, and data processing and communication procedures.

Reference NEESgrid Data Model - TR-2004-40 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-28-2004 Jun Peng and Kincho H. Law
Reference data models have been developed for supporting the major activities involved in earthquake engineering experiments and simulations. The development of NEESgrid data models is based on the experience gained from the review of the state of practice in data representations, data modeling tools, relevant data models, and the suggestions/feedback from the NEESgrid team and the NEES community. Sample data sets have been utilized to demonstrate the features of the data models, along with scenarios for their use. Preliminary validation and usability tests have been performed on the developed reference data model.

Data Turbine: Overall Design - TR-2004-28 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-27-2004 Terry E. Weymouth and Charles Severance
This document is an introduction to the Data Turbine and its use in the NEESgrid. The intent is to cover the motivation, design and usage as applied to NEESgrid.

Electronic Notebook User Guide - TR-2004-18 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-27-2004 James Myers
The Electronic Laboratory Notebook is a dynamic Web-based version of the traditional paper laboratory notebook. Collaborators can share their notebooks and use them as a tool for coordinating projects and viewing and analyzing data across the Internet.

GSI-Enabled Data Turbine - TR-2004-34 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-27-2004 Pawel Plaszczak , Krzysztof Wilk
This document describes the DataTurbine from Creare augmented with the GSI security layer by Pawel Plaszczak and Krzysztof Wilk from Gridwise Technologies, in May 2004. We present the design, instructions for testing, and the usage use case. Internals are not described due to the confidentiality issues.

Guide to the NEESgrid Reference Implementation - TR-2004-17 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-27-2004 David Gehrig
This document describes the NEESgrid Reference Implementation, two standard NEES-based experiments which demonstrate the capabilities of the NEES system. This guide will provide an overview of the NEES system, a discussion of the two standard experiments distributed with the NEESgrid software, and an explanation of how to get these experiments up and running.

NEESgrid Teleoperation Control Protocol (NTCP) - TR-2004-23 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-27-2004 Laura Pearlman, Mike D’Arcy, Erik Johnson, Carl Kesselman, Pawel Plaszczak
The purpose of this protocol is to provide for control of simulations by remote applications, particularly in support of multi-site hybrid simulations.

The NTCP Control Plugin - TR-2004-26 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-27-2004 Laura Pearlman, Mike D’Arcy, Pawel Plaszczak, Carl Kesselman
The NEESgrid Teleoperations Control Protocol (NTCP) is used to perform remotecontrol of physical experiments or simulations. An NTCP control plugin is a java classthat implements the interface described in this document to communicate with a controlsystem (or simulated control system). In our NTCP implementation, the NTCP server isconfigured to use a control plugin; when the server receives a request, it performs some“generic” NTCP operations (such as validating the request and updating transaction state)and then makes calls into the control plugin to carry out the request.

CHEF Administration - TR-2004-51 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-24-2004 Swapnaa Jayaraman, Charles Severance, Thomas A. Finholt
This guide is intended to help administrators use tools to create sites, manage users, assign roles and perform other admin-specific functions.

Extracting Data from the Turbine for Permanent Storage - TR-2004-33 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-24-2004 Terry Weymouth
The Creare Data Turbine is by default a holder of transcient data. This document explains how to archive data to disk for subsequent analysis, archiving, backup or replay.

NTCPclient Toolbox for MATLAB - TR-2004-36 [PDF]
v1.0.2, 09-24-2004 Erik A. Johnson
This document serves as an overview of the NTCPclient Toolbox for MATLAB, explaining what the toolbox can do, what is required to use it, some tutorial code snippets to show how it is used, and a reference section documenting each of the functions the user will call.

NTCPcommon Toolbox for MATLAB - TR-2004-53 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-24-2004 Erik A. Johnson
This document serves as an overview of the NTCPcommon Toolbox for MATLAB, explaining what the toolbox can do, what is required to use it, some tutorial code snippets to show how it is used, and a reference section documenting each of the functions the user will call.

NTCPmplugin Toolbox for MATLAB - TR-2004-37 [PDF]
v1.0.3, 09-24-2004 Erik A. Johnson
This document serves as an overview of the NTCPmplugin Toolbox for MATLAB, explaining what the toolbox can do, what is required to use it, some tutorial code snippets to show how it is used, and a reference section documenting each of the functions the user will call.

Using the Data Turbine API - TR-2004-30 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-24-2004 Terry E. Weymouth
This document is for site programmers wishing to use the data turbine with their own clients or server applications. It gives concrete examples, using basic case, of how to use the RBNB API in the context of NEESgrid.

Connecting Your DAQ to the Data Turbine - TR-2004-29 [PDF]
v1.0.1, 09-23-2004 Paul Hubbard
This document explains how to interface your data acquisition system (DAQ) to the Data Turbine as used in the NEESgrid software distribution. It covers the reference software, direct interfacing, diagnostics and related issues.

DAQ Data Format Final Specification - TR-2004-35 [PDF]
v1.1.3, 09-23-2004 Paul Hubbard
This document explains the interactions between the NSDS, driver, and DAQ for the purposes of debugging, replacing the driver or DAQ code, or customizing the DAQ code. In addition to describing in detail the various components that constitute this system, the document also explains protocols and formats associated with data and control channels and data files, as well as error handling and syntax, and provides examples for each. Tools for testing components that have been debugged or replaced are also discussed.

NEESport Administrative Guide - TR-2004-48 [PDF]
v1.1, 09-23-2004 Anand Kalyanasundaram, Tomasz Haupt
The objective of NEESport is to provide a computational simulation component for the NEESgrid. This is accomplished by providing a Grid Portal for the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees), a software framework for simulating the seismic response of structural and geotechnical systems.

NFMS User Guide - TR-2004-52 [PDF]
v2.0, 09-23-2004 Jeff Gaynor, Joe Futrelle
This document describes the NEESgrid File Management Service (NFMS). NFMS provides clients with the ability to archive then locate files independently of how and where they are stored, as well as the ability to negotiate transactions with storage systems. This document describes the release of NFMS included with the 3.0 release of NEESgrid.

Using Data Turbine Viewers - TR-2004-32 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-23-2004 Swapnaa Jayaraman, Terry Weymouth
This document describes how to plot numberic data, view images and telepresence streams, and run the administrative interface using the Data Turbine viewers that are part of the RBNB package from Creare.

NEESgrid End-User Quick Start Guide - TR-2004-15 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-21-2004 Daniel B. Horn, Thomas A. Finholt, Jeremy Birnholtz and Swapnaa Jayaraman
The NEESgrid user interface provides users with access to a range of collaboration and research tools to support the research, practice, and educational goals of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). This guide is intended to get new users up and running quickly. Developers, equipment site representatives, and advanced users will find additional, more advanced documentation at http://www.neesgrid.org. Additionally, section 7 describes a fictional scenario which demonstrates how the CHEF interface might be used in a collaborative NEES investigation.

