Multiple-site remote data access for fusion experiments

The need for remote access to experiment data is a consequence of the current trend in fusion research towards the use of fewer and larger devices, whose operation involves scientists from several laboratories. Different solutions have been adopted so far, each addressing a slightly different aspect of remote data access. There is as yet no common agreement on a common approach for remote data access, even though there is an increasing number of laboratories that are adopting the data communication layer of the MDSplus data acquisition system. MDSplus, however, does not provide tools for remote data browsing, and the user needs to know in advance the exact name of the signals he/she wants to access. This issue is addressed at TEXTOR, in which data is presented and described by a set of dynamically generated Web pages. Based on the ideas developed at TEXTOR, a tool for remote data browsing has also been developed for MDSplus. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.