Fusion folks at San Diego and at MIT.  Tom is an MDS expert.  MDS Plus is a data management and acquisition tool.
David: How many common issues are there?  The fusion folks think there are a lot.
TF: Not a canned, full MDS plus presentation.  (Begin slide show).  DAQ system for all fusion experiments.  Bunch of measurement equipment armed, when the event happens, all the data are loaded into local devices, then MDS comes around and collects them.  Definitely "pulsed" mode.
EG: Aren't you going to more continuous operation?
TF: Yes, sort of.  Migrating/evolving to contiuous.  So when fusion becomes a power plant, MDS should be used, still.  MDS has remote access capabilities.  Anywhere on the Internet, can connect to MDS.  MDS provides basic tools for visualization and analysis.  Interfaces to a bunch of different applications/languages.  Archival ops, too.
EG: Everyone accesses the fusion data this way??
TF: Yes.  Even the "local" people are accessing it this way.  The environment is the same whether sitting next to the facility or across the nation from it.
TF: History (slide 3).
TF: Used world-wide--in majoity of Fusion sites in the world (27 shown on transparency).  Lots of hese sites use it stricly for remote access.
TF: The actual control of the system runs from a different place--their dedicated control system.  All the information is stored in MDS system.  MDS Plus data storage behaves a lot like a database.  The data storeage GUI looks a bit like a file system.
TF: Data type of "Signal" is the most common.  Stored as raw volts and as scaled data, with time stamps.
TF: Expressions--sets it apart from other similar systems.  Expressions can be stored in the data tree.
TF: Homogeneous Data Access Interface: Set of simple API routines; looks very similar to other simple DAQ API's (Connect, Open, MdsValue (i.e., get), Put, Close and Disconnect).  Can define MDS functions in the MDS data language.  Expressions can be part of a "Signal" structure.  People use Signal to store all kinds of things!  Can also store device setup information, how to access the functionalities of that device, etc.  Task scheduling information; action dispatching facilities, etc....
TF: Remote access details.  3 types of Remote access (one is getting phased out). Thin Client (MdsConnect--most stuff done on the server) and Thick Client (TreeOpen--a lot more done on the client; used kinda like a file access facility). (3rd is a "local access" thingy.)
EG: Can an expression be an SQL expression?
TF: Yes.  Folks have set this up to access MySQL and to PostGres.
TF: MDSPlus can be used as a Data Gateway, by teaching it to do DAQ on your local system through expressions.  Can put together MDSPlus trees that are expressions that, when evaluated, go to the local system to gather data.  This is done in a "fair number of places."
TF: Secure WAN Access.  Globus Security Infrastructure using XIO (simple).  X509 Credentials used to autheticate both client and server.  Centralized management of access control via ROAM--web configuration tool for setting up a resource.  Can setup a named resource, grant permissions to users (simulation code, analysis, etc.).  
TF: (Slide about ROAM).  Cenralizes the allocation of diverse resources, from DBs to computational resources to administration activities.  Interact through a web site.  Premissions like "Write", "read", "Admin", "Access" and "Execute."  The ROAM site recognized you thorugh the X509 certificate you hafe used.
EG: Coupled tightly to Golbus toolkit?
TF: Not really.  Only through the proxy mechanism.
EG: Would this be cumbersome for LHC the applications we have?
TF: Not really.  ROAM is for managing the permissions, only.  It is very simplistic: Does this person have this particular permission on this particular resource?
TF: Potential use of MDSPlus at FNAL.  Not well designed as a "trending" data store.  They have implemented an access to a local relatonal DB through MDSPlus.
EG: MDSPlus server at CERN and we can access it?
TF: Tis is definitetely a secure mechanism.  Should be able to convince network people that this is kosher.
TF: Other topics: E-Log, SQL-like queries into the log book (topics, experimental shots, etc.); MDSPlus in action (C-Mod experiment).
Web sites: www.mdspplus.org and www.fusiongrid.org.  Tom is at twf@psfc.mit.edu.