NISTIR 6909

NOVEMBER 2002

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Donald L. Evans, Secretary

Technology Administration

Phillip J. Bond

Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology

National Institute of

Standards and Technology

Arden L. Bement, Jr., Director

CONTENTS

Director’s Foreword 1

ITL at a Glance 4

ITL Research Blueprint 6

Accomplishments of our 

Research Program 7

Foundation Research Areas 8

Selected Cross Cutting Themes 29

Accomplishments of our 

Services Program 33

Industry and International Interactions 35

Staff Recognition 42
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Let me introduce you to the

Information Technology Laboratory

(ITL). As one of the National Institute

of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Laboratories, our mission is to develop and promote measurement science, standards,

and technology for information technology (IT) in

order to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and

improve the quality of life. We develop computer

security standards and guidelines for the federal government in fulfillment of a legislative mandate. And,

new homeland security legislation, the USA Patriot

Act of 2001 (P.L.107-56) and the Aviation and

Transportation Security Act (P.L.107-71), mandate our

research and standards development work in biometrics. Working in partnership with industry, academia,

government, and consortia, we develop and demonstrate tests, test methods, reference data, proof-ofconcept implementations, and other IT infrastructure

technologies. Our goal is to enable the future of the

U.S. IT industry to produce products and services

that are high quality, reliable, interoperable, and

secure. 

ITL also supports and contributes to major NIST

Strategic Focus Areas (SFAs). In support of the

Healthcare SFA, we have begun work on the development of a healthcare standards roadmap, which

will provide a set of web services and infrastructure

for establishing, populating, searching, maintaining,

and administering healthcare standards information.

With other NIST laboratories, we participated in the

establishment of the Distributed Testbed for First

Responders as part of the Homeland Security SFA.

Also significant is our Quantum Communication

Testbed Facility in support of the NIST

Nanotechnology SFA. 

In critical research and standards areas, ITL made

significant contributions in Fiscal Year (FY) 2002.

Industry, government, academia, and consortia

recognized the valuable contributions of our work,

including:

Statistical Methods e-Handbook – ITL and

International SEMATECH collaborated to publish the

online resource e-Handbook of Statistical Methods,

which provides a comprehensive overview of statistical methods, including experiment design, data

analysis, and quality control, for engineers and

scientists worldwide; 

Active Networks Project – A research team from

ITL received the “Bytes for the Buck” award from

the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

(DARPA) Active Networks program for the project

judged most productive and cost effective. The ITL

team developed a standard means to specify

processor demands for mobile computer programs; 

1

Susan F. Zevin,

Acting ITL Director

D IRECTOR’S F OREWORD
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Common Industry Format Specification – The National

Committee for Information Technology Standards

(NCITS) adopted ITL’s Common Industry Format for

Usability Test Reports (NCITS 354). This document

standardizes the types of information captured in the

software development testing process;

Computer Forensics – ITL released the National

Software Reference Library (NSRL) Reference Data Set,

which, together with our Computer Forensics Tool

Testing project, provides valuable resources for the law

enforcement community investigating crimes involving

computers;

Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF) –

Collaborating with other NIST laboratories and the

National Science Foundation, ITL is developing an

interactive web-based information resource on the

special functions of applied mathematics;

Distributed Testbed for First Responders - ITL is

working with NIST’s Building and Fire Research

Laboratory and the Manufacturing Engineering

Laboratory to build a NIST Distributed Testbed for First

Responders that will integrate a number of technologies,

including advanced communication technologies, novel

spatial localization techniques to allow localization

and tracking of important assets, and smart sensor

networking to detect and predict the evolution of fires

and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or

high-yield explosive (CBRNE) attacks and the dangers

they pose to the health of victims and first responders

at the disaster site; 

Guidance on Wireless Network Security and Security

Certification and Accreditation (C&A) of Federal

Information Technology Systems - ITL is developing

guidelines for federal and industry users on these

significant topics and others;

Homeland Security - ITL contributed to a joint report,

submitted to Congress by the Attorney General,

Secretary of State, and NIST by mandate of the USA

Patriot Act and the Enhanced Border Security and Visa

Entry Reform Act. The report assesses the actions and

considerations needed for issuing machine-readable

tamper-proof U.S. visas and other travel documents and

for deploying equipment to the U.S. borders to allow

biometric comparison and authentication of the

documents. ITL provided an appendix that outlined

appropriate standards for biometric accuracy, tamper

resistance, and interoperability; 

Multi-Laboratory Single Molecule Measurement and

Manipulation Program - The NIST Smart Flow

Distributed Processing Middleware platform generates

speech recognition reference data and supports

pervasive computing standards work at ITL. It also

provides high-speed data acquisition and pattern

recognition for research at NIST’s Physics and

Chemical Science and Technology Laboratories; 

NIST Refreshable Tactile Graphic Display - ITL has

developed, in cooperation with the National Federation

of the Blind, a new, refreshable tactile graphic

technology that allows blind and visually impaired users

to view images using the sense of touch. Future applications include viewing graphics, science, engineering,

mathematics, education, and design graphics, both

technical and artistic;

Quantum Communication Testbed - In collaboration

with the NIST Physics and Electronics and Electrical

Engineering Laboratories, ITL is developing a quantum

communication testbed facility for technology assessment and integration, showcasing hardware and

protocols for cryptographic key distribution based

on commercially feasible technologies;

Role Based Access Control (RBAC) – An independent

economic impact study, sponsored by NIST, estimated

that ITL’s RBAC research saved U.S. industry $295

million and accelerated industry’s adoption of this

advanced access control method by a year. Three ITL

researchers received the 2002 Department of Commerce

Gold Medal for this work; 

2
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

3

Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) – ITL

contributed significantly to a new standard for WPANs

approved by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers (IEEE). The approval of IEEE 802.15.1 (the

Bluetooth Core Specification) advances the wireless

technology that operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency band

and provides voice communications at 64 bit/s and data

transfers up to 732 kbit/s at distances up to 10 meters;

and

XML/Document Object Model (DOM) – ITL and the

World Wide Web (W3C) Consortium released the first

version of the DOM Conformance Test Suite, Level 1

Core. We developed the test suite using XML technology

and automated test generation methods, adding DOM

to five other test suites for XML technology standards.

In addition to our core research and standards

programs, this report highlights our laboratory-wide

initiatives. ITL co-sponsored two major Biometrics

Consortium Conferences this year and led the biometrics

standards development process. Our critical infrastructure protection (CIP) initiative includes security standards

and testing. Pervasive computing efforts focus on smart

space integration, pervasive software tools, and pervasive

networking technology. We also started a laboratorywide initiative in healthcare.

ITL also provides research collaborations and technical

services to the NIST laboratories. Our mathematicians

and statisticians support work in the other NIST laboratories and perform crucial services such as modeling

and certification of Standard Reference Materials

(SRMs). Further, we provide vital services to the entire

NIST community, including networking, high performance

computing, support for desktop computers and workstation machines, the telephone system, and a host of

other infrastructure activities.

In addition to our research contributions, ITL made

significant progress in enhancing the provision of IT

services to the NIST staff. We launched our information

technology assistance center (iTAC) to provide a centralized help desk for IT questions and solutions. And, in

cooperation with the NIST Director of Administration/

Chief Financial Officer organizations, we enabled the

implementation of the new NIST Grants Management

Information System. We also implemented business

continuity and disaster recovery plans for core IT

business functions. And, finally, based on the maturity

of its functions and accomplishments, ITL created a

new NIST Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Services

organization, which will stand alone by the end of 2002. 

Finally, ITL respects its diverse workforce and works to

enhance the quality of life for all members of the staff.

Our quarterly Town Meetings keep the staff informed of

our progress and activities. The ITL Diversity Committee

sponsors division open houses, a holiday party, and a

summer picnic for the staff. We also present ITL awards

to individuals who made significant contributions to the

research, service, and administrative programs of the

laboratory. We work to ensure the safety of our workplace, holding cleanup days and safety seminars. Our

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF)

program brought 15 deserving undergraduates to ITL

last summer to pursue research opportunities. See our

website at http://www.itl.nist.gov.

Thank you for your interest in the Information

Technology Laboratory. In partnership with industry,

government, and academia, we will continue to enable

the future of the nation's measurement and standards

infrastructure for information technology. 

Susan F. Zevin, Acting ITL Director

Information Technology Laboratory

E-mail: itlab@nist.gov
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

4

ITL AT A GLANCE

Kamie Roberts

Acting ITL 

Deputy Director

OUR CORE PURPOSE

Enabling a better future through information technology.

OUR MISSION

To develop and promote measurement, standards, and

technology for information technology (IT) to enhance

productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of

life. We also provide NIST with high-quality information

technology services and help federal agencies in understanding and arranging for computer security.

OUR VISION

To be the global leader in measurement and enabling

technology for information technology, delivering

outstanding value to the nation.

