perfSONAR Working Group Charter
The performance of most applications is dependent on the performance of the networks. 
The perfSONAR Working Group is developing a measurement infrastructure framework 
that will be interoperable with that of other networks; the group is collaborating with 
ESnet, GÉANT2, and other international, national, and regional backbone networks in 
the development of this architecture. General design goals for this project include 
flexibility, extensibility, openness, and de-centralization. The resulting architecture 
should be a system that is: 
*	Modular, to allow the division of the architecture into multiple components that 
can be developed by individual developers. Over time, it should be possible to 
evolve and/or replace individual components as our understanding of the needs of 
the system changes. 
*	Dynamic, to allow components and Measurement Points, to some extent, to be 
added or removed during the system operation. 
*	Self-configuring, to allow components and Measurement Points to autonomously 
announce their existence and capabilities. 
*	Decentralized, to allow each administrative authority to limit the system 
capabilities in accordance with locally-specified policies and procedures. 
*	Scalable, to incorporate multiple networks, overlay virtual communities, and 
handle varying amounts of users, servers, and data volumes as well as differing 
types of monitoring data and tools. 
*	Secure, such that it is non-exploitable for uses other than performance monitoring 
(not particularly vulnerable to attack). 
*	Safe, to not overly-congest the networks it is trying to monitor. 
*	Fault tolerant, to fail gracefully in the presence of module failures. 
*	Self-diagnosing, to provide clear and timely exception messages in the case of 
failure. 
The group will develop an architecture in various stages; an alpha version of the code 
will be ready for deployment by the end of 2006. A schedule of deliverables is attached.