Research Issues

• Develop model of user workload requirements based on the initial prototype.

• Determine size of datasets and develop a model for catalogue accesses and I/O to multi-level storage based on the user workload.

• Incorporate access and storage models into a system model which will allow the analysis of system capacities and throughput.

• Use the system model to develop a methodology for choosing system components which satisfy throughput and response time objectives for various user workloads.

• Apply the methodology to guide the acquisition of components for the full testbed implementation of Alexandria.

• Refine the system model and apply it to technologies on the horizon (e.g. virtual reality peripherals, HDTV display technology, CATV/NII network technologies).