OUR MANAGEMENT TEAM

Susan F. Zevin, Acting ITL Director, ITL Deputy Director,

and Acting NIST Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Kamie Roberts, Acting ITL Deputy Director, 

Associate Director for Federal and Industrial Relations 

Bruce Rosen, Office of the CIO

Robert Glenn, IT Security Office

Yvonne DiCarlo, Acting Assistant Director for Boulder

Kendra Cole, Senior Management Advisor

Ronald Boisvert, Chief of Mathematical and

Computational Sciences Division

David Su, Chief of Advanced Network Technologies

Division

Edward Roback, Chief of Computer Security Division

Martin Herman, Chief of Information Access Division

Victor McCrary, Chief of Convergent Information

Systems Division

Raymond Hoffmann, Chief of Information Services and

Computing Division

Mark Skall, Chief of Software Diagnostics and

Conformance Testing Division

Nell Sedransk, Chief of Statistical Engineering Division
5

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

OUR RESOURCES

highly qualified professional and support staff of 

498 (includes part-time and faculty appointments), 

supplemented by 111 guest researchers 

(as of September 21, 2002)

total authorization for fiscal year 2002 budget of 

$95.3M, all sources (as of September 30, 2002)

research and operations facilities in Gaithersburg, 

Maryland, and Boulder, Colorado

opportunities for cooperative research and 

interaction with industry and academia

OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

reference data sets and evaluation software

tests and test methods

standards

proof-of-concept implementations 

advanced software tools

automated software testing techniques

statistical model-based testing

specialized databases

electronic information on the web

hardware, software, and network support to 

NIST staff

mathematical and statistical consulting services

OUR CUSTOMERS

U.S. industry

federal agencies

academia

NIST staff and collaborators

research laboratories

IT users and providers

industry standards organizations

OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

The following chart represents the ITL Research

Blueprint, the framework by which we describe our

research program. Our seven research divisions provide

a crucial foundation in information technology measurements and standards, and these efforts are integrated

into cross cutting areas such as critical infrastructure

protection and pervasive computing. This research

approach provides enabling technologies necessary to

achieve the promise of all e-Applications. 
6

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

7

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

A new refreshable tactile graphic display technology developed by 

ITL allows the blind and visually impaired to view images using 

the sense of touch. Estimated cost is a factor of twenty less than 

conventional technology.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

CRYPTOGRAPHIC STANDARDS AND

APPLICATIONS

Our toolkit of secure cryptographic algorithm standards and standardized security techniques andprotocols continued to grow in FY 2002. The

Secretary of Commerce approved the Advanced Encryption

Standard (AES) as Federal Information Processing Standard

(FIPS) 197 in December 2001. The Keyed-Hash Message

Authentication Code (HMAC) was approved as FIPS 198;

HMAC tests are now available. We published the updated

FIPS 180-2, Secure Hash Standard, in August. Other cryptographic FIPS are being updated to provide commensurate

levels of security, including FIPS 186-2, Digital Signature

Standard, where larger keys are needed for digital signatures. We published NIST SP 800-38A, Recommendation

for Block Cipher Modes of Operation – Methods and

Techniques; work continues on advanced modes. In

November 2001, we conducted a workshop to develop

a public key-based key management standard, as well as

scheme and guideline documents for key management.

We published a summary ITL Bulletin in September 2002

updating the progress of our cryptographic toolkit. 

Through the NIST toolkit of standard algorithms, protocols,

and techniques, ITL is enabling more efficient, secure,

and interoperable information systems and electronic

commerce. Government and industry will be able to build

secure, interoperable applications with high-assurance

products that implement needed cryptographic security

functionality. The website is http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/

Our Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) work also advanced.

We hosted the First Annual Public Key Infrastructure

Research Workshop in April 2002; this workshop is

expected to become an annual event. With the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Army Corps of

Engineers, we developed a high-level Application

Programming Interface (API) for PKI-enabled financial

management systems; implementation of the API is in

process. We supported the Federal PKI Steering Committee

and subcommittees, which developed the Federal Bridge

Certification Authority (FBCA); four agency PKIs have

completed cross-certification with the FBCA, which is now

operational. We completed a Secure/Multipurpose Internet

Mail Extensions (S/MIME) profile and testing. Our Federal

Directory Profile for PKI was revised based on empirical

results. See http://csrc.nist.gov/pki/.

SECURITY MANAGEMENT AND

GUIDELINES

For many years, ITL’s Computer Security Division has been

mandated by legislation to provide computer security standards and guidelines to federal agencies for protecting

sensitive unclassified information in federal IT systems and

networks. We issue computer security policy and management guidelines for federal agencies and support other

federal agencies in their computer security program efforts.

Our active outreach program provides assistance to government, industry, academia, and the public. 

In FY 2002, we published guideline documents on the

following topics: intrusion detection systems, risk

management, active content and mobile code, security

self-assessment, underlying technical models for IT systems,

contingency planning, block cipher modes of operation,

handling security patches, firewalls and firewall policy,

telecommuting and broadband communications, interconnecting IT systems, and use of the common vulnerabilities

and exposures (CVE) vulnerability naming scheme. Drafts

are in process on additional security-related topics,

8

Joan Hash and

Alicia Clay discuss

the success of the

Small Business

Computer Security

Workshop series.

FOUNDATION RESEARCH AREAS

SECURITY
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

including security in procurements and certification and

accreditation. We also published seven ITL Bulletins with a

security focus. Our new Automated Security Self-Evaluation

Tool, ASSET, version 1, became available online in June

(http://csrc.nist.gov/asset/). Our Computer Security Expert

Assist Team (CSEAT) provides automated information

security program reviews of federal agencies upon request.

CSEAT successfully completed a security review of the

Indian Trust Management program within the Department

of the Interior; more reviews are planned in FY 2003. Our

Computer Security Resource Center is one of the most

visited websites at NIST: http://csrc.nist.gov.

Outreach activities for federal agencies included hosting

the federal computer security program managers forum,

which held bi-monthly meetings in FY 2002 and sponsored

two IT Security Metrics workshops for federal managers.

The computer system security and privacy advisory board

met four times in the year to identify emerging security

issues and advise the NIST Director and the Secretary of

Commerce on their findings. We established a Federal

Practices Website (http://csrc.nist.gov/fasp/), an outgrowth

of the Federal CIO Council’s Federal Best Security Practices

(BSP) pilot effort to identify, evaluate, and disseminate best

practices for critical infrastructure protection and security. 

Our outreach to small- and medium-sized businesses

expanded. In co-sponsorship with the Small Business

Administration and the National Infrastructure Protection

Center, we conducted six regional security meetings in

Richmond, Virginia; Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina;

Birmingham, Alabama; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco,

California; and Chicago, Illinois. The website is

http://csrc.nist.gov/securebiz/index.html.

SECURITY TESTING AND METRICS

ITL strives to provide federal agencies, industry, and the

public with a proven set of IT security services based upon

sound testing methodologies and test metrics. Our security

testing program includes cryptographic security testing via

the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) and

the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP),

which conducts testing using Common Criteria (CC) based

specifications. Our testing-focused activities include the

validation of cryptographic modules and cryptographic

algorithm implementations, CC evaluation and validation

programs, international recognition arrangements, testing

laboratory accreditation, automated security testing and

test suite development, industry forums, and education,

training, and outreach programs. 

The CMVP is a highly successful, internationally recognized

program that to date has issued 257 validation certificates

representing about 300 individual cryptographic modules

from 69 IT vendors. In FY 2002, testing of modules

began against FIPS 140-2, Security Requirements for

Cryptographic Modules, which superseded the discontinued FIPS 140-1 in May; all modules entering our

accredited laboratories are now validated under the

updated FIPS 140-2 specifications. We completed the FIPS

140-2 Derived Test Requirements and a validation test tool

in November 2001. We co-sponsored a second CMVP

workshop in March. A sixth testing laboratory was

accredited this year, the second Canadian laboratory to

gain accreditation. Our Cryptographic Algorithm Validation

System, including the AES Test Suite and DES/TDES

enhancements, was released to the accredited CMVP

testing laboratories in March. Also implemented was a

CMVP cost recovery plan. To date, we have also validated

209 cryptographic algorithms, including AES, DES, TDES,

Skipjack, SHA-1, and DSA. The website is

http://csrc.nist.gov/cryptval/.

The National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), an

alliance between NIST and the National Security Agency,

continued to promote the development of a more secure

IT infrastructure within the United States. The CC

Evaluation and Security Program has tested 9 products

9

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) students

Amarpreet Cheema and Wendy Chou discuss their projects

(cryptographic validation testing and a statistical test suite for

random number generators) with advisor Larry Bassham.
and 12 protection profiles to date, for a total of 21 CC

validations. The CC Smart Card Security Project, Phase II,

is ongoing. We co-sponsored an IT security conference on

continuity of operations at NIST in April 2002, and participated in May in the third International CC Conference held

in Ottawa, Canada. At the conference, NIAP awarded nine

CC certificates for successful evaluation of commercial,

off-the-shelf (COTS) products and protection profiles

against the Common Criteria for IT Security Evaluation

(ISO/IEC 15408). The CC Recognition Arrangement was

expanded to 15 nations, adding Sweden. The NIAP

website is http://niap.nist.gov/.

SECURITY OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

The mission of ITL’s security research is to identify

emerging technologies and conceive of new security

solutions that will have a high impact on the critical information infrastructure; perform research and development

on behalf of government and industry in the earliest stages

of technology development through proof-of-concept, reference, and prototype implementations and demonstrations;

and transfer new technologies to industry, produce new

standards, develop tests, test methodologies, and assurance

methods.

