GISnet - Qatar's Ring of Powerby Mr. Satinath Sarkar
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Satinath Sarkar |
Abstract :
Cooperation has been the key to success of nationwide GIS implementation strategy of the State of Qatar. Government agencies have sat down together and collectively built the GIS data infrastructure of the country. As the standards for data collection and maintenance were being put in place, it was important to work on a methodology to make this data available to the users on a daily basis. The concept of GISNet was put together to facilitate this data sharing and avoid redundant data storage, maintenance and manipulation. In GISNet, the person responsible for serving the digital data to any government desktop is the same person responsible for collecting and maintaining it.
Design of a GIS data network is different from the traditional data networks used in most commercial and MIS activities. The type of data is very different and so is the use of it. It requires a good blend of systems and GIS application knowledge and expertise to design such a network. Input from various experts from each field was carefully put together to establish GISNet in the year 1994. With ongoing enhancements and upgrades, GISnet currently uses a dual ring star topology and fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) protocol and has a bandwidth of 100 megabits per second (Mbps). Two Fibre optic switches installed at Qatar's Centre for GIS (CGIS) is the centre of the star topology. A standard hub, maintained at each user agency, provides the desired link to GISNet.
The local area networks of each agency is designed and managed internally by their own experts. A public server is connected to each of the agency hubs to serve the GIS database of that agency. The agency has full control over the content and management of this server. In order to ensure that everyone is able to communicate electronically with each other, the national GIS steering committee recommends the standards for data format, operating system and hardware to be used upto the public server level.
This paper discuss the logical and physical design of GISnet and also give a brief overview of the type of data available and how data access at the desktop is facilitated through various software packages developed by the centre.
Satinath Sarkar - Profile :
Mr. Satinath Sarkar is an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He has over eight years of experience in the IT industry with specialization in spatial databases, engineering software development, project management and systems administration.
He joined The Centre for GIS in Qatar in October 1991 as
a GIS Analyst and moved on to become Head of Technology
Services. He has played a key role in establishing
inter-agency data sharing, communication standards and
intranet GIS applications development and is currently
responsible for generic GIS applications development for the
Centre and managing the enterprise GIS data network of the
State of Qatar.
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