NtcpHelper Reference (NTCP Client) - TR-2004-24 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-20-2004 Laura Pearlman, Mike D’Arcy
NtcpHelper is an NTCP client class. The NTCP protocol itself is described in the NTCP protocol Document; we assume the reader is familiar with that document and with the NTCP protocol.

Getting Started with NEESport - TR-2004-47 [PDF]
v1.1, 09-14-2004 Tomasz Haupt
The objective of NEESport is to provide a computational simulation component for the NEESgrid. This is accomplished by providing a Grid Portal to the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees), a software framework for simulating the seismic response of structural and geotechnical systems.

FEDEASLab Getting Started Guide and Simulation Examples - TR-2004-22 [PDF]
08-31-2004 Filip C. Filippou and Margarita Constantinides
The Matlab© toolbox FEDEASLab is a user-friendly, versatile and powerful tool for the simulation of nonlinear structural response under static and dynamic loads, which has been used successfully for the development of new elements and material models, as well as for the simulation of the response of small structural models in research and instruction. Its development started in 1998 for the support of instruction of the basic graduate courses of linear and nonlinear structural analysis at the University of California, Berkeley. To date FEDEASLab has evolved into a powerful framework for research in the nonlinear analysis of structures. The toolbox consists of several functions that are grouped in categories and are, consequently, organized in separate directories. These functions operate on five basic data structures which represent the model, the loading, the element properties, the state of the structural response, and the parameters of the solution strategy. A sixth data structure is optional and carries postprocessing information that can be used for response interpretation and visualization.

Introduction to NEESgrid - TR-2004-13 [PDF]
v1.0, 08-23-2004
This document provides a brief introduction to NEES, the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, and to NEESgrid, the communications and collaborative software that has been developed for the NEES project. It then describes a NEES-based simulation experiment, performed in July 2003, and shows how some of NEESgrid's features allowed for remote participation in the experiment.

NEESgrid Deliverables: Contents and Intended Use - TR-2004-14 [PDF]
v1.0, 08-23-2004
The purpose of this document is to introduce the components that the System Integrator is delivering to the NEES community for constructing and operating NEESgrid. The goal of the document is to provide a description of the NEESgrid components and their intended uses to the people who will be using NEESgrid: especially NEES equipment site operators and the future NEESgrid operations/support team.

Data Model for Simulation - TR-2004-46 [PDF]
v1.0, 08-20-2004 Gregory L. Fenves, Frank McKenna
This document defines the data model for computational simulation in the NEESgrid system for the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). The objective of the design of the data model is to provide a flexible representation of data for conducting computational simulations using NEESgrid. The simulation data model is closely related to the data model for experimental testing at NEES equipment sites, as developed by Peng et al.

NEESgrid Metadata Service (NMDS) Design Overview - TR-2004-45 [PDF]
v1.0, 08-20-2004 Joe Futrelle
The NEES Metadata Service (NMDS) provides a means of storing, updating, and retrieving metadata objects. The objects can be identified, associated with values, linked, versioned, and protected with access controls. This document describes the NMDS object model. This model is the basis of the design of the NMDS API and its implementation.

NEESgrid Metadata Service (NMDS) User's Guide - TR-2004-38 [PDF]
v2.0, 08-06-2004 Joe Futrelle
The NEESgrid metadata service (NMDS) API provides a means for creating, managing, retrieving, and modifying metadata objects in a NEESgrid repository. This document describes the NEESgrid repository object model, gives an overview of the NMDS API, and demonstrates each major capability of the NMDS API with code examples. This document describes the NMDS API as of NEESgrid release 3.0.

Requirement and Installation for the NEESgrid Data Acquisition Code - TR-2004-20 [PDF]
v1.2, 07-23-2004 Paul Hubbard
This document is intended for NEESgrid sites wishing to install the supplied code for data acquisition (DAQ) and data handling. It covers getting the code, installation, testing, and some ideas for site customization.

Validity and Usability of the NEESgrid Reference Data Model - TR-2004-44 [PDF]
v1.0, 07-12-2004 Jun Peng and Kincho H. Law
A reference data model for NEESgrid has been designed and developed. The developed reference data model is based on the data requirements for shake table experiments. However, the model is of sufficient generality that major parts of the model can be modified and refined to support other types of experiments, such as centrifuge tests, pseudo-dynamic structural tests, and others. To ensure its usability, validation tests have been conducted by populating the data model with experimental data. Validation of the model will continue and refinements and updates will be incorporated as work progresses.

Summary Report on NEESgrid's Data Curation Summit - TR-2004-43 [PDF]
v1.0, 06-30-2004 Kincho H. Law
To develop an agenda on NEESgrid Data Curation and related issues, a Summit meeting was held in Chicago on March 18, 2004. Coordinated and sponsored by the NEESgrid System Integration team, the summit brought together experts in library information science, earthquake engineering, data infrastructure, and data curation, to forge a forward-looking plan needed to improve the NEESgrid data usage and curation. This report briefly summarizes the discussions in the meeting and outlines the data curation needs for NEESgrid.

NEESgrid NTCP C Client API - TR-2004-25 [PDF]
v1.0, 06-04-2004 Sam Lang
The NEES NTCP API is a client side library used to write C programs that can interact with an NTCP server. The client API provides full functionality for each of the NTCP operations defined by the NTCP schema, as well as querying service data and receiving notifications on state changes.

The MOST Experiment: Earthquake Engineering on the Grid - TR-2004-41 [PDF]
v1.0, 05-06-2004 B. F. Spencer, Amr Elnashai, et. al.
This document describes in detail the scientific rationale for the MOST experiment, the infrastructure components that supported the MOST experiment, and the feedback from the community and the MOST team members about the experiment. Overall, the MOST experiment has been considered a success and many important lessons were learned.

Protocol Specification for the NSDS, Driver, and DAQ: TR2003-04 [PDF]
v1.1.3, 05-04-2004 Paul Hubbard
This document explains the interactions between the NSDS, driver, and DAQ for the purposes of debugging, replacing the driver or DAQ code, or customizing the DAQ code. In addition to describing in detail the various components that constitute this system, the document also explains protocols and formats associated with data and control channels and data files, as well as error handling and syntax, and provides examples for each. Tools for testing components that have been debugged or replaced are also discussed. This document provides a minor correction to 1.2.