Example FY 2002 projects include access control

and authorization management, the ICAT web-based

Vulnerability Patch/Search database, the Government Smart

Card Interoperability Specification, mobile device security,

Internet Protocol security (IPsec) reference implementation

and interoperability testing, and the administration of the

critical infrastructure protection (CIP) grants program. RBAC

FY 2002 technical accomplishments include the publication

of the RBAC proposed standard (http://csrc.nist.gov/rbac/)

as a reference model and functional requirements specification and an accompanying reader guide, and completion

of an RBAC cost model and cost calculator. ITL RBAC

research has been independently credited by the Research

Triangle Institute (RTI) with saving industry $295M and

merited a 2002 Department of Commerce Gold Medal for

three ITL scientists. We added and analyzed over 2,000

additional CVE vulnerability entries to our ICAT database,

which now receives nearly 300K hits per month. We

published the Government Smart Card Interoperability

Specification, V2.0, (http://smartcard.nist.gov/) in June

2002, further promoting smart card device and application

interoperability. The Smart Card Alliance stated, “The

release of the Government Smart Card Interoperability

Specification is a significant event in the smart card

world as it is the first comprehensive effort to address the

interoperability requirements of the enterprise market. It

will become as important as Europay/Mastercard/Visa

(EMV) specification is to the Payment market and Global

System Mobile (GSM) specification is to the mobile

telephony market.”

We continued our research and prototype implementation

to improve the security of handheld wireless devices.

Research included adding new security features in the

areas of: user authentication (through the use of biometric,

smart card, and password technologies), security policy

enforcement (based on the user’s role, the environment of

use, and the enterprise usage specification), and secure

wireless policy delivery. Our IPsec effort continued in

FY 2002 with the development of a Simple Network

Management Protocol (SNMP) policy capability and by

collaborating with IPsec vendors in the pursuit of largescale IPsec and PKI-based virtual private networks (VPNs).

This work is closely aligned with our advanced network

research. We monitored progress on CIP grants awarded

last year, which show promising preliminary results in

wireless security, telecom security, electric power grid,

intrusion detection systems, and security compilers. The

website is http://csrc.nist.gov/focus_areas.html#research.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

10

Ron Ross and Marianne Swanson review comments

received on their document, Federal Guidelines for the

Security Certification and Accreditation of Information

Technology Systems.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 

E

lectronic commerce (EC) solutions are being built

using XML technologies as building blocks. Interest

in conformance testing is growing, as indicated by

increased conformance-related activities in industry

consortia and working groups. Conformance tests improve

implementations and the success of interoperability, which

is critical. ITL’s role is to improve the quality of XML-related

software through the development of standards, 

conformance testing, and quality assurance practices.

In FY 2002, we led the conformance test

development efforts for several World Wide

Web Consortium (W3C) Working Groups,

including the XML Core, Extensible

Stylesheet Language/Formatting Object (XSLFO), and Document Object Model (DOM).

We developed and applied automated test

generation techniques to effectively and

efficiently produce tests for the various XML

technologies. As a result of our efforts, the

W3C has released the XML 1.0 (Second

Edition) Conformance Test Suite. Additionally,

we continued the development and release

of conformance test suites for XML-FO, XML

Schema, and DOM Levels 1and 2. We

initiated new conformance efforts for

XInclude, Namespace, XML Protocol, and

XML Query with W3C. As a result of our

expertise, we co-founded and chair the W3C

Quality Assurance (QA) Interest Group. We

authored the QA Framework: Specification

Guideline and contribute to the other QA

Framework documents, i.e., Operational

Guideline and Test Materials Guideline. 

In a related project, we worked with the Organization for

the Advancement of Structured Information Standards

(OASIS) to develop a consistent test framework for all electronic business XML (ebXML) testing efforts. This framework

was used to develop conformance tests for the ebXML

Registry and Messaging specifications. Messaging provides

a method for exchanging electronic business transactions

and registries to allow for the discovery and retrieval of

XML-related documents. We finalized the Registry

specifications (v2) and progressed it as an OASIS Standard.

Additionally, we developed proof of concept registry prototypes for the General Services Administration (GSA) and

the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We chaired

the OASIS Conformance Technical Committee and we

completed the GSA Standards Roadmap prototype, which

is being used as the model for an IT standards roadmap

for healthcare. 

Another ITL project is the development of standards and

tests required for the success of Interactive TV (ITV). For

the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

(SMPTE), we made significant contributions to the

Declarative Data Essence (DDE) specifications. We

authored several sections and produced reference 

11

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

Carmelo Montanez-Rivera, Richard Rivello, Sandra Martinez, 

and John Tebbutt help make electronic commerce a reality 

by developing tests for the family of XML technologies.

SOFTWARE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

applications illustrating DDE-1 content for the DDE-1

Engineering Guide; DDE-1 is expected to become the first

international ITV standard (ISO/IEC). We also developed a

Digital TV (DTV) Application Software Environment (DASE)

Trigger Abstract Test Suite. We completed our ITV project at

the end of FY 2002.

Our support of the federal CIO Council continued. We

assisted the XML Working Group of the CIO Council by

chairing their registry subcommittee and hosting a registry

where federal agencies can learn about how to use XML

registries. The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897/.

HEALTHCARE

Although the healthcare industry is one of the major

industries in the United States, it has been one of the

slowest to embrace information technologies in its

operations. We are working with the healthcare industry,

government agencies, and academia to improve the quality

of healthcare, reduce costs, and provide essential services

through the use of information technology. With Advanced

Technology Program support, we provide the technical

leadership in integrating healthcare standards into

emerging e-commerce frameworks. In August, we held the

first in a series of workshops aimed at understanding the

issues involved in the effective use of IT for healthcare and

related fields. The workshop, “Information Technologies for

Healthcare: Barriers to Implementation,” focused on identifying the key issues and barriers to improve quality and

productivity. We published a workshop report and established a website to inform the public of our efforts as well

as to facilitate a continued dialogue among interested

parties. We have joined the Health Level Seven (HL7)

Consortium and actively participate in several committees,

including the Conformance group. We developed a

concept paper on Healthcare Information Standards and

Testing that discussed options for analyzing, defining,

and organizing appropriate standards for the healthcare

community and the issues surrounding conformance

testing. The paper has been used to stimulate discussion

and foster opportunities for collaboration between the

healthcare community and NIST. As a result of the concept

paper and discussions with members of the community,

we have begun work on the development of a healthcare

standards roadmap, which will provide a set of web

services and infrastructure for establishing, populating,

searching, maintaining, and administering healthcare

standards information. 

Our work in Health Information Systems continued. The

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a primary federal

customer. As the deployment of the Enterprise Single

Sign-On (ESSO) to all VA hospitals proceeds, we modified

VA applications and ESSO, and assisted in the development

of diagnostic and administrative tools for ESSO. We

developed a v2 reference implementation of the InterOrganizational Role Based Access Control (IORBAC)

with Resource Access Decision (RAD) functionality. See

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897/docs/healthcare_information_

systems.html.

COMPUTER FORENSICS

Since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, ITL’s work in

computer forensics has taken on added significance and

impetus. Sound computer forensics practices are a key to

finding and delivering court-permissible evidence when

computers are used in the commission of a crime. Our

program has two components: the National Software

Reference Library (NSRL) and Computer Forensics Tool

Testing (CFTT).

Investigators often spend hundreds of hours looking at

digital evidence seized in the course of a criminal investigation. Our NSRL eliminates much of this labor-intensive

work by automation. The NSRL is a reference data set of

file signatures (hashes) of commercial off-the-shelf files,

Doug White and Mark Rose (seated) help the law enforcement

community apprehend criminals and terrorists by developing

reference data and tests for computer forensics.

12
which can be used during examination of digital evidence

to identify pertinent files and eliminate others. One

computer may have 5,000-75,000 files. The NSRL data set

can eliminate 40-95 percent of commercial, off-the-shelf

(COTS) files from examination and save hundreds of staffhours. In FY 2002, we continued to develop and populate

the NSRL, which now contains over 8,000,000 file signatures. We issued the first release in October 2001 as NIST

Special Database 28 and updated it quarterly. The NSRL

has been incorporated into several computer forensic tools

and the National Archives and Records Administration

has asked to work with us to use the NSRL to support

electronic records management.

The goal of our CFTT project is to provide a measure 

of assurance that the tools used in computer forensics 

investigations produce accurate

results. This is accomplished by

developing specifications and test

methods. In FY 2002, we finalized

the specification for disk imaging

tools and released a draft specification and test assertions for hard

disk write blocking. We released

software tools and methodology for

testing disk imaging software. The

National Institute of Justice issued a

disk imaging report based on our

methodology. We also released a

general methodology paper, developed an extensive peer review

process, and established partnerships with the digital evidence

community. An ITL researcher

serves as an editor for the new

Journal of Digital Evidence.

The websites are

http://www.nsrl.nist.gov/ and

http://www.cftt.nist.gov/.

RESEARCH TO IMPROVE SOFTWARE TESTING

ITL develops tools and techniques to improve the development of specifications, software tests, and software quality.

The national annual cost of an inadequate infrastructure for

software testing is estimated to range from $22.2 to $59.5

billion. Testing activities account for 30 to 90 percent of

software development costs. In addition, software testing is

time-consuming, labor-intensive, not comprehensive, and

difficult to measure. Poor software quality also contributes

to security incidents. Our automatic test generation (ATG)

project provides a method for automatically generating

tests from formal specifications. 

In FY 2002, we advanced the development of XML-based

formal model intermediate representation with the

Simulink/Stateflow Intermediate Representation (SSIR)

Group. Consisting of NIST, Ford Motor Company, Carnegie

Mellon University, General Electric, Vanderbilt, and

TriPacific, the SSIR Group seeks to standardize an intermediate representation of formal models. We assisted the

commercialization of the ATG method with the Ford

Motor Company and New Eagle Software. We continued

feasibility studies with the Argus Systems Group on a

secure computer operating system and with Northrop

Grumman on fighter radar computers. 

