About SSSWG

• Charter
• Background
• Present Work: Media Management System (MMS)
• Documents
• Pieces of Present Project (PARs)
• Past Work: Reference Model (MSSRM)

The SSSWG works to model generic mass storage systems, and based on such a model, to develop widely accepted standards which are readily implemented. It is the intent of the SSSWG to develop standards which:

• are timely;
• result in interoperable systems;
• allow system implementation with minimal licensing requirements;
• result in a ubiquity of systems based on the standards;
• promote use of the best current technologies;
• result in easy access of information throughout distributed, heterogenous networks of systems;
• and permit a full range of scalability of storage systems from the low end to high end in the spectrum of system sizes.

It is also the intent of the SSSWG to embrace promising new technologies in its model, even though standards for these parts of the model may not be immediately practical. That is, the model may remain an abstraction expressing desirable features, and the associated standards expressing practical requirements.

In addition to working on standards, the SSSWG may develop recommended practices and guides. The SSSWG is primarily concerned with Distributed Storage System Design, and the SSSWG, without favor, includes Storage Systems of every scale in its studies. An object oriented approach is desired in all SSSWG efforts, and net-attached storage is intrinsic to the model.

The SSSWG holds open meetings, as required by its accreditation with ISO through IEEE and ANSI.

The traditional means of participation is by attending meetings and contributing reviews of documents between meetings. But the SSSWG is eager to accommodate participants through other means, and all are encouraged to contact the SSSWG Chair if such accommodation is desired, if the required registration fee poses a problem, or if access to documents of the SSSWG is required. The SSSWG is flexible. IEEE membership is not required for participation in most working group activities.

The IEEE Computer Society established Project 1244 in 1990 for development of Storage System Standards. An associated committee was also formed on the Computer Society's Standards Activity Board (at first on the Technical Activities Board). That committee sponsors one working group: the Storage System Standards WG (SSSWG). Early on, the SSSWG set forth its Mass Storage System Reference Model (MSSRM), and systems such as the High Performance Storage System (HPSS) have been implemented using the MSSRM as a model. The history of the SSSWG pre-dates the 1990 IEEE action and the actual formation of the working group. Today interest in versions 4 and 5 of the MSSRM remain high throughout the world, even though version 5 of the MSSRM, the last approved version, is dated September 1994. To date, no standards from the SSSWG have been balloted

Until 1997, the SSSWG worked to develop and refine its storage model and to attempt to define standards for components of the model. Particularly for the Physical Volume Library (PVL) and Physical Volume Repository (PVR).

In 1997, the SSSWG decided that progress toward standards based on that model was too little, too slow to be meaningful. The reason for the slowness was simply that the MSSRM was too robust, too all-encompassing, and too complex. The MSSRM began with the thought of identifying all services and objects. Recognizing the need for a change of course in late 1996, the SSSWG began to consider alternatives.

In January 1997 participants sponsored by Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) joined the SSSWG to work on a medium changer service standard (since withdrawn), and began to discuss SGI's OpenVault, then in an early stage of development. The OpenVault development was influenced by ideas from the MSSRM, and some of the SGI OpenVault development team had been early participants in development of the MSSRM. SSSWG members were impressed by the minimalist approach take by SGI developers, the opposite of the original approach taken in developing the MSSRM, and with the fact that SGI had both early an implementation and the intent to make OpenVault available to all with minimal licensing requirements. At this point a decision was made to both provide SGI with technical review of OpenVault as it developed, and to begin development of the SSSWG's own Media Management System (MMS) using OpenVault as a starting point. The objective being that SGI's design and the IEEE MMS would converge to a common set of design ideas in perhaps two years. A motion to this effect was made and approved by the eligible voting members of the SSSWG at that time.

The Storage System Standards Working Group (SSSWG) is presently attempting to complete five standards in 1998 for the core portion of its Media Management System (MMS). Five additional standards for a complete, robust, and more complex MMS will be completed in 1999. Completion of an eleventh standard for an IEEE data mover is also contemplated for 1999. The SSSWG has embarked on a major revision of its Mass Storage System Reference Model (MSSRM), and the MMS may be viewed as the core portion, in turn, for this revision effort. Eleven Project Authorization Requests (PARs) briefly describe these proposed standards, and only the first five will be balloted in 1998. By a synergistic process the SSSWG MMS and SGI's OpenVault will converge to a common set of design ideas in 1999 embodied in ten standards.

The SSSWG maintains and develops various documents online. These include public documents readable by everyone, draft standards which are password protected, and working drafts, also password protected. If you have questions about access to any document, please contact us. We are always looking for reviewers, and SSSWG participants may access the group's drafts.

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