Project Timeline For Software Releases, Training, and Deployment - Short Version [PDF]
v2004-04-27, 04-27-2004
NEESgrid Project Timeline For Software Releases, Training, and Deployment - Short Version, describes/schedules all major tasks and events pending on the NSF sponsored NEESgrid development program. It can be used as an implementation planning guide for the deployment of the grid to earthquake equipment sites across the United States. This version was updated April 27, 2004.

Distributed Hybrid Earthquake Engineering Experiments: Experiences with a Ground-Shaking Grid Application - TR-2004-42 [PDF]
v1.0, 04-24-2004 Laura Pearlman, Carl Kesselman, Sridhar Gullapalli, et. al.
This is a reprint of a paper that originally appeared in the 13th IEEE Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing, June 2004. A writeup is also available from a symposium demonstration titled Showcasing the Features and Capabilities of NEESgrid: A Grid Based System for the Earthquake Engineering Domain by Sridhar Gullapalli, et. al.
Earthquake engineers have traditionally investigated the behavior of structures with either computational simulations or physical experiments. Recently, a new hybrid approach has been proposed that allows tests to be decomposed into independent substructures that can be located at different test facilities, tested separately, and integrated via a computational simulation. We describe a Grid-based architecture for performing such novel distributed hybrid computational/physical experiments. We discuss the requirements that underlie this extremely challenging application of Grid technologies, describe our architecture and implementation, and discuss our experiences with the application of this architecture within an unprecedented earthquake engineering test that coupled large-scale physical experiments in Illinois and Colorado with a computational simulation. Our results point to the remarkable impacts that Grid technologies can have on the practice of engineering, and also contribute to our understanding of how to build and deploy effective Grid applications.

SAC Metadata for NEESgrid [PDF]
v1.0, 04-02-2004 Young Suk Kim
This report describes in detail each step of the process of developing metadata about previously-performed tests and provides a roadmap of future metadata development. We will present a procedure to implement metadata generated about specifically-chosen tests of SAC steel projects. This report also introduces the NEESgrid Metadata Service (NMDS), which allows users to create, manage, retrieve, and modify metadata objects in a NEESgrid repository. Throughout the report we explain each step of the development process in detail.

Customizing the DAQ Code For Your Site - TR-2004-11 [PDF]
v1.0, 03-19-2004 Paul Hubbard
This document consists of a presentation given at the April 23, 2003 NEESgrid developer training meeting. It consists of a walkthrough of the Example DAQ program, subroutine by subroutine, covering usage and notes.

DAQ FAQ - TR-2004-07 [PDF]
v1.0, 03-19-2004 Paul Hubbard
This document provides answers to frequently-asked questions about NEESgrid's Data Acquisition system, which is currently implemented in the popular LabVIEW framework. Topics include data channel speed, limits, and decimation, calibration, hardware and platform recommendations, using a framework other than LabVIEW, and testing.

Design of the NEESgrid Data Acquisition System - TR-2004-10 [PDF]
v1.0, 03-19-2004 Paul Hubbard
This document consists of a presentation given at the April 23, 2003 NEESgrid developers' training meeting that describes in illustrated detail the architecture of the NEESgrid Data Acquisition (DAQ) system and how it works. It provides an overview of the NSDS, driver, and DAQ.

Comparison of the NEESgrid Acceptance Test Plan vs. Requirements Traceability Matrix - TR-2004-12 [PDF]
v1.0, 03-16-2004 NEESgrid System Integration Team
The January 2004 NSF Site Visit team requested that the NEES System Integrator Awardee document the degree in which the NEESgrid System Acceptance Test Plan covers the requirements documented in the NEESgrid Requirements Traceability Matrix. This document summarizes the requirements coverage and details areas in which coverage is not complete.

Setting Up a NEESgrid Node (Release 2.2) - TR-2004-06 [PDF]
v1.1, 03-08-2004 NEESgrid System Integration Team
This document is intended as a brief introduction to the components and capabilities of the NEESgrid and a roadmap for setting up a fully operational NEESgrid node using software release 2.2. Section 1 describes briefly each of the NEESgrid components and provides links to relevant documentation. Section 2 provides an overview of the steps necessary for bringing a NEESgrid node online. Section 3 briefly describes two standard experiments based on the Multi-Site Online Simulation Test (MOST) in July 2003 that demonstrate the various NEESgrid capabilities; these examples can be used for reference implementation and training purposes.

NEESgrid Deliverables: Contents and Intended Use - TR-2004-05 [PDF]
v1.1, 03-02-2004 NEESgrid System Integration Team
The purpose of this document is to introduce the components that the System Integrator is delivering to the NEES community for constructing and operating NEESgrid. The goal of the document is to provide a description of the NEESgrid components and their intended uses to the people who will be using NEESgrid: especially NEES equipment site operators and the future NEESgrid operations/support team.

Guide to the NEESgrid Reference Implementation - TR-2004-04 [PDF]
v0.5, 03-01-2004 David Gehrig
This document describes the NEESgrid Reference Implementation, two standard NEESbased experiments which demonstrate the capabilities of the NEES system. This guide will provide an overview of the NEES system, a discussion of the two standard experiments distributed with the NEESgrid software, and an explanation of how to get these experiments up and running.

NEESgrid Release 2.2 Installation Guide [HTML]
03-01-2004 Kazi Anwar, Chase Phillips, Paul Hubbard, Nestor J. Zaluzec
Instructions and download links for the NEESgrid 2.2 components are included.

NEESgrid Release 2.2 System Documentation [HTML]
03-01-2004
Installation instructions and guides for installing NEESgrid Release 2.2. API, installation, and reference documentation are also available.

NTCP Control Plugin Documentation - TR-2004-03 [PDF]
v0.4, 02-18-2004 Joseph Bester
This document describes the C language interface for the NTCP Control Plugin described in the Control Plugin Description (DRAFT). The audience of this document are people who are interested in implementing native c-language control plugins for the NTCP server. This document describes the general requirements of a plugin, the functions which must be implemented by a plugin, and the API available for the plugin to interact with the NEES server.

NTCP Sample Plugin Documentation - TR-2004-02 [PDF]
v0.4, 02-18-2004 Joseph Bester
This document describes an example C language plugin for the NEESgrid NTCP server. This plugin will accept and execute any transaction proposal, with executing running for 30 seconds. Executing transactions may be cancelled by a NTCP client if desired. The purpose of this sample plugin is to show how to implement a plugin which accesses control point data and processes the various plugin requests as well as show how to compile a plugin module on linux and windows.