Our work on Object Oriented (OO) Component Testing

continued. The project (formerly Software Testing by

Statistical Methods) addresses the development of new

methods for software testing based on stochastic processes

and metrics. Its objectives are to improve software quality,

reduce testing costs, and develop reliability estimates that

software correctly adheres to its specification. Our

approach is to develop a new conformance testing methodology for OO environments and to concentrate on component integration. See http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897/.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

William Majurski, Leonard Gebase, and Mary Laamanen apply

emerging e-commerce standards and technologies to the healthcare industry and the Department of Veteran Affairs.

13
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

AGILE SWITCHING INFRASTRUCTURES

ITLworks with industry to accelerate the

development of integrated, agile switching

infrastructures. The main focus of the

project is on integrated control planes for optical

switched networks, dynamic control algorithms for

traffic engineering, and protection and restoration.

Current efforts focus on the modeling and analysis of

signaling protocols and optical network protection and

restoration mechanisms, the development of simulation

tools, and the creation of a testbed experimenter’s toolkit.

In FY 2002, we developed two research tools: a

Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)/optical network

simulator (NIST GLASS) and a testbed experimenter’s

toolkit, MPLS on Linux for Traffic Engineering (NIST

Switch). We also published many papers on optical

network fault detection, protection, and restoration. We

worked with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

and the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) to develop

technical specifications for an integrated control plane

combining optical and Internet switching and provided

modeling and analysis tools to the research community.

Next year we will focus on standards for optical

network protection and restoration, and technologies

for optical burst switching (OBS). Our contributions of

rapid prototypes, and modeling and analysis tools

benefit industry and academic researchers working on

the next- generation optical Internet. The website is

http://w3.antd.nist.gov/agile_switch.shtml.

INTERNET

INFRASTRUCTURE

PROTECTION

ITL strives to improve the scalability, performance, and interoperability of Internet security

systems and to expedite the

development of Internet

infrastructure protection

technologies. Our technical

approach is to lead the effort

within the IETF to complete the

Domain Name System Security

(DNS SEC) standardization

process. Our modeling, analysis,

and testing tools help to

evaluate emerging Internet key

management protocols. The

integration between quantum

key distribution and Internet

security protocols is another

area of interest.

14

Leonard Miller, Camillo Gentile, and Luke Klein-Berndt develop protocols

for wireless ad hoc networks.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

NETWORKS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

In FY2002, we contributed revised IETF specifications

for DNS SEC protocols. Our Advanced Encryption

Standard (AES) is being incorporated into Internet

security standards. We sponsored a workshop for federal

agencies on the deployment of DNS SEC. We published

a performance/interoperability analysis of emerging

DNS SEC protocols. We contributed modeling and

analysis results to the IETF efforts to design new key

management systems. We also developed extensions

to IPsec/IKE protocols to exploit one-time keypads from

quantum key distribution. Our work with the IETF

results in increased Internet security at a lower cost.

The website is http://w3.antd.nist.gov/iipp.shtml.

INTERNET TELEPHONY

ITL facilitates the development of improved Voice over

Internet Protocol (IP) (VoIP) transport mechanisms and

expedites the development of new, programmable

telephony signaling services. Our approach is threefold.

We are researching the approaches to resource control

for emerging Internet telephony service creation architectures. We also research the application of Internet

telephony signaling protocols to presence/location

tracking and device control in pervasive computing

environments. Lastly, we deliver rapid prototypes, and

test and instrumentation tools to the IP telephony industry.

In FY 2002, we assumed leadership of the JavaTM/JAINTM

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) specifications. SIP is an

HTTP-like signaling protocol used to set up and manage

media sessions, such as telephone calls, Instant

Messaging, video, or games. It is an enabling technology

for new media services. Customers of this work include

platform vendors, service vendors, service providers,

and industry groups. We completed NIST-SIP 1.0, our

prototype research platform and associated test tools.

We delivered research prototypes and a test system for

the emerging JAIN/SIP protocols to thousands of early

adopters of the technology. We also designed and

evaluated techniques for resource control in fully

programmable service creation environments. 

ITL’s contributions are improving the quality and

expanding the scope of the next generation Internet

telephony signaling technology. We are helping industry

to design new capabilities and uses for Internet telephony

signaling protocols and delivering research platforms

15

Kevin Mills, Scott Rose,

Doug Montgomery, 

Chris Dabrowski, and 

Steve Quirolgico work on

service discovery protocols

for networking for pervasive

computing.
and test systems for their use. Our work enables the

emergence of new markets for multi-modal Internet

applications. The website is

http://w3.antd.nist.gov/it_voip.shtml.

WIRELESS AD HOC NETWORKS

The goal of this ITL project is to facilitate the development of technology and standards for wireless ad hoc

networks (WANETs). A WANET is a collection of

stationary/mobile nodes with wireless communication

and possible multi-sensory capabilities. Key features

include the lack of need for any prior infrastructure,

self-organization, and adaptation to varying topology.

These networks have commercial applications, such as

congestion mitigation in hot spots, guerilla networks,

and healthcare facilities. Some are mission-oriented

networks, including first responder communications

and networking, battlefield deployment of military

forces, and smart sensor networks. 

Our approach is to develop metrics and measure the

performance of various WANET protocols proposed

to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), thereby

facilitating the IETF standardization process. We are

also developing simulation models of popular WANET

protocols and developing a WANET hardware testbed

to complement our analytical and simulation work. In

FY 2002, we evaluated self-organization algorithms for

sensor networks. We developed and implemented a

prototype for enhancements to ad hoc network routing

algorithms. We developed testbeds and conducted

experiments for video streaming over wireless ad hoc

networks. We also helped the IETF to enhance the

AODV protocol (the leading on-demand ad hoc routing

protocol). We significantly improved the 802.11

OPNET® model and developed video transmission

schemes for first responder ad hoc networks. Our work

was documented in more than 20 papers presented at

professional conferences.

ITL’s research and standardization efforts have significant

impact on future applications, especially military and

first responder applications, of wireless ad hoc networks.

Researchers in industry and academia also use our

metrics and performance measurements to advance

the technology. The website is

http://w3.antd.nist.gov/wahn_home.shtml.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

16
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

HUMAN LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY

Within the broad field of human

language technology, ITL develops

and applies metrics and testing

to advance the state of the art of human

language processing, including speech recognition, speaker recognition, spoken language

understanding, search, retrieval, filtering of

text-based information, and other advanced

text processing techniques such as summarization, extraction, and question answering.

Our work is organized into five projects:

TREC, ACQUAINT, TIDES, ACE, and Speech

Processing.

Our Text REtrieval Conference (TREC)

series, initiated in 1992, is the premier

workshop/evaluation series that supports the

information retrieval community. In addition

to common task-based individual experiments,

TREC provides a forum for the exchange

of research ideas, a means to accelerate

technology transfer, and an incubator for new research

areas. We co-sponsored with the Defense Advanced

Research Projects Agency (DARPA) TREC-2001, with 87

groups participating from 21 countries; the conference

included a web task, a question answering task, a

filtering task, and a cross-language retrieval task. We

published the proceedings in paper and online. We

initiated the planning for TREC-2002, procuring new

data, designing an XML task, and defining a new

novelty track. The goal of our related ACQUAINT

program is to move the state of the art of question

answering to the full range of complex questions asked

by humans. At the kickoff meeting in December 2001,

we presented a draft plan for the overall evaluation,

worked with the research community to define a set of

pilot evaluation projects for eight advanced question

types, and obtained three gigabytes of new data for use

in AQUAINT.

DARPA’s TIDES (Translingual Information Detection,

Extraction, and Summarization) program addresses the

problem of finding and interpreting needed information

quickly and effectively regardless of language.

Sponsored by TIDES, the Document Understanding

Conference (DUC) series is run by ITL to further

progress in summarization and enable researchers to

participate in large-scale experiments. For DUC 2002,

held in Philadelphia in July, we revised evaluation

protocols to include a specific set of questions to

evaluate summary quality and devised a new metric

called length-adjusted coverage. We built an additional

60 sets of documents and summaries, and created

multi-document extracts at the 200- and 400-word

levels. For the TIDES Topic Detection and Tracking

(DTD) project, we hosted the TDT 2001 evaluation,

analyzed the evaluation results, and presented

our work. 

17

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

INFORMATION ACCESS

Mike Garris and Steve Wood are shown developing new 

measurement standards for fingerprint biometrics as part of

the USA Patriot Act and Enhanced Border Security Act.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

For the National Security Agency, through our

Automatic Content Extraction (ACE) project, we are

advancing the state of the art in automatically extracting

content from newswire, broadcast news, and newspapers.

In FY 2002, we supported evaluations of extracting

content from these media in February and September.

We further developed evaluation measures and

provided detailed analysis of results for the Entity

Detection and Tracking (EDT), Cross-Document EDT,

and the Relation Detection and Characterization (RDC)

tasks. We oversaw the annotation of ACE corpora 

for EDT and RDC training and evaluation test sets.

Additionally, we are creating links between the ACE 

and Evidence Extraction and Link Detection (EELD)

communities with combined evaluations.

