Software Instrastructure to Enable Parallel Spatial Data Handling
Abstract
The report describes research intended to enhance the timeliness and scope for intervisibility analyses to improve decisions related to intervisibility. The research entailed the development and use of prototype software to: (1) Manage the completion of a large number of visibility analyses, each of which determines the visible regions from a point in a digital elevation model. The project accomplishes the visibility analyses by efficient use of spare CPU cycles on a network of processors. (2) Build a database from these analyses. The database is sufficiently compact for a test grid of 466 rows, each with 336 columns to reside comfortably on a CD (it requires 84Mbytes). (3) Extract information from the database using a series of tactical decision aids. The concurrent execution of multiple visibility commands, accomplished by the development of a multicomputing framework achieved significant speed-up, limited only by the number of processors available (13). The compression methods adopted for the database achieved ^97% reduction in volume, whilst still allowing timely access to the data to support interactive use of tactical decision aids.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 10, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA392737
Entities
People
- B. M. Gittings
- M. J. Mineter
- S. Dowers
Organizations
- University of Edinburgh