A Brief Review of Data Models for NEESgrid - TR-2004-01 [PDF]
02-15-2004 Jun Peng and Kincho H. Law
There are many existing data modeling techniques and tools that are available to help design and structure the data. Within NEES community, there have been some ongoing works to develop data dictionary and data models. The purpose of this document is not to provide an exhaustive review on the works related to data modeling but to briefly review and evaluate some of the relevant approaches. A brief summary provides a discussion on the approach currently undertaken to develop a project data model for NEES experimentations.

Requirements Traceability Matrix - TR-2003-13 [PDF]
v1.1, 02-15-2004 Thomas A. Finholt, Dan Horn, Suzandeise Thomé
The Requirements Traceability Matrix is a representation of user requirements aligned against system functionality. It is used to ensure that all requirements are being met by the system deliverables.

System Acceptance Test Plan [PDF]
v1.0, 01-31-2004 Cherri Pancake, Sridhar Gullapalli
This version of the Acceptance Plan lays out the system requirements, the components that are to be delivered, and the procedures for how those components will be evaluated for acceptance. Detailed information on test procedures will be added as appendices. It also demonstrates how the specific functionality criteria to be tested will be derived from the general text of the System Overview document. It is hoped that the formalization of an Acceptance Test Plan and Procedures will help ensure the delivery of an excellent software system that contributes to the success of the Consortium and of the NEES program in general.

MOST Experiment [PDF]
v1.0, 12-16-2003
The Multi-Site Online Simulation Test (MOST) took place on July 30, 2003. The MOST Experiment describes in detail the NEESgrid components, the experimental setup, the process of preparing and conducting the experiment, media and public relations activities, and feedback from the community and MOST team members about the experiment.

NEESgrid Release 2.1 Installation Guide [HTML]
12-15-2003 Kazi Anwar, Chase Phillips, Paul Hubbard, Nestor J. Zaluzec
Instructions and download links for the NEESgrid 2.1 components are included.

NEESgrid Release 2.0 Documentation [HTML]
10-06-2003
Installation instructions and guides for installing NEESgrid Release 2.0. API, installation, and reference documentation are also available.

NEESgrid Release 2.0 Installation Guide [HTML]
10-06-2003 Kazi Anwar, Chase Phillips, Paul Hubbard, Nestor J. Zaluzec
Instructions and download links for the NEESgrid 2.0 components are included.

NFMS Reference Manual: Release 2.0 - TR2003-19 [PDF]
v1.0, 10-06-2003 Jeff Gaynor, Joe Futrelle
NEESgrid Technical Report 2003-19: NFMS Reference Manual -- Release 2.0 is a developer's guide to the 2.0 release of NEESgrid File Management Service which describes classes, constructors, methods, and constants.

NFMS User Guide - TR2003-18 [PDF]
v1.0, 10-06-2003 Joe Futrelle, Jeffrey J. Gaynor
NEESgrid Technical Report 2003-18: NFMS User Guide describes the 2.0 release of NEESgrid File Management Service (NFMS).

NMDS User Guide - TR2003-21 [PDF]
v1.0, 10-06-2003 Joe Futrelle
NEESgrid Technical Report 2003-21: NMDS User Guide describes the NMDS API as of NEESgrid release 2.0.

NtcpHelper Reference - TR2003-20 [PDF]
v0.4, 10-06-2003
NEESgrid Technical Report 2003-20: NtcpHelper Reference provides descriptions of all NtcpHelper functions and example syntax, as well as functions and syntax of other classes related to NtcpHelper.

Project Execution Plan [PDF]
v2003-09-03, 09-22-2003 Bill Spencer, Carl Kesselman, Ian Foster, Thomas Finholt, and Jean-Pierre Bardet
The Project Execution Plan (PEP) presents the top level technical, cost, and schedule baselines and project management for the “NEESgrid: A Distributed Virtual Laboratory for Advanced Earthquake Experimentation and Simulation,” project, submitted in accordance with National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal CMS-0117853.

Report on Oregon State Experiment Based Deployment: Synchronized Video - TR2003-17 [PDF]
09-11-2003 Harry Yeh, Charles Severance
NEESgrid Technical Report 2003-17 describes and assesses the synchronized video component of a NEESgrid-enabled experimental setup at Oregon State University.

NTCP Control Plugin - TR-2003-16 [PDF]
v0.1, 09-10-2003 Laura Pearlman, Mike D’Arcy, Pawel Plaszczak, Carl Kesselman
The NEESgrid Teleoperations Control Protocol (NTCP) is used to perform remote control of physical experiments or simulations. An NTCP control plugin is a java class that implements the interface described in this document to communicate with a control system (or simulated control system). This document describes the current NCSA implementation of the NTCP control plugin, including methods defined in the NTCP control plugin interface, object types passed in as arguments to the methods in the control plugin interface, and example servers that could be implemented using this plugin architecture.

Experiment-based Deployment Strategy and Requirements [WORD]
v1.0, 09-09-2003 Doru Marcusiu
This document defines the strategy, requirements, scope of responsibilities, and process for the collaboration between the NEESgrid System Integration (SI) team and an Equipment Site (ES) for the Experiment-based Deployment of NEESgrid. The requirements laid out herein define SI deployment team expectations for the ES with respect to hardware, software, project plans, project lead, and points of contact. The section describing the process will outline the steps both the SI and the ES must take to properly coordinate this activity. The scope of responsibilities for the ES and the SI team and the tasks for each team are clearly stated.

System Acceptance Test Plan [PDF]
v0.8, 09-08-2003 Cherri Pancake, Sridhar Gullapalli
This document is obsolete and has been superceded by System Acceptance Test Plan v1.0.
This version of the Acceptance Plan lays out the system requirements, the components that are to be delivered, and the procedures for how those components will be evaluated for acceptance. Detailed information on test procedures will be added as appendices. It also demonstrates how the specific functionality criteria to be tested will be derived from the general text of the System Overview document. It is hoped that the formalization of an Acceptance Test Plan and Procedures will help ensure the delivery of an excellent software system that contributes to the success of the Consortium and of the NEES program in general.

NEESgrid Teleoperation Control Protocol (NTCP) - TR-2003-07 [PDF]
v0.4, 09-04-2003 Laura Pearlman, Mike D’Arcy, Erik Johnson, Carl Kesselman, Pawel Plaszczak
This report describes the architecture and specifies the protocols for proposing and executing remote control operations through the NEES Teleoperation Control Protocol. NTCP is particularly useful for multi-site distributed experiments which combine both computational and physical simulations. The document describes how the NTCP server and protocol perform in the context of the experimental framework and details how the NTCP server interacts with the coordinating simulation (or other client) during each of the three phases enacted during each timestep of the simulation; what kinds of information is maintained by the NTCP server, and the various requests that comprise the NTCP protocol. Security considerations and issues are discussed, as are future modifications and improvements. Finally, two appendices explain A.) how a community scheduler using the SNAP protocol could be used with NTCP to manage NEES resources and B.) give the full WSDL description of NTCP.