Our speech processing projects help to advance the

state of the art in speech recognition and understanding

for applications in human-computer interaction and

access to spoken information. Corpora collected from

the Automatic Meeting Transcription project is made

available to industry through the Linguistic Data

Consortium (LDC). Evaluation tools are available at

http://www.nist.gov/speech/test_beds/mr_proj/. In

FY 2002, we completed the equipment/software

infrastructure for data collection, including 200

microphones and five video cameras. We

hosted a Meeting Transcription Workshop and

created a cross-site effort in data pooling. We

used NIST and multi-site data for the Rich

Transcription (RT-02) evaluation in April

2002.We designed an ontology of meeting

types, chose scenarios, built a website, and

recruited subjects. Lastly, we collected hours

of various types of meetings, created an extensive log, and provided the corpus to LDC for

transcription and distribution. 

For the DARPA Effective, Affordable, Reusable

Speech-to-Text (EARS) program, we provide

accuracy measurements of core speech-to-text

and metadata recognition. In FY 2002, we

conducted preliminary metadata experiments

to determine target set and feasibility. We

implemented an evaluation incorporating news

broadcasts, telephone conversations, and

meeting speech for speech-to-text transcription

and speaker segmentation with a variety of test

conditions. We organized and ran the RT-02

Workshop and began the development of the

evaluation infrastructure for RT-03. 

Our Speaker Recognition work progressed. We

conducted the 2002 NIST evaluation with a record 25

participating sites from five continents. We included a

new multi-modal test. Expanded to three days, the 2002

Speaker Recognition Workshop was held in May in

Virginia. 

ITL’s human language technology programs contribute

to improved Internet and intranet information retrieval

performance in the next generation of search engines.

The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/programs.html#Human.

INTERACTION AMONG USERS AND

INFORMATION

To improve the usability of interactive systems, ITL is

providing metrics, standards, and test methodologies by

developing standard usability reporting formats, new

approaches and benchmarks to support usability testing

(especially for the web), approaches for accessibility

testing, and advanced user interface prototypes. Our work

focuses on usability engineering and IT accessibility.

18

Audrey Le and Gregory Sanders consult with Christophe Laprun on

how ATLAS (Architecture and Tools for Linguistic Analysis Systems)

can be used in the next generation speech recognition evaluation
Our Web Metrics work advanced in FY 2002. We

redesigned our Web Category Analysis Tool (WebCAT)

software, which had 1,500 downloads from our website.

We optimized our Web Variable Instrumenter Program

(WebVIP) software and redesigned it for added

reliability. We enhanced the Framework for Logging

Usability Data (FLUD), a file format and parser for

representation of user interaction logs. We also chaired

a workshop for the W3C usability interest group. In

our Industry USability Reporting (IUSR) project, our

Common Industry Format (CIF) was adopted as a

national standard (ANSI/ NCITS 354) in November

2001; the international standardization of CIF is moving

forward. To create benchmark test data for web usability

evaluation methods, we analyzed results of the pilot

studies on CIF Testing, Evaluation, and Reporting

(CIFter). Results were published, and a workshop is

planned for participants in the CIFter I evaluation. To

ensure IT accessibility, we provided technical guidance

to the Objective Measures Project of the Section 508

Accessibility Forum. We also participated in the

NCITS V2 Technical Committee, which is developing

Alternative Interface Access Protocols that will allow

alternative interfaces for people with disabilities.

The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/programs.html#Users.

MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY

To advance technologies for accessing and using multimedia information, including multimedia searching and

filtering, ITL’s approach is to actively participate in

standards development, testing of content-based

retrieval from digital video, and visualization and

virtual reality for manufacturing. 

Through leadership positions on standards committees

(MPEG, JPEG, Web3D), we continue to advance multimedia standards. In FY 2002, we planned, coordinated

and presided over the U.S. NCITS/L3 meetings. As the

chair of this national standards committee, we coordinated and participated in MPEG and JPEG international

meetings and hosted an international MPEG meeting in

Virginia. We hosted an online MPEG data repository

and management information system. In related work,

we develop measurement methods for the evaluation

of multimedia metadata (MPEG-7) for the purpose of

content-based multimedia retrieval. To advance this

technology, we created an MPEG-7 data repository

website for MPEG-7 reference software and documentation, chaired and participated in various MPEG-7

committees, helped to establish an MPEG-7 Alliance

industry forum, worked with industry to define MPEG-7

interoperability and profiling, and developed a

web-based MPEG-7 system to validate MPEG-7

data structures.

The goal of our TREC Video Retrieval Task is to foster

research in content-based retrieval from digital video.

Our approach is to create a publicly available test

collection of digital video for use by the research

community. In FY 2002, we presented TREC-2001

results at a workshop and completed the guidelines for

the 2002 Video Track. We selected 70 hours of video

data hosted by the Internet Archive and, working with

industry partners, defined ten features for the extraction

task. We are also developing required topics and evaluation software for automatic and human assessment of

task results. Our visualization and virtual reality for

manufacturing project progressed. We played a key role

in organizing the Web3D 2002 Conference, improved

access to raw anthropometric subject data, incorporated

a VRML/X3D translator into the prime X3D tool, and

released the first version of the NIST CAESAR Viewer,

a web-based 3D body visualization. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/programs.html#Multi.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

19

Karen Marshall directs indoor photo shots while Stan Janet

readies the camera for outdoor images taken of NIST volunteers for the NIST Human ID Image Collection, used to develop

metrics for evaluating face recognition systems. 
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

DIGITAL CONTENT STORAGE: DATA

PRESERVATION AND OPTICAL DISC

STANDARDS

I

n response to the needs of industry for uniform and

reliable, writable disc media, ITL is developing standards, test methodologies, and guidelines to promote

interoperability for disc media, reliability, and preservation of data. Many disc formats (five for DVD) are not

interoperable for current disc drives. Guidelines and

standards are lacking. Our approach is to systematically

study recordable disc media reliability under numerous

conditions and develop software to promote and check

for disc drive interoperability. We also work closely

with the High Density Storage Association (HDSA), a

non-profit organization comprised of manufacturers,

resellers, individuals, and end-users interested in

high-capacity storage technologies and products, and

in their cross-platform interoperability.

In FY 2002, we completed the first phase of disc

reliability studies for CD/DVD, looking at temperature,

humidity, and photo degradation with a microscopic

image observer. For the NIST/HDSA Data Preservation

Laboratory, we installed test equipment to evaluate

the interoperability of storage devices and media.

We used the NIST CD Compliance Test software

(http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/products.html) to check

compliance with the Optical Storage Technology

Association (OSTA) MultiRead specification; publications on this work are in process. In June, we

co-sponsored with the DVD Association (DVDA) the

NIST DVD 2002 Conference for industry and government, with a focus on media and player standards 

and interoperability, DVD authoring, and data preservation. We also serve on the National Digital Strategy

Advisory Board at the Library of Congress. This effort

is to develop a long-term national strategy to preserve

the nation’s born-digital artifacts. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/projects/datastorageproject.html.

DIGITAL CONTENT MANIFESTATION:

BRAILLE DISPLAYS AND IMAGE

QUALITY

ITL is developing guidelines and standards for content

manifestation to ensure fidelity and quality of image

presentation for various formats, platforms, and endusers. To achieve a superior quality of a digitized image

file, the issues of file compression and lack of open

standards for file quality manifestation must be

addressed. Our approach is to develop test corpora

suites in cooperation with the Motion Picture Experts

Group (MPEG) and the Society of Motion Picture and

Television Engineers (SMPTE) and to distribute the test

suites to end-users, projector manufacturers, and digital

test laboratories. In conjunction with our previous

eBook work, NIST is also developing prototype,

low-cost, mechanical Braille displays to place digital

content in the hands of the blind community.

20

Alexei Nikolaev, Charles Fenimore, and John Roberts view the

results of NIST-developed tests for image quality of digital content

for various display platforms.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

INFORMATION INTEGRATION
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Our Image Quality Laboratory provides the research

environment necessary to develop image quality measurement tools, test materials, and procedures, and to

disseminate the research test corpora to industry. In

FY 2002, we equipped our laboratory to conduct image

quality studies. We developed an Image Comparator

Tool, which demonstrates the NIST Just Noticeable

Difference (JND)/Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)

metric. JND-DCT is a computed image quality metric

designed to measure the difference between two images

as perceived by a human viewer. The tool is available at

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/products.html. We also

developed digital content test tools and standard video

evaluation materials. Our support of MPEG and SMPTE

standards development activities continued. The website

is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/projects/digitalcinemaproject.html. We also developed a tactile graphics

display that manifests pictures in pin-by-pin two-dimensional format for blind users to receive graphical information. The National Federation for the Blind will field

test the NIST device and this information will be useful

for third parties who plan to commercialize this NIST

technology. More information is available at

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/projects/brailleproject.html.

DIGITAL CONTENT PACKAGING: 

FILE FORMATS

ITL’s goal is to develop interoperability

guidelines for digital content types, their

use and scalability. We are defining the

scope of content types to examine (video,

film, text, pictures, audio) and developing

an inventory of digital object types. We

can then evaluate the sensitivity of

various content types to media-specific

failure mechanisms. Critical features are

defined in terms of cost, performance

requirements, and usage for content types.

In FY 2002, we completed our file format

inventory and published results in a

content type matrix. We conducted file

format/temporal studies to detect and

observe the time-dependent properties of

displays that affect image quality and to

correlate these properties with the presentation of different images and file formats.

