Grid Technologies for High Throughput Data Acquisition

Abstract

Abstract:The Grid is an upcoming technology, providing access to an unimaginable amount of storage and computation resources. In the final stage of the Grid nearly every computer worldwide offers its free capacities to the Grid, which gives access to the resources as simple as getting electricity from a power outlet. As process data processing has very high resource demands, growing up rapidly from project to project, the Grid offers the capabilities to fulfil the requirements for upcoming process data processing projects. This paper evaluates the already existing remote control software packages to be used in process data processing projects, explains the demands for developing a high throughput data acquisition system with the introduced requirements, shows the advantages of using Grid technologies and proposes an architecture for developing such a system. Key words: Data Acquisition, Instrumentation, Grid, Computation CMST 15(1) 105-115 (2009) DOI:10.12921/cmst.2009.15.01.105-115 M. Sutter, T. Jejkal, R. Stotzka, V. Hartmann, M. Hardt and H. Gemmeke 106 II. FUNDAMENTALSThis section introduces the existing technologies for data acquisition, as well as the requirements to develop a high throughput data acquisition system for process data processing sensors and already existing remote control software packages to communicate with various types of sensors. II.1. Data Acquisition TechniquesA data acquisition system is a combination of several technologies to measure data about physical properties of the environment. The physical properties are observed to analyse the data, to increase the knowledge of the properties and how they interact with other properties [5]. For observing a data acquisition system consists of hardand software components. The hardware components are sensors for measuring the data, e.g. the temperature of a room for a very simple data acquisition system and are assembled with other electronic components and cables. The software components of data acquisition systems are for the communication and controlling of the hardware, like starting and stopping and for retrieving and storing the measured data, as well as the analysis of the data -if it is a requirement of the data acquisition system. The communication with the hardware components normally includes the implementation of a special protocol to access the hardware. Fig. 1. The schematic design of a data acquisition system. The sensor is measuring the physical properties. The input data is digitalized with an analogue digital converter (ADC) and buffered within the data acquisition systemThere are several methods to measure the data with data acquisition systems:• Continuous measurement systems directly start to measure data after startup. Typical for them is also that they normally need no interaction from an operator, as they run autonomously -even if the measurement takes several weeks up to several months. To prevent the hardware of a continuous measuring system from damage, control technologies are used. As such systems produce da...