Protocol Specification for the NSDS, Driver, and DAQ: TR2003-04 [PDF]
v1.1.2, 09-02-2003 Paul Hubbard
This document explains the interactions between the NSDS, driver, and DAQ for the purposes of debugging, replacing the driver or DAQ code, or customizing the DAQ code. In addition to describing in detail the various components that constitute this system, the document also explains protocols and formats associated with data and control channels and data files, as well as error handling and syntax, and provides examples for each. Tools for testing components that have been debugged or replaced are also discussed. This document provides a minor correction to 1.1, which in turn superseded NEESgrid Technical Report 2003-04, version 1.0.

Protocol Specification for the NSDS, Driver, and DAQ: TR2003-04 [PDF]
v1.1.1, 08-28-2003 Paul Hubbard
This document explains the interactions between the NSDS, driver, and DAQ for the purposes of debugging, replacing the driver or DAQ code, or customizing the DAQ code. In addition to describing in detail the various components that constitute this system, the document also explains protocols and formats associated with data and control channels and data files, as well as error handling and syntax, and provides examples for each. Tools for testing components that have been debugged or replaced are also discussed. This document provides a minor correction to 1.1, which in turn superseded NEESgrid Technical Report 2003-04, version 1.0.

Protocol Specifications for the NSDS, Driver, and DAQ: TR2003-04 [PDF]
v1.1, 08-21-2003 Paul Hubbard
This document explains the interactions between the NSDS, driver, and DAQ for the purposes of debugging, replacing the driver or DAQ code, or customizing the DAQ code. In addition to describing in detail the various components that constitute this system, the document also explains protocols and formats associated with data and control channels and data files, as well as error handling and syntax, and provides examples for each. Tools for testing components that have been debugged or replaced are also discussed. This document supersedes NEESgrid Technical Report 2003-04, version 1.0.

NEESML Reference User Guide - TR-2003-15 [PDF]
v0.5, 08-05-2003 Joe Futrelle
The NEESML Reference User Guide provides a comprehensive reference manual for the NEESML language, which is used to populate a NEESgrid metadata repository with objects and definitions of object types. The User Guide specifies the syntax for NEESML documents, describes the meaning of every NEESML construct, and explains how NEESML may be extended. A glossary of NEESML-specific terms is included.

NSDS Java API - TR-2003-14 [PDF]
v0.1, 06-26-2003 Gaurang Mehta
This is a draft version of the NSDS system architecture document. It provides detailed component descriptions in list form for the NSDS web service interface and the driver interface/API. It also describes the NSDS defaults.

Requirements Traceability Matrix - TR-2003-13 [PDF]
v1.0, 06-24-2003 Thomas A. Finholt, Dan Horn, Suzandeise Thomé
This document is obsolete and has been superceded by Requirements Traceability Matrix (TR 2003-13) v1.1.
This document presents the Requirements Traceability Matrix created by the User Requirement team and the methodology used to generate it. The Requirements Traceability Matrix is a representation of user requirements aligned against system functionality. It is used to ensure that all requirements are being met by the system deliverables.

Overview of NEESML - TR-2003-12 [PDF]
v1.0, 06-17-2003 Joe Futrelle
NEESML is an XML format for defining NEES metadata schemas and uploading metadata objects into the NEES metadata repository. NEESML provides a syntax for defining object types, object attributes, and relationships between object types, including inheritance. It also provides a means for creating instances of object types, including the ability to link objects together in a variety of ways. The purpose of the type definition and instantiation mechanisms is to allow users to describe real-world objects of interest to them in order to enable browsing and retrieval of data and information within and across sites. This paper describes NEESML and gives examples of its use, but does not include a comprehensive reference for the format.

NEESgrid Release 1.1 Installation and Configuration Instructions [HTML]
06-09-2003 Kazi Anwar, Chase Phillips, Paul Hubbard, Nestor J. Zaluzec
The set of documents provide instructions to install and configure the neesgrid 1.1 release software. The instructions cover software to be installed in the NEESpop, DAQ and TPM (tele-presence machine) systems.

Preliminary Performance Analysis of the NEES Metadata Service (NMDS) - TR-2003-11 [PDF]
v1.0, 06-03-2003 Joe Futrelle
The NEES Metadata Service (NMDS) provides applications with the ability to create, manage, link, and discover metadata objects in the NEES repository. This study investigates the performance of the current development version of the NEES repository implementation and discusses how the results impact how the repository implementation should be used and further developed.

Questions and Answers Related to the NEES SI Project and Products - TR-2003-10 [PDF]
v1.0, 05-30-2003 Dan Reed
In a follow-up to the April 2003 Equipment Site teleconference, the ES PIs discussed the need to devote significant time at the Awardees meeting to interaction among the SI and ES. The purpose of this document is to address issues and concerns presented by the ES sites, and provide clarifications as required. Dan Reed has developed a synopsis of this document in a slide show format for presentation at the NEES Awardees Meeting, May 23, 2003, in Park City, Utah.
The issues addressed by the SI team in this document fall into three major categories: establishing important and mutually satisfactory timelines and schedules for completion of milestones and deliverables; improving user support via a broad spectrum of communication venues, hands-on training, and improved documentation and accessibility to online resources; and providing responses to specific hardware-, software-, and networking-related questions and issues raised by the ES sites.

System Architecture [PDF]
v1.1, 05-13-2003 Carl Kesselman, Randy Butler, Ian Foster, Joe Futrelle, Doru Marcusiu, Sridhar Gulipalli, Laura Pearlman, Chuck Severance
This document describes the system architecture for the NEESgrid project, the system integration element of the George E. Brown, Jr, Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). The result of NEESgrid will be a collaboratory, or “laboratory without walls,” for earthquake engineering research. As illustrated in Figure 1, the NEESgrid collaboratory will link the national earthquake engineering community with up to twenty laboratories (see Figure 2), allowing teleoperation and teleobservation of experimental apparatus via the Internet (collectively, “telepresence”), access to data produced by these apparatus, and hybrid operations integrating physical and numerical simulations.
When completed, the NEESgrid collaboratory will enable four core capabilities. First, the collaboratory will link scientists to facilities to allow remote operation and observation of experimental equipment. Second, the collaboratory will link scientists to data to allow remote, shared viewing of real-time and archival data. Third, the collaboratory will link facilities with data, not only in the form of data repositories but also in the form of output from numerical simulations joined to physical simulations. Finally, the collaboratory will link scientists with other scientists, independent of time and location, to allow joint editing of documents, joint viewing of data visualizations, and joint operation and observation of physical and numerical simulations.

