GRID Meta-Data Query Language

70107 Today¿s high energy physics research demands systems that allow collaborators to efficiently analyze vast sums of data, while using limited computing resources. The data intensive requirements of particle and nuclear physics combined with the distributed nature of both computing resources and physicists makes this a unique problem. At Fermilab, the SAM System serves the distributed data access needs of collaborators throughout the world, providing physicists with an easy to use interface and masking the complexities of the underlying meta-data storage structures. This project will extend the robustness and capabilities of the SAM Query Language to provide a solution adaptable to other particle physics facilities, while deploying implementations pertinent to additional problems at Fermilab. In Phase I, additional infrastructure enhancements will be added to provide an accurately documented and implemented grammar syntax checker, to enforce security authentication, and to ensure maximal database resource utilization via performance optimization and efficiency techniques. Next, interface extensions will be added to ensure the query language is easy to use and adaptable to other particle physics data access problems. Finally, a detailed analysis will be performed of the needs of the D0 Experiment for additional domain areas that need grid like meta-data query access to raw data. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The enhancements to the SAM Query Language should be applicable to a myriad of data access problems facing other scientific institutions. As data storage and access needs grow in other traditional corporations and government agencies, they too may seek such alternative, cost effective means of storage and data access.