In January 2002, we presented this work at a technical

conference. We completed our Advanced Technology

Program eBook File Format research; software is in

development to allow any image format to be displayed

on the NIST-developed tactile graphic display. To assess

the feasibility of transferring scientific, technical, and

medical documents to commercial platforms, we

continued testing file formats for eBooks. We developed

test corpora to evaluate formatting and to test device

compliance to the Open eBook (OEB) specification. We

developed an OEB Windows® Browser for a Windows®

platform and made it available on the web. To date over

40 downloads of the OEB compliant browser for Linux

have been made. More than 350 people attended our

annual Electronic Book Conference and Show in

Washington, D.C., in November 2001. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/projects/ebookproject.html.

DIGITAL CONTENT TRANSFER AND

DELIVERY: DTV 

ITL is developing metrics and guidelines for architectures ensuring the efficient delivery and transport of

digital content. Our support of the digital TV industry

continued in FY 2002. The Application Software

Environment (DASE)-1 Specification was approved as a

Candidate Standard. DASE is the North America middle21

John Costello (left standing), Sean Ginevan (standing), Xiao Tang (left seated) and

Oliver Slattery are developing interoperability tests for high-density storage systems.
ware standard for broadcast interactive television. NIST

and the DASE specialist group are developing these

standards in advance of widespread use of digital television technology. We completed the DASE-1 Prototype

Implementation, which provides application developers

and consumer electronic manufacturers an application

development environment and a basis for an interoperable Digital TV receiver implementation. We released

the reference implementation to the public

(http://www.dase.nist.gov), along with demo applications, the Advanced Television System Committee

(ATSC)/MPEG parser, and documentation; the website

has received over 5,000 hits to date. The prototype

implementation provides the experimental environment

needed to shape future commercial interactive Digital

TV. Also under construction is a robust quantum

communications testbed that will enable explorations

of quantum information transmission. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/cmr/dase/index.html.

DIGITAL CONTENT

ENCAPSULATION:

RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

ITL is developing interoperable

open standards, guidelines, and

specifications for rights management of digital content. While

market progress on trust issues has

been slow, the need remains high.

Problems arise because the Internet

cannot vouch for participants, a

major inhibition to e-commerce.

The issues are identity authentication, agreement assurance, and

privacy. ITL’s trust management

project addresses these barriers. 

Building upon our Financial Agent

Secure Transaction (FAST) assurance

framework, we collaborated with

NIST’s Electronics and Electrical

Engineering Laboratory and the IPC (Electronics

Interconnection Industry consortium) to apply the FAST

model via existing Internet client-server technology and

a legacy database. This model provides referral on

identity, capability (products and services), trust, and

reputation. In FY 2002, we completed a flexible,

modular, server/portal mechanism for trust management.

We compiled an inventory of digital rights management

(DRM) standards and sponsored a workshop on DRM

interoperability and standards. We analyzed authentication architectures and formats, and defined the compatibility of biometric data for content and devices. We

served as a technical co-sponsor for the IEEE 4th

International Workshop on Networked Appliances

(IWNA-4) held at NIST. Our assurance and trust mechanism for Internet commerce for manufacturing will

create new and expanded opportunities for small

business in the electronic marketplace. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/cmr/ecom/index.html.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

22

Xiao Tang (standing), Jian Zheng, and Fred Byers examine results of tests on the

lifetime of DVDs.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

APPLIED MATHEMATICS

ITL’sapplied mathematics program

focuses on the

development of mathematical

models, methods, and tools applicable to problems of national interest.

Through extensive collaboration and

consulting with NIST scientists, we

help to improve the quality of NIST

research via the application of stateof-the-art mathematical and computational methods. In addition, interactions with other federal agencies and

industry partners ensure the widespread benefit from our work. The

diverse application areas in which

we work include atomic physics,

bioinformatics, electromagnetics,

materials science, manufacturing,

and construction engineering. To

these we bring expertise and develop

new tools in ordinary and partial

differential equations, continuum

mechanics, nonlinear dynamics,

numerical analysis, mathematical optimization,

deconvolution, discrete mathematics, computational

geometry, Monte Carlo methods, and data mining. 

Our contributions to NIST’s research program in 

FY 2002 are widespread. For NIST’s Electronics and

Electrical Engineering Laboratory (EEEL), we developed

data correction methods and software for antenna quiet

zone imaging. We also developed lattice sum techniques for computing band-gap diagrams for arbitrary

two-dimensional photonic crystals and implemented

these in software. For the Materials Science and

Engineering Laboratory (MSEL), we developed a diffuseinterface model for electrodeposition coupling phase

change and electrolytic reaction. For the Chemical

Science and Technology (CSTL) Laboratory and the

Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL), we

deployed our real-time blind deconvolution method

to the sharpening of scanning electron microscope

imagery. With NIST and industry partners, we are

modeling high-speed milling to fulfill the measurements

and standards needs of U.S. discrete parts manufacturers. In particular, we developed analytical models of

coupled tool-assembly dynamical behavior to optimize

tool design and reduce chatter. Our bioinformatics effort

with NIST’s CSTL and the National Institutes of Health

involves applying optimization techniques, the Markov

theory of random processes, and parallel computing to

the challenging problem of aligning multiple protein

sequences with gaps. With the Building and Fire

Research Laboratory (BFRL), we made significant

progress in the deconvolution of laser radar imagery 

for application in construction site management.

23

John Hagedorn (seated) collaborates with Nicos Martys of the NIST Building and

Fire Research Laboratory, applying methods of parallel computing and scientific

visualization to improve the performance of the Lattice Boltzman method for the

modeling of fluid flow in complex geometries.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

MATHEMATICS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

In addition, we continued our development of novel

techniques and tools of wide application. We released

a three-dimensional version of the Object-Oriented

MicroMagnetic Framework (OOMMF), our widely used

software for micromagnetics modeling. We improved

the Object-Oriented Finite (OOF), our software tool for

analyzing real material microstructures, developing new

facilities for automatic grain boundary detection and

mesh refinement. Implementation of OOF2, which will

be capable of handling a much wider range of physical

situations, is well under way. We also developed new

Monte Carlo techniques for estimating independent sets

in graphs, a problem arising in multiple contexts, from

the study of communications network reliability to

thermodynamics models. The website is

http://math.nist.gov/mcsd/.

DIGITAL LIBRARY OF MATHEMATICAL

FUNCTIONS 

The DLMF, now under development at NIST, is an interactive, web-based compendium on the special functions

of applied mathematics. Such functions are basic tools

in mathematical and computational modeling in many

disciplines. Examples are Bessel functions, elliptic

integrals and functions, the classical orthogonal

polynomials, Heun functions, Painleve transcendents,

and q-series. The core of the DLMF is a database of

mathematical properties compiled by some 40

external experts. ITL is coordinating and editing

the database, and developing techniques for its

effective online presentation. Components of the

latter include semantic mathematical markup,

interactive web-based graphics, search in mathematical databases, metadata, bibliographic links,

and links to software. When completed, the

DLMF will provide standardized notations,

definitions and properties for special functions,

with online traceability to NIST.

In FY 2002, working under the supervision of

the NIST editors, most of the external authors

completed acceptable drafts of their chapters. We

generated some 100 visualizations, developed a

prototype search engine, and constructed a

seven-chapter prototype. We co-organized a

two-week workshop on Special Functions in the

Digital Age held at the Institute for Mathematics

and Its Applications at the University of

Minnesota in which many DLMF editors and

authors participated. Next year we expect to complete

the validation of chapters by external experts, produce

a complete draft of the website, and contract for the

printed version of the DLMF. The website is

http://dlmf.nist.gov/.

HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING AND

VISUALIZATION

The need for higher fidelity models incorporating more

complex physics often leads to computational problems

that far exceed the capacity of current desktop workstations. Parallel computing techniques can be used to

extend the computational power available on the

desktop. ITL develops tools and techniques for high

performance parallel and distributed computing, and

collaborates with NIST scientists and engineers to apply

these to problems of critical interest. High performance

simulations, as well as emerging combinatorial experimental techniques, can yield massive amounts of data.

Carefully designed scientific visualization methods and

data mining techniques are needed to understand such

data. ITL develops facilities and tools of this type, and

collaborates with NIST scientists and engineers to

apply them. Current applications include modeling of

nanostructures, flow in porous media, solidification

of metal alloys, and atomic physics. 

Isabel Beichl and NRC Research Associate David Song are working

to understand the potential advantages and limitations of proposed

quantum-based computers.

24
In FY 2002, we expanded our Reconfigurable Advanced

Visualization Environment (RAVE) immersive visualization facility to two 8 by 8 foot screens arranged at right

angles, and developed new tools to ease its use. The

facility now sees widespread use. We demonstrated the

promise of virtual measurement systems by achieving

the most accurate computation to date of the ground

state of neutral helium. With CSTL, we produced a

parallel version of the popular FEFF x-ray absorption

spectroscopy software, providing a 20-fold speedup for

such computations on workstation clusters. For MSEL,

we created a parallel three-dimensional phase-field

solidification simulator. We also developed parallel

computing techniques and visualizations for studies of

fluids, suspensions, and elasticity for the Virtual Cement

and the Concrete Testing Laboratory in collaboration

with BFRL. The website is

http://math.nist.gov/mcsd/savg/.