Design for NEESgrid Telepresence Referral and Streaming Data Services - TR-2003-09 [PDF]
v1.1, 05-08-2003 Carl Kesselman, Laura Pearlman, Gaurang Mehta
The NEESgrid Streaming Data Service (NSDS) will provide a common protocol for use by remote applications to receive streaming data from a running experiment over NEESgrid. This document defines requirements for the NSDS protocols, including communications between the NSDS server and its clients (requests, NSDP data) and communications between the NSDS and local DAQs. It also describes in detail the architecture and a possible implementation of an NSDS server and its modules. A section on the NEESgrid Telepresence Referral Service (NTRS) describes the NTRS server and the NTRS protocol.

NEESgrid Teleoperation Control Protocol (NTCP) - TR-2003-07 [PDF]
v0.3, 04-30-2003 Laura Pearlman, Erik Johnson, Carl Kesselman
This report is obsolete and has been superceded by TR-2003-07 v0.4
This report describes the architecture and protocols for proposing and executing remote control operations through the NEES Teleoperation Control Protocol.

Plug-In Interface for an NTCP Server - TR-2003-08 [PDF]
v0.3, 04-29-2003 Laura Pearlman, Nabil Deeb, Carl Kesselman
This document is obsolete and has been superceded by NTCP Control Plugin (TR 2003-16) v0.1.
This document describes the overall software design of an NTCP server (as described in [the ntcp protocol document]), using plugins to implement local policy and to performcontrol operations.

System Site Hardware Requirements - TR-2003-03 [PDF]
v1.1, 03-31-2003 Doru Marcusiu
The purpose of this document is to provide a single source of information about hardware requirements for the major NEESGrid site resources. This document describes requirements for 4 stand-alone systems for supporting NEESpop, Tele-presence, Data Acquisition, and Local Data Storage capabilities. The need for stand-alone systems to support these capabilities depends on the requirements of each site. The NEESGrid software is developed and packaged by service category. Therefore, depending on the requirements of a site, multiple services could be hosted by a single system. The factors to be considered include the amount of data to be stored locally and the amount of video streaming to be done. If neither of these requirements is significant then a single system could host neespop, tele-presence, and local data storage capabilities.

User Requirements [PDF]
v3.0, 03-19-2003 Thomas A. Finholt, Dan Horn, Jeremy P. Birnholtz, Sung Joo Bae, and Dheeraj Motwani
This document describes further elaboration of core user requirements for the proposed NEESgrid collaboratory, or “laboratory without walls,” for the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). This version should be read together with NEESgrid User Requirements, Version 2.0. When completed, the NEESgrid collaboratory will allow remote operation and observation of experimental equipment, visualization of real-time and archival data, and collaboration that is independent of time and location. This document extends understanding of core user requirements through data gathered from the NEESgrid User Requirements Workshop, held October 23-25, 2002 at the Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood, OR. Specifically, a key request of workshop attendees was an annotated mock-up of the NEESgrid user environment. In addition, this document addresses concerns about technical requirements, about data usage, and about video latency. Finally, this document includes input from NEES Phase II equipment sites.

System Site Hardware Requirements - TR-2003-03 [PDF]
v1.0, 03-18-2003 Doru Marcusiu
The purpose of this document is to provide a single source of information about hardware requirements for the major NEESGrid site resources. This document describes requirements for four stand-alone systems supporting NEESpop, Tele-presence, Data Acquisition, and Local Data Storage capabilities, respectively. However, the need for stand-alone systems to support these capabilities depends on the requirements of each site. The NEESGrid software is developed and packaged by service category. Therefore, depending on the requirements of a site, multiple services could be hosted by a single system. The factors to be considered include the amount of data to be stored locally and the amount of video streaming to be done. If neither of these requirements is significant, then a single system could host NEESpop, telepresence, and local data storage capabilities.

Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan [PDF]
v1.0, 03-17-2003 Dan Reed
The integration and use of new technologies always involves risk. The goal of risk assessment and mitigation is to understand the risks inherent to an integration project and to develop strategies to effectively manage the project in a manner that mitigates the associated risks. The NEESgrid system integration project combines many information technologies that have previously not been used in support of engineering community collaboratories. Therefore, the project management effort includes specific activities for identification of project risks, and the development and execution of effective strategies for mitigating those risks. In addition, the NEES MREFC is the first distributed construction project undertaken by NSF, and the first undertaken by the Engineering Directorate of NSF. As a result, there are program risks associated with the novelty of this program that must be understood and included in any risk mitigation efforts undertaken by the NEESgrid project.
This Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan is prepared as a component of the NEESgrid Technology Management activities, included as 4.4.3 in the Project Execution Plan (rev. March 3, 2003). Previous risk assessment documentation was included in the February 15, 2002 revision of the Project Execution Plan, and the tables provided in that analysis are updated in Section 4 of this document. The NEESgrid Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan is maintained separately from the PEP, and is updated periodically to reflect changes in the risk profiles for project components.

Project Execution Plan [PDF]
v1.1, 03-03-2003 Dan Reed
This document has been superceeded by a revised Project Execution Plan dated 2003-09-22.
This PEP sets forth the organization, systems, and plan for managing the NEESgrid project that are in effect on February 28, 2003. This document is a revision of the PEP submitted on February 15, 2002, and accepted by NSF. The PEP for the overall NEES system integration component will be revised, as required, to incorporate lessons learned, changes in baselines (technical scope, cost, and schedule), and new project development and/or other arrangements among the participants. Revisions, as they are issued, will be acknowledged by all participants, and will supersede in their entirety previous versions. These project plan modifications will be administered via the change management practices presented in Section 8 of this document. These revisions will reflect new information on user requirements and experiences with implementing NEESgrid technical strategies. Such new information will assist the project participants in determining the order in which to undertake the development and deployment efforts in the plan, managing risk, and ensuring that the integration effort meets its objectives and deliverable schedule.

System Baseline Description [PDF]
v0.9.5, 03-03-2003
This document provides an overview of the software components under development within the NEESgrid Systems Integration Project. The particular decomposition of NEESgrid presented here illustrates the technical scope of the NEESgrid system to stakeholders in the NEES program. This document provides a high-level introduction to NEESgrid’s various components and capabilities, so that stakeholders can learn about system components that will be delivered on or before Oct 1, 2004.

