DATA CONSISTENCY NETWORK SERVICES

WE PROPOSE TO DEFINE A DATA CONSISTENCY NETWORK SERVICE, INCLUDING THE PROTOCOLS, FORMATS, PROGRAMMING INTERFACES AND UTILITIES NEEDED TO SUPPORT THE SERVICE. WE WILL ALSO DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION. THE DATA CONSISTENCY NETWORK SERVICE (DCNS) WILL ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OF GENERAL PURPOSE REVISION CONTROL FOR DESIGNS WITH FILES DISTRIBUTED ACROSS A NETWORK. WITHIN THE GENERAL PURPOSE SYSTEM, PARTICULAR EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON DESIGN FILES AND LIBRARIES FOUND IN MULTI-USER ENGINEERING PROJECT ON A NETOWRK THAT SUPPORTS IP (INTERNET PROTOCOL). DCNS SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS WILL ALLOW USERS TO IDENTIFY SLAVE FILES THAT ARE LINKED TO MASTER FILES ACROSS THE NETWORK. OPTIONS WILL ALLOW THE USER TO BE AUTOMATICALLY NOTIFIED WHEN THE MASTER CHANGES, WILL ALLOW FOR MANUAL UPDATE OF THE SLAVE FILE AT THE PUSH OF A BUTTON, AND WILL ALLOW FOR AUTOMATIC UPDATE OF THE SLAVE WHENEVER THE MASTER CHANGES. THESE SERVICES WILL PROVIDE A FUNDAMENTAL CAPABILITY OF DATA CONSISTENCY AND UPDATE CONTROL ACROSS THE INTERNET. THESE CAPABILITIES HAVE THE POTENTIAL OF SAVING TREMENDOUS MANUAL EFFORT NOW ASSOCIATED WITH UPDATING TASKS, REDUCE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH USING OUT-OF-DATE INFORMATION (E.G., FAILED ELECTRONIC DESIGNS), AND SPEED UP THE RATE OF INTERACTION BETWEEN USERS OF THE INTERNET. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS: DCNS IS OF DIRECT BENEFIT TO NETWORK-BASED CAD PROJECTS, IMPROVING QUALITY CONTROL, TIME TO MARKET, AND ENABLING ADVANCED CAD TECHNIQUES SUCH AS CONCURRENT ENGINEERING. FURTHER, THE NETWORK-WIDE USAGE OF THIS SERVICE COULD REVOLUTIONIZE THE PROCESS OF SOFTWARE SHIPPING AND UPDATING.