Why perfSONAR?
The perfSONAR infrastructure is open and any tool can take advantage of it. Many perfSONAR services and monitoring applications have already been implemented as standalone measurement tools. Weathermaps, looking-glasses, IPPM measurements, and many other monitoring applications have already been implemented using the perfSONAR framework.
Technical Overview
perfSONAR is a services-oriented architecture -- the set of elementary functions have been isolated and can be provided by different entities called services. All those services communicate with each other using well-defined protocols. Below are links to an overview of the perfSONAR:
Design Goals
The design goals for this project include flexibility, extensibility, openness, and decentralization. The resulting architecture should be:
- A modular system that allows the division of the architecture into multiple components that can be developed by individuals. Over time, it should be possible to evolve and/or replace individual components as our understanding of the needs of the system changes.
- A dynamic system that allows components and Measurement Points, to some extent, to be added or removed during the system operation.
- A self-configuring system that allows components and Measurement Points to autonomously announce their existence and capabilities.
- A decentralized system, that allows each administrative authority to limit the system capabilities in accordance with locally-specified policies and procedures.
- A scalable system that can a) incorporate multiple networks and overlay virtual communities, b) handle varying numbers of users and servers, and c) handle varying information volumes as well as differing types of monitoring data and tools.
- A secure system that cannot be exploited for uses other than performance monitoring, which is not particularly vulnerable to attack.
- A safe system that does not overly congest the networks it is trying to monitor.
- A fault-tolerant system that fails gracefully in the presence of module failures.
- A self-diagnosing system that provides clear and timely exception messages in the case of failure.