Video Support in NEESgrid: Telepresence and Data-Quality Video - TR-2003-02 [PDF]
v1.0, 01-12-2003 Charles Severance
This white paper discusses issues of video synchronization as they apply to telepresence and data as data. NEESgrid uses AXIS video cameras, which allows users to manipulate their view of a remote experiment via the Internet. Issues involved in creating telepresence are discussed, including cost, hardware limitations, picture quality, and data format. Issues surrounding the production of streaming data suitable for analysis are also discussed, including the role of metadata and the hardware required. Finally, a deployment solution is proposed which explains how the same equipment may be used for telepresence and the production of data-quality video.

Installing the NEESgrid NSDS Driver - TR-2003-05 [PDF]
v1.0, 01-10-2003 Paul Hubbard
This document is to assist you in building and installing the NEESgrid NSDS driver for LabVIEW-based data acquisition systems. It covers compilation and installation.

LabVIEW Code Installation Instructions - TR-2003-06 [PDF]
v1.0, 01-10-2003 Paul Hubbard
This document is intended for NEESgrid sites wishing to install the supplied code for data acquisition (DAQ) and data handling. It covers getting the code, installation, testing and some ideas for site customization.

Protocol Specification for the NSDS, Driver and DAQ - TR-2003-04 [PDF]
v1.0, 01-10-2003 Paul Hubbard
This document is for people wishing to understand the NSDS-driver-DAQ interactions, either for debugging or in the interest of replacing the driver or DAQ code. Sites customizing the DAQ code should also find this of use. Other documentation is planned for those incorporating this code into their sites.

Integrating Grid Capabilities into the CHEF Collaborative Portal Framework - TR-2003-01 [PDF]
v1.0, 01-08-2003 Charles Severance
This document describes the design for integrating support for the grid into CHEF [www.chefproject.org]. CHEF is a set of collaborative tools which are built on top of the Jakarta Jetspeed portal toolkit. The goal of this effort is to allow additional grid-oriented tools to be quickly built in CHEF which make use of grid services and operate within a grid security context. The initial purpose of this effort was to provide a framework to develop a collaborative portal [www.neesgrid.org] for structural engineers which uses the grid as its authentication.

System Overview [PDF]
v2.1, 10-30-2002 Tom Prudhomme
NEESgrid is the systems integration component of the NEES Collaboratory. The NEES equipment sites provide state-of-the art physical testing capabilities to the earthquake engineering community. NEESgrid enables easy, remote tele-presence access and use of those advanced facilities. It also provides data management and analysis tools for investigators, and a curated repository as a publishing mechanism for investigators designed to make it easier for future researchers to understand and use the results from the studies. NEESgrid provides access to numerical simulation software and sample output to help facilitate the use of simulation modeling in earthquake engineering. Finally, it is based in a collaborative framework built upon the concept of team-oriented research, where members share ideas and information to improve the outcome of the project. The complete NEES Collaboratory is a powerful set of information technology, numerical, and physical simulation resources intended to facilitate a revolution earthquake engineering research and practice. NEESgrid provides the scalable and extensible information technologies and services to enable the Collaboratory, now and in the future.
The System Integration Team has interacted with the NEES community over many months to better understand user requirements, and to incorporate these requirements into its system architecture specification and project plan. Between now and 2004, the Team will be demonstrating the capabilities of NEESgrid at various earthquake engineering conferences and workshops, and working prototypes will be posted for use on the project website (www.neesgrid.org). A key milestone in the integration of the system is a full system prototype demonstration that will be conducted in July of 2003. New features of individual components are scheduled for demonstration approximately every 3 months beginning in April 2003.
This document provides an overview of the features of NEESgrid in the context of how each feature can facilitate or enhance collaborative earthquake engineering research and practice once the NEES Collaboratory becomes operational on October 1, 2004. The document is structured to follow a stepwise approach to experimental research, discussing the specific NEESgrid features or capabilities being provided to support each step in the process. For each section, pointers to additional information resources are given that can provide details concerning any aspect of the system or its features. Readers are encouraged to use these information resources to satisfy their individual levels of interest in each topic.

Storage Technologies for the NEESgrid Curated Data Repository - TR-2002-06 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-30-2002 Joe Futrelle
The NEESgrid curated data repository requires high-volume, high-throughput, reliable, secure storage technology that can provide ready access to heterogeneous data ranging from highly structured metadata to relatively opaque formats such as digital video. In addition, the technology needs to be mature and flexible enough that data can be preserved even when storage technology and data practices inevitably evolve. A number of storage and access technologies exist that meet some of these requirements, including commercial database management systems, standard data and metadata formats, standard data exchange protocols, network file systems, digital library technologies, and storage brokers. However none of these technologies by itself meets all of NEESgrid’s requirements, so an appropriate combination of them should be employed. In the end, it is our opinion that maturity and flexibility are by far the most important requirements, since by meeting them we can minimize the risk that the storage technology will become obsolete and therefore necessitate extensive re-implementation of the repository. NEESgrid is also a distributed system. Although the curated data repository will be centrally located in order to take advantage of economies of scale and favorable network location, it will still need to interoperate with local storage mechanisms at the sites. For this reason, the technologies used should require as little specialized expertise as possible to maintain. Otherwise, there is a risk that sites will have difficulty moving their data to and from the repository, and that new sites will find it difficult or costly to join NEESgrid.

Metadata Service API: Overview - TR-2002-05 [PDF]
v1.0, 09-26-2002 Joe Futrelle and Jeff Gaynor
The NEESgrid Metadata Service provides access to metadata about a variety of entities, such as experiments, researchers, apparatus, events, and facilities. The service is designed to allow remote clients to browse, update, and otherwise manage metadata objects representing these entities of interest. The metadata objects are represented in a simple, consistent manner, which allows them not only to contain attributes of various types, but also to make reference to other objects. The objects are also tracked through aversioning system and protected through access control and object-level locking. Using the metadata service, remote clients can retrieve full or partial information about objects, request uploads and downloads of data files to and from the repository, and make full or partial updates to objects.

Early Adopter Program Summary and Status [PPT]
08-08-2002 Carl Kesselman

Data and Metadata Harvesting Protocol: an Overview - TR-2002-04 [PDF]
v1.0.2, 07-02-2002 Joe Futrelle and Jeff Gaynor
The NEESgrid Data and Metadata Harvesting service will provide NEES users with the ability to transfer data and metadata to the central repository. It will also enable users to manage the data and metadata in a variety of ways, including organizing data and metadata objects into projects, updating and removing data and metadata objects, and controlling who has access to the objects.

Early Adoption Presentation [PPT]
05-20-2002 Sridhar Gullapalli

Early Adoption and Implementation Plan - TR-2002-02 [PDF]
05-12-2002 Sridhar Gullapalli, Carl Kesselman, et al.
This document lays out a roadmap for the planned development and early adoption phase of the NEESgrid project. It covers the period from April 1 to October 1, 2002. The results of these efforts will be the deployment of an early NEESgrid infrastructure with limited functionalities, with a view to demonstrate an initial set of capabilities.

