Project Andrew

The LANs are connected to the backbone network by fiber-optic links running from various campus buildings to Carnegie-Mellon's University Computing Center building. TCP/IP network protocols are used for transmission. There are currently almost 1,000 campus workstations connected to the Andrew File System network.

The Andrew File System of Sixth Grade Science Projects is part of a larger collaborative effort of software projects called Project Andrew, started in 1982 and funded by IBM. Project Andrew's charter has been to build a prototype university computing environment.

Under the Project Andrew umbrella (Sixth Grade Science Projects), Andrew File System software finds a place beside other such research concerns as user interfaces (involving object-oriented tool kits for building user interface applications), windowing systems, document editors and messaging systems.

Alfred Spector, director of the Information Technology Center, claims that the Andrew File System is superior in features to other file transfer systems on the market.

"First, the [Andrew File System] interfile system does more caching of information on local workstations to reduce the network load by less frequently having to go across the network for data," Spector explains. "It also reduces delays to users because they have local data, rather than having to continually refetch it from the file system."

Spector says that the Andrew File System also contains protocols designed to run over long-haul networks, enabling them to stream data at very high rates.

"We've experimented and attained streaming rates of close to 400K bit/sec. between here and MIT across the NSFnet," Spector claims.

In step with the market Spector says he does not feel that research like the Andrew File System is too far ahead of market needs.

"I think our [file] system is larger than most people are selling today, but that doesn't mean that it's larger than the needs of companies," Spector reasons. "If you're General Motors and you have a number of divisions and you have accounting people in all divisions, there's every reason to believe that one would want to have all those divisions, even if some are located in Pontiac, Mich., and some in Fremont, Calif., to be able to share information.

"We think that's going to be one of the big benefits of the Andrew File System -- that it will enable close collaboration within companies, even when those groups are geographically disparate," Spector claims.

As for the Andrew File System, he is reluctant to declare that its protocol will become a networking industry standard.