A case for the global access to large distributed data sets using data webs employing photonic data services

We argue that data webs employing specialized path services, network protocols, and data protocols can be an effective platform to analyze and access millions of distributed Gigabyte (and larger) size data sets. We have built a prototype of such a data web today and demonstrated that it can effectively access, analyze and mine distributed Gigabyte size data sets even over thousands of miles by using specialized network and data protocols. The prototype uses a server which employs the DataSpace Transfer Protocol (DSTP). Our assumption is that WSDL/SOAP/UDDI-based discovery and description services will enable this same infrastructure to scale to millions of such DSTP-servers.