MATHEMATICAL SOFTWARE

ITL’s development, measurement, and standardization

of general-purpose mathematical software tools, along

with related information services, contribute to an

improved environment for computational science

research within NIST and in the scientific community

at large. Work areas include interfaces and

software for numerical linear algebra,

algorithms and software for parallel adaptive

multigrid solution of partial differential

equations, and JavaTM-based technologies for

numerical computing. Our work is carried out

in collaboration with industry consortia and

working groups, national laboratories, and

academia. 

In FY 2002 we published a standard for

Sparse Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines

(BLAS) in collaboration with the BLAS

Technical Forum. We developed an

ANSI C BLAS reference implementation and

completed the accompanying test suites. We

released Parallel Adaptive Multigrid Methods

and Software (PHAML) Version 0.9, a parallel

adaptive partial differential equation solver

written in Fortran 90 using MPI. We incorporated related NIST algorithms and software

into the Zoltan Library of Sandia National

Laboratories for dynamically load-balancing

parallel applications. We released Version 1.01 of the

Template Numerical Toolkit (TNT), an object-oriented

library of standard linear algebra operations based on

C++ templates. 

We continue to operate popular web-based information

services. The Guide to Available Mathematical Software

(GAMS), our cross-index and virtual repository of

general-purpose mathematical software components,

provides access to some 9,000 items from more than

100 packages. The Matrix Market is a database of

matrices used in studies of algorithms and software for

linear algebra. Our JavaTM Numerics website provides

information on numerical computing in Java, including

a standardized web-based benchmark, called SciMark.

The current high score for SciMark is over 300 Mflops,

a 44 percent improvement over one year ago. These

services are among the most popular at NIST. 

As a result of this work, NIST scientists and engineers,

as well as the larger computational science community,

benefit from more accurate, reliable, portable computational modeling, greater ease in developing technical

computing applications, and improved portability and

performance of technical computing applications. The

website is http://math.nist.gov/.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Geoffrey McFadden and NRC Research Associate Katharine Gurski

apply mathematical methods to a variety of problems, from the 

formation of dendritic crystals to the stability of quantum wires.

25
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

BAYESIAN METROLOGY

S

cientists at NIST and national metrology laboratories routinely use Bayesian methods for standard

uncertainty analysis. Bayesian statistics provide a

unified framework for optimally combining information

from multiple sources, resulting in highly efficient

experimental designs and statistical analyses. We

continue to expand fundamental statistical theory

necessary for the application of statistics to metrology;

at the same time we are developing and implementing

specialized Bayesian methods to metrology research at

NIST and in the international metrology community.

In FY 2002, we presented nine talks at national and

international conferences, published eight papers, and

taught courses on Bayesian statistical and linear models.

Methodology development included both software

implementation for Bayesian metrology and the developing of standard reference data sets for the evaluation

of Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms. Successful

application of Bayesian statistics for metrology has

spanned the analysis of an international Key

Comparison; the implementation, testing, and comparison of several Bayesian partition models; and a general

purpose MATLAB implementation of the normal

Bayesian hierarchical model. 

Elicitation of prior information and quantification of

expert opinion is key to using Bayesian methods to their

full capacity. We are adapting available methodology

and developing specialized software to assist the NIST

scientific community in this endeavor. For linear models

we have completed a prior elicitation of hyperparameters using conjugate priors based on a quantile elicitation approach. In a parallel effort we also completed a

prior elicitation for hyperparameters in multivariate

linear models drawing on historical data. Graphical

representations of Bayesian inferences and diagnostics

are being developed, implemented, and prepared as

web-based products. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/bayesian/homepage.htm.

KEY COMPARISONS AND UNCERTAINTY

International Key Comparisons serve as the technical

basis for acceptance of measurements by member

laboratories participating in the Mutual Recognition

Agreement (MRA) of the National Metrology Institutes

(NMIs) worldwide. ITL leads a collaborative effort with

other NIST laboratories and NMIs to ensure that sources

of statistical variation are correctly identified. This

includes determining whether two national laboratories

have comparable measurements and assessing the

differences among participating laboratories using

statistical methods. In FY 2002, we collaborated with

scientists in NIST’s Chemical Science and Technology,

Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing

Engineering, and Physics Laboratories by collecting and

analyzing data for seven Key Comparisons in which

NIST participated. New work in statistical design led to

a set of candidate designs for collection of data in six

upcoming Key Comparisons on fluid flow. Statistical

Engineering staff presented an invited tutorial on design

principles and specific options to the international

Working Group on Fluid Flow. 

26

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR RESEARCH PROGRAM

STATISTICS

Alisha Sparks, a student in the Statistical Engineering Division, and

Ken Butcher, NIST Technology Services, discuss the statistical analysis

of U. S. and proposed European standards for packaging and labeling. 
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

In addition to participating in individual Key

Comparisons, we initiated a focused statistical research

effort on the foundations of key comparisons in order

to provide general guidance and computer tools for the

design and analysis of key comparisons. We formulated

an approach to the performance evaluation of

commonly applied parametric, nonparametric and

Bayesian methodologies for estimating the key comparison reference value (KCRV) and the associated uncertainty. Specific Key Comparisons have required new

statistical research. We have applied the new methodology, presented it to the scientific community, and

published results, for example, the uncertainty analysis

for Key Comparisons when traveling standards are

subject to drift effects over time. 

Statistical Engineering Division staff took an active

international role, participating in meetings held under

the auspices of several Consultative Committees of the

International Committee for Weights and Measures

(CIPM) and the Joint Bureau International des Poids et

Mesures/ National Physical Laboratory (BIPM-NPL)

Workshop on the Impact of Information Technology in

Metrology, with a formal presentation at the satellite

workshop on Evaluation of Interlaboratory Comparison

Data. We continue a major research effort to provide

the scientific metrology community with more accurate

uncertainty assessment and computation methodology

to improve scientific decision-making. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/projects/keycomp.htm.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF IT

PERFORMANCE

ITL is defining the measures of IT performance and

determining their statistical characteristics. To accomplish this, we construct models to assess the importance

of factors in performance of networks and biometrics,

provide a statistical basis for IT standards, and construct

efficient experimental designs for IT applications for

computer forensics, speech recognition, and document

understanding. In FY 2002, we collaborated with ITL’s

Advanced Network Division to develop sound statistical

methodology for network traffic data analysis and simulation, with potential applications for Quality of Service

(QoS) and computer security. For the HumanID project,

we focused on solutions to the algorithmic comparison

problem in face recognition. In computer forensics, we

provided a statistical-based rigorous foundation for the

National Software Reference Library and the Computer

Forensics Tool Testing projects. We contributed to

speech recognition research by translating the problem

into appropriate statistical essentials and prioritizing the

experimental design and analysis. Lastly, we consulted

on ITL’s document understanding project. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/itperf/homepage.htm.

STATISTICAL COLLABORATIONS AND

MEASUREMENT SERVICES

ITL collaborates with the NIST staff on research projects

where optimal experiment design, statistical modeling,

and data analysis play a significant role in improving

measurement processes and gaining scientific insight.

We design and analyze experiments and evaluate

uncertainties for the NIST Standard Reference Materials

(SRMs) and Calibration Programs. In FY 2002, we maintained and supported NIST’s role as the highest quality

SRM service in the United States, contributing to the

development and certification of more than 40 SRMs.

We developed an administrative database to track 

individual SRMs, which allows for more effective 

monitoring and reporting. 

As part of the Statistical Engineering Division’s interdisciplinary collaborative role in NIST science, extensive

long-term collaborations continue to break new scientific ground in the areas of subatomic particle lifetime,

optoelectronics, and low-level radionuclide measurement. Other collaborations that contribute directly to

27

Andrew Rukhin, Blaza Toman, Nien-Fan Zhang, and Stefan Leigh 

discuss statistical approaches to uncertainty analysis for International

("Key") Comparisons Among National Metrology Institutes.
American industry and to American consumers include

cigarette flammability, highway concrete lifetime and

cost optimization, optical particle counters, and gas

metrology calibration. The websites are

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/consult/consult.html and

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/projects/srm.htm.

STATISTICAL METROLOGY EDUCATION

ITL offers statistical short courses and tutorials, which

are tailored to NIST science and metrology. Topic areas

include statistics, probability, data analysis, and 

statistical computing. These core courses in statistical

concepts and methodology are supplemented by special

topics on an as-needed basis. The training provides

researchers with the statistical tools necessary to

improve the quality of experimental design and analysis

at NIST. We also offer hands-on work experience for

students and interns in statistics; seven undergraduate

and graduate students spent the summer of 2002

working on statistical metrology in the Statistical

Engineering Division. 

In July 2002, the NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of

Engineering Statistics was officially released. Within 

a month, the e-Handbook became the top citation 

for web searches on “engineering statistics.” The 

e-Handbook began when ITL teamed up with

International SEMATECH, a consortium of worldwide

major semiconductor companies, to provide this 

web-based guide for engineers, scientists, businesses,

researchers and teachers who use statistical techniques

in their work. The e-Handbook updates NBS Handbook

91, Experimental Statistics (all-time #2 NIST best-seller)

and also provides direct incorporation of “bundled”

software for immediate user access and utilization, plus

web publication of resources. The final editing, incorporating new features suggested by beta-test users, is also

available as the e-Handbook CD. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/index.htm.