Strawman NEESgrid Metadata Model v1.1 [HTML]
v1.1, 04-25-2002 Joe Futrelle

Building a Repository of Distributed, Heterogeneous Scientific Data for NEESgrid [PPT]
03-20-2002 Joe Futrelle
A PowerPoint slide presentation, given at COSMOS, which explains the need for a NEESgrid data repository and proposes a process for undertaking the construction of one.

Metadata Structure for Geotechnical Physical Models (and Simulations?) [PDF]
03-20-2002 Bruce Kutter, Daniel Wilson, J. P. Bardet
Advances in data volume associated with sensor and data acquisition technology and the increased complexity and value of model test data make it clear that there is a real need to implement better, flexible, and more general standards for archiving data. The new standards should make it easy to create, edit, share, query, and search through databases and they should facilitate comparison of numerical simulations with experimental data. This paper presents a strawman data structure for physical model test results; perhaps a similar structure would be useful for numerical simulation results. It is anticipated that that this structure will be used to establish a Model Test Markup Language (MTML). XML (eXtensible Markup Language) provides an ideal syntax for MTML. The goal of this paper is to stimulate convergence toward an accepted structure of metadata.

Technology Strategies for Integrating Scientific Data Collections [PPT]
03-20-2002 Joe Futrelle
No single technology will address all the requirements for integrating a scientific data repository into a collaborative experimental framework, and IT and domain specialists must collaborate in developing such a repository. This PowerPoint slide presentation, given at COSMOS, which discusses in detail possible technology strategies and examines their advantages and disadvantages. Technologies which might be useful for the integration of scientific data collections include XML and XML schema, XLink and URI, SOAP, XSL, RDF, and Semantic Web. The presentation also discusses possible architectural schemes for integration of data repositories, including federation and harvesting; and the issue of indexing and access.

Imaging Overview [PDF]
v0.2, 03-13-2002 Nestor Zaluzec
This document is intended to define some common imaging terminology and related consequences of image processing and manipulation which are associated with data that might be collected by a NEESgrid site. This document is intended as a living document and will be updated as needed as an archive of information relative to the NEESgrid project. It is not a comprehensive review of imaging but rather a collection of salient points as they relate to imaging issues associated with NEESgrid. Much of the information herein is compiled from various sources on the WWW which will be documented in the references.

TelePresence System Overview: White Paper [PDF]
03-06-2002 Nestor Zaluzec
This document is intended to assist NEES Equipment Sites (ES) in understanding the functionality of the NEESgrid TelePresence Mode, and also to aid in establishing a budget estimate necessary to procure a uniform set of resources to support the NEESgrid TelePresence Environment. It should be read in conjunction with the NEES Scoping Study1, NEES-POP 2 and the NEES LAN3 documents and seeks to outline specific hardware and software which supports the current configuration for NEESgrid TelePresence Mode as currently implemented at the date of issue. It should be expected that the hardware and software described herein will evolve as the NEESgrid project development continues, thus changes in the configurations described are to be expected. Evolution of the system architecture, which will occur during the course of this project, means that some of the components specified in early versions of this document may become superceeded or obsolete. Every attempt will be made to retain compatibility, to the maximum extent possible, with the recommendations of previous versions of this document. It is intended that this document also provides sufficient information for a NEES Equipment Site to develop their own procurement scenerios for TelePresence resources. Before an actual procurement is executed, it is recommended that an Equipment Site contact the System Integrator to confirm that the latest recommendations are in hand.

Local Area Network Requirements - TR-2002-01 [WORD]
v1.0, 03-01-2002 Laura Pearlman
This document is intended to help NEES equipment sites to ensure that they have sufficient network and computing equipment and personnel to support NEESgrid services. This is a requirements document, and does not recommend specific hardware or software.

TeleOperations Protocol Server Design: TR-2002-03 [PDF]
v1.0, 03-01-2002 Laura Pearlman
This document is obsolete and has been superceded by NTCP 2003-07 v0.4.
The purpose of the NEESgrid TeleOperations Protocol (NTOP) service is to provide a common protocol that can be used by remote applications to interact with a running experiment over NEESgrid.

Project Execution Plan [PDF]
02-15-2002 Kyran D. Mish and Tom Prudhomme
This document has been superceeded by a revised Project Execution Plan dated 2003-09-22.

System Architecture [PDF]
v1.0, 02-15-2002 Carl Kesselman, Randy Butler, et al.
This document is obsolete and has been superceded by System Architecture v1.1.

User Requirements [PDF]
v2.0, 02-15-2002 Thomas A. Finholt, Dan Horn, Jeremy P. Birnholtz, Sung Joo Bae, and Dheeraj Motwani
This document describes further elaboration of core user requirements for the proposed NEESgrid collaboratory, or “laboratory without walls,” for the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). This version should be read together with NEESgrid User Requirements, Version 2.0. When completed, the NEESgrid collaboratory will allow remote operation and observation of experimental equipment, visualization of real-time and archival data, and collaboration that is independent of time and location. This document extends understanding of core user requirements through data gathered from the NEESgrid User Requirements Workshop, held October 23-25, 2002 at the Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood, OR. Specifically, a key request of workshop attendees was an annotated mock-up of the NEESgrid user environment. In addition, this document addresses concerns about technical requirements, about data usage, and about video latency. Finally, this document includes input from NEES Phase II equipment sites.

Community Requirements Workshop - TR-2001-03 [PDF]
09-30-2001 Tom Prudhomme, Tom Finholt, and Scott Lathrop
The Community Requirements Workshop Final Report (Technical Report 2001-03) summarizes the data collected from the site visits and surveys, and information gained during the workshop itself. It is a first step in bringing the EER and IT communities together to help define a useful approach to building a national NEES collaboratory to transform the way the earthquake engineering community works.

NEES Equipment Site Point of Presence System (NEES-POP): Concept and Overview: TR-2001-04 [PDF]
09-27-2001 Randal Butler, Ian Foster, Carl Kesselman
In this report, we describe the function that the NEES-POP is intended to fulfill, outline its planned hardware and software configuration, explain how we expect a NEES-POP to function at a site, and present our plans for development and deployment. The report does not provide complete specifications for hardware or software (these will be provided in later documents), but we believe does provide enough information to allow critical review.

Scoping Study - TR-2001-01 [PDF]
02-14-2001 Tom Prudhomme, Carl Kesselman, et al.

Universal File Format [TXT]
04-23-1993 Joe Futrelle