HPCC Report
CSTB
August 24-25, 1995
Report Outline
n	EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
n	 Ch. 1: HPCC and Application Needs
n	 Ch 2: Crisis Management 
n	 Ch 3: HPCC Research Recommendations
n	  APPENDIXES
n	       workshop participants, agendas
n	       contributed position papers(?)
Ch 1 - HPCC and Application Needs
n	a) HPCC research: background, definitions, note the findings of Brooks/Sutherland, motivation for looking at applications
n	b) application domains and HPCC research needs: healthcare, manufacturing, e-commerce, digital libraries (findings of Workshop 1 and other workshops, Natl. Science & Tech Council Committee on Information and Communications--CIC)
Ch 1 - HPCC Needs/Apps (Cont)
n	c) cross-domain research issues from Workshop 1
Ch 2 - Crisis Management
n	Sample scenarios - and general Characteristics
–	what makes it a crisis
–	what are examples of crises (WG1 and WG2 examples)
n	focus on crisis management--important missions, covers all aspects of HPCC, pushes the envelope in many ways. Results of Workshop 2
n	Crisis Management Motivators
–	Hwang: we tend to rely on the general systems first (telephone network, Internet) and are surprised when we get busy signals and congestion. Need ways to sequester resources to get through emergency situation. Research needed.
–	Systems get deployed with the crisis; it isn’t “survivable” it’s ad hoc
n	Testbeds to uncover research issues (expose weaknesses and opportunities)
n	Data and Communications Challenges (WG2)
n	Problems: Uncorrelated, anomalous, large quantities of unqualified data from the field. Digest, fuse, represent, summarize
n	Normal modes of operation in crisis (including computing environment) - orders of magnitude increase in demand - design capability for orders of magnitude increase in handling crisis load. Scaleability component here.
n	Note need to increase resources for crisis management and also suppress irrelevant processing/information which doesn’t contribute to the crisis management.
n	Integration of emergency deployed facilities and subsystems into the pre-existing, partially operating systems in the disaster area (note how applicable this is to evolvability of ordinary systems in large scale enterprises!)
n	Voice recognition databases, auto-transcripting, tagging/indexing/cataloging
n	People are under stress/exacerbates the need for simplicity/clarity of user interface
n	Don’t use crisis as a training opportunity for new software and hardware! But testbeds, training and simulation  may be a reasonable avenue for this.
n	Automatic Checklist generation (or pre-position checklists - this is like the AALPS macro load planning system for 18th Airborne Corp deployment). 
n	Checklists of experts needed - categories, actual individuals,...pre-flight check lists analogy
n	Resource location (computing, databases, etc)
n	Transactional databases are not good for query processing -how to accommodate both. Need to build high update, high query rate systems. Replication? consistency management? access controls?
n	Computational composability - linking modelling to data gathering to display and presentation. Linking query/situational analysis and “What if” scenario analysis/decision systems. Water and plume modelling link up as an example. Heterogeneous database and analysis integration and presentation composability. 
n	Information preparation and dissemination to decision makers, public, on-the-ground workers. 
n	Access to detailed sensor data, geographically indexed information. Finding relevant data in areas where you hadn’t planned to have a crisis
n	Quality assurance of databases - problems of overlap and duplication (e.g. people’s names, etc). High error rates in raw data. Would a master list of cities, other data allow raw data to be reconciled? Sensor data/map correlation? 
n	Vector Metafile critical tool for crisis and mfg and other application areas - considerable flexibility, annotation capability, etc.
n	Information presentation in visual form critical for crisis management - geographic/spatial contexts, fast absorption of large amounts of information needed. 
Ch 3 - R&D Opportunities
n	 needs for advances in computing and communications technologies (findings of Workshop 2, illustrated with reference to scenarios as appropriate)
n	            i) computation and analysis
n	            ii) sensors and communications
n	            iii) interpretation and action
Ch 3 - R&D Opportunities (cont)
n	Systems Concepts (Architecture)
–	Information Infrastructure Services
»	Neckware - placeholder for general network architecture work
–	Security, authenticity, access control, confidentiality, rapid policy reconfiguration“composability property” possibilities?, simplicity and speed of operation (silent but effective...). 
–	Interoperability
–	Scaleability (PHONETIC)
–	Resource Management/Allocation
»	prioritization/classes of service/”emergency lane”
»	multicasting
–	Heterogeneous Databases
»	Object representation
»	Object-oriented DB Interfaces (dynamic translation)
»	“Datafaces” - manifesting data in different ways
»	integration of heterogeneous sensor system data
»	Data collection, cataloging, Distribution
»	Quality controlled databases?? predictor/corrector concepts? Metadata. “Blackboard” data sharing and evaluation. Automatic discovery of data quality/matching against models
»	Geographically Indexed data (see GILS)
»	Coherent “state of knowledge” representation (computation), inconsistency detection, sensor system anomaly detection
»	Indications and Warning, see also modelling/data evaluation
»	Bottom-up information flow, top-down reverse flow
Ch 3 - R&D Opportunities (continued)
–	Survivable, Fault-Tolerant (Persistent) Information Systems
»	for all value of “fault” including bad data?
»	application of geographic distribution, replication methods
–	New Paradigms, man in the loop, interfaces, accessibility
–	Self Organizing Systems
»	resource discovery (DB/Information Semantics )
»	network structure/routing
»	“Nomadicity” Mobility
»	Rapid deployment capabilities
–	Collaboration Technologies
–	Modelling Technologies and Systems
»	simulation
Ch 3 R&D Opportunities
n	Low Cost Systems
–	hardwear and softwear
Programmatic Opportunities/Ideas
–	Technology Testbeds
–	JWID-style Exercises to test new ideas?
–	Simulation and Training
»	Temporal dynamics - important aspect of information gathering and evolution (not monotonic either)
»	Sensor systems (extended definition! including images from ATM systems!)
Appendices
n	workshop participants, agendas
n	contributed position papers(?)