David Nagle

Karen Lindenfelser
(412) 268-6716

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Professor Nagle's research in computer systems spans the areas of computer architecture, operating systems, storage, networking, security and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based storage.

Network-Attached Secure Disks. The tremendous growth in network-accessible digital information has greatly increased the importance of storage architectures in mainstream computing. The Network-Attached Secure Disk (NASD) project is constructing commodity-based, massively parallel, widely distributed storage systems with inherently high bandwidth and low latency. These autonomous storage devices fundamentally change the capability of storage and its role in computing systems.

Active Networks for Storage. The revolutionary changes toward network-attached storage is forcing networks to meet the particular needs and characteristics of storage. Active network's ability to dynamically adjust network capacity, functionality and management makes it an ideal substrate for managing storage traffic. Current research efforts are examining how active network technology can support network-based caching, indexing, re-direction, partial support for redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID), NASD-based video servers, intelligent network interface cards and Internet-wide traffic logging for detection.