nShare: an Information Sharing Protocol
nShare* is a universal protocol for information sharing based on core technologies acquired from NASA's Mission Control Center. nShare is a technologically advanced implementation of NASA's ISP (Information Sharing Protocol), used to monitor telemetry from Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS).
nShare permits sharing of information from multiple dissimilar platforms in such a way that the dissimilarities are transparent to the final user and many user applications.
nShare is designed for use with any data that is or can be parameterized. Data from each source is received by a data acquisition module within nShare where it is identified to the source and parameter level and re-characterized to the nShare internal standard. Multiple data acquisition modules can be active within one nShare instance, providing the capability to integrate data from multiple sources. For example, data from multiple earth-orbiting satellites with different characteristics and data formats can be received by multiple data acquisition modules within one or more nShare servers where the data are re-characterized to the nShare internal standard, then routed to a user's workstation where data from all the satellites can be combined on a single display, or fed into one or more algorithms for computation of new parameters, or processed in any other manner of the user's choosing.
The example could have used data streams from multiple SCADA systems produced by various vendors, each using proprietary operating systems and data formatting schemes and each unable to exchange data with the others. Information is created when data from disparate sources are integrated to create entirely new pieces of information which nShare can parameterize and share with other users. If the data streams can be decomposed, such as by using an ICD or other similar definition, nShare can provide the user with unrestricted data integration and information creation and sharing capabilities.
nShare has been optimized for real-time operation, is extremely efficient in use of computing resources, uses lossless compression to reduce network bandwidth requirements, and is capable of accepting a plug-in encryption module for data security. It runs on any mainstream processor and/or operating system, has an ActiveX control component, and will soon boast a .NET implementation.
When combined with dShare, Argotec's display builder and display processor tool, the user has complete flexibility in choosing which parameters to display and/or feed to other computations, the manner in which the data are displayed (tabular, graphs of various kinds, color-coded, and so on), and near-instantaneous creation and redefinition of displays. These two tools combined make up Synapse Suite, named for its ability to mimic the human brain's ability to receive and integrate various kinds of information from multiple sensors (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch) in real-time.
More information
Data Sheet
*nShare is a Naknan Inc. product, customized and deployed in Europe by Argotec.
