DTS: the NOAO Data Transport System

The Data Transport System (DTS) provides automated, reliable, high-throughput data transfer between the telescopes, archives and pipeline processing systems used by the NOAO centers in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. DTS is implemented using an XML-RPC 1 architecture to eliminate the need for persistent network connections between the sites, allowing each site to provide or consume services within the network only as needed. This architecture also permits remote control and monitoring of each site, and for language-independent client applications (e.g. a web interface to display transfer status or a compiled task to queue data for transport which is more tightly coupled with the acquisition system being used). The resulting system is a highly multi-threaded distributed application able to span a wide range of network environments and operational uses.