STATISTICAL PROCESS

CHARACTERIZATION

ITL statisticians work with NIST scientists and with

industrial partners to characterize complex processes

and to address measurement and standards aspects of

physical science, engineering, and IT. For NIST’s

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory, we

collaborated in the dielectric materials metrology work

by completing an uncertainty analysis and developing

code for software for computing permittivity and loss

tangent; the software was made available to industry in

August 2002. Consulting in high-speed optoelectronics,

we developed a method for estimating the bias of

timebase distortion estimates and released public

domain software for correction of signals for drift, jitter,

and timebase distortion. In collaboration with NIST’s

Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, we developed a full-blown example of the sequential approach

to designing a series of experiments to characterize a

new measurement process and to identify all the critical

factors. This example was based on the dual meter flow

measurement system comparison characterized at NIST

and now to be used in fluid flow calibrations in both

national and international arenas. For the U.S. electronics and communications industries, we developed

accurate calibration and measurement techniques for

nonlinear network analysis. Also for industry, we

contributed to a quantitative measurement system for

neutron depth profiling. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/charact/homepage.htm.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

28

The e-Handbook of Engineering Statistics Development Team:

Thomas Ryan (consultant), Alan Heckert, Carroll Croarkin,

James Filliben, and Will Guthrie.
29

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

ITLis developing interoperable open standards, guidelines, and specifications for

biometric systems. Our experience

includes standards development, design of experiments,

statistical analysis, algorithm development, distributed

computing, image processing, software engineering,

systems integration, and signal processing. 

In collaboration with the NIST Building and Fire

Research Laboratory, ITL is developing test methodologies, documentary standards, and reference implementations (software and hardware prototypes) to assist the

biometrics industry and end-users in the testing and

deployment of scalable, integrated biometric systems.

The impact of this research will: a) lower the technical

engineering investments needed for developing and

modifying state-of-the-art biometric systems, b) enable

the integration of biometric systems with building

automation systems, and c) clarify subsystem and

middleware requirements to get more biometriccompatible installation points in buildings. Biometric

technologies have been used for single point solutions;

e.g., entry access, computer log-on. This project seeks

to explore the scalability of biometrics systems for large

enterprise environments, and the subsequent development performance metrics and test methodologies. In FY

2002, we began development of an open, performance

evaluation laboratory to examine different biometric

systems. Work progressed on the software development

of a Linux version of the BioAPI standard, which

became an ANSI standard. We continued our leadership

in the Biometrics Consortium and held two major

conferences this year featuring biometrics and its 

application as a homeland security technology. More

than 900 persons and over 70 exhibitors participated 

in our September 2002 conference. 

For the Department of Justice, the FBI, the National

Institute of Justice, developers, vendors, and law

enforcement organizations, we are providing standards

and evaluation technology for interoperable Criminal

Justice Information Systems (CJIS). We published NIST

Special Databases 29 and 30 for plain and rolled images

from paired fingerprint cards. We completed the NIST

Fingerprint Image Software (NFIS) package and distributed 333 copies of the CD. We also published the revised

XML Rap Sheet Transmission Specification and initiated

the development of the Verification Test Bed (VTB). 

ITL fulfills its mandate to certify biometrics under the

USA Patriot Act by determining estimates of performance

for fingerprint and face biometrics using several NIST

special databases. Using large operational fingerprint

and facial databases from federal agencies, we 

developed an initial NIST VTB for testing fingerprint

verification scores. To fill the need for accurate 

biometrics for border security as part of homeland

defense, we ran verification tests on Immigration and

Naturalization Service (INS) databases. 

Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency and the National Institute of Justice, ITL’s

Human Identification at a Distance (Human ID) project

focuses on providing evaluation methods and test data

for biometric systems that operate at long distances from

the subject. Since September 11, 2001, our work has

focused on certifying the accuracy of face verification 

of individuals using visas and on border security. In 

FY 2002, we designed and gathered imagery for a largescale Face Recognition Verification Test. We implemented

a baseline gait recognition system and distributed it to the

research community. The ITL Biometrics Resource Center

website is http://www.nist.gov/biometrics.

S E L E C T E D C R O S S C U T T I N G T H E M E S

BIOMETRICS 

Fernando Podio, Mike Indovina, Alan Mink, Barry Hershman, and

Robert Snelick test the performance of an iris scan device in the

NIST biometrics system integration and engineering laboratory.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Protecting the nation’s vital infrastructure has

become a top priority since the tragedy of

September 11, 2001. U.S. government operations,

business and commerce, and the health and safety of

the American public rely upon a national information

infrastructure and supporting physical infrastructure,

such as telecommunications, energy, financial services,

water, and transportation sectors. Many of the systems

and physical assets of these infrastructures are critical 

to the nation’s security, economy, or health and safety.

Information technology (IT) advances have caused these

infrastructures to become increasingly automated and

interlinked, creating new vulnerabilities to equipment

failures, human error, weather and other natural causes,

and physical and cyber attacks. 

Consistent with its overall mission and long-standing

security responsibilities in information technology, ITL

focuses on security standards and testing to help ensure

the security of our nation’s critical infrastructures. We

support federal departments and agencies under the

Computer Security Act of 1987 and follow-on legislation

that assign to NIST responsibility to develop security

standards and guidelines for sensitive federal systems.

Through the development of standards and testing

programs, we are helping IT users and vendors to 

build products that will better protect information and

improve security. (See the Security section of this

report.) These improved products, in turn, provide

enhanced security of the communications and 

information processing backbone of our infrastructures. 

30

S E L E C T E D C R O S S C U T T I N G T H E M E S

CRITICAL 

INFRASTRUCTURE

PROTECTION

ITL focuses on IT security standards and testing to help

ensure the security of our nation's critical infrastructures.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

31

S E L E C T E D C R O S S C U T T I N G T H E M E S

PERVASIVE COMPUTING 

ITL’spervasive computing initiative is a

natural fit for our organization. The

initiative builds upon our robust

R&D programs in human computer interaction, such as

speech and visual recognition and tracking, sophisticated information access from multimedia databases,

extensive information presentation capabilities, dynamic

networking, wireless networking, software testing, and

security.

A significant component of our pervasive computing

effort is our smart space testbed. We advance smart

space technologies and accelerate their deployment by

providing a modular testbed for integration, interoperability, architecture development, data collection, and

performing experiments. In FY 2002, we deployed 

our Smart Flow System to our Meeting Room, which

includes hundreds of sensors and terabytes of data. We

integrated wireless capability for using personal digital

assistants (PDAs). We produced a new microphone array

with onboard analog to digital conversion. We are also

developing a usability-enhanced Smart Flow System,

which is much easier to install and program. We serve

on the founding editorial board of the IEEE Pervasive

Computing Magazine. Our Pervasive Computing 2002

Conference was held in early October 2002, with an

emphasis on medical pervasive computing applications.

The website is http://www.nist.gov/smartspace.

The software system components of our pervasive

computing initiative focus on applying Architecture

Description Languages (ADLs) to Service Discovery

Protocol (SDP) specifications and our Aroma project,

which is developing measurements and tools for pervasive computing. This year we modeled Universal Plug

and Play (UpnP) and developed two-party and threeparty Rapide architectural models to cover all SDPs.

We produced metrics for industry analysis of distributed

component systems in harsh conditions, analyzed SDPs,

and published four reports on the work. We continued

the development and use of our Existential Simulation

Tool (EXiST); our redesign of the tool around XML-based

web services allows for portability, interoperability, and

extensibility. We also created a database for measurements. The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897.

We continued to address networking issues for pervasive

computing. To expedite the development of wireless

personal area networks (WPANs), we worked with IEEE

802.15 to complete one specification, developed specification and description languages (SDLs) for two specifications and one protocol implementation conformance

statement (PICS), produced a recommended practices

document on coexistence, and published ten papers on

interference and coexistence. We also developed a

generic model for service discovery (SD) protocols,

studied and published three papers on resiliency of 

SD protocols, and shared the results with Sun

Microsystems, Inc., and the UPnP forum. Our work is

helping the IT industry to understand the technical 

properties of various industry dynamic discovery 

and configuration technologies. The website is

http://w3.antd.nist.gov.

College students Stephanie Gantt, Peng Ying, and 

Alexandria Chambers learn about pervasive computing 

tools and techniques as part of their projects in ITL.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

32

NIST’s quantum information

program was initiated in

response to the coming

confluence of computer science and quantum physics. The

goal of the program is to understand the implications of the

use of quantum states of matter to represent, process, and

communicate information and to begin to develop the new

IT infrastructure necessary to support it. Quantum information could provide benefits in many areas. Perfectly secure

communications and the ability to solve problems beyond

the capabilities of classical computers in applications such

as code breaking and pattern matching could have a

profound impact on homeland security. For commerce and

trade, advances in quantum information could lead to more

secure electronic commerce and continued maintenance of

the U.S. lead in the computer technology marketplace.

ITL contributes to NIST’s interdisciplinary quantum information program (in collaboration with the Physics and

Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratories) in the

areas of applied mathematics, algorithms, computing and

communications architecture, computer security, and

network protocols; five ITL divisions contribute to the

program. ITL’s work is in two broad arenas: quantum

communication and quantum computation. We are 

developing a quantum communication testbed facility 

for technology assessment and integration, showcasing

hardware and protocols for cryptographic key distribution

based on commercially feasible technologies, with the

attainment of Mbps effective transfer rates as the goal. In 

FY 2002, we completed the design of a 600 meter free-space

1.25 GHz optical wireless link containing both quantum

and classical channels. Laboratories at each end of the 

link were renovated, and necessary equipment, such as

telescopes and high-speed electronics, was procured. We

designed data collection hardware, implemented a cryptographic key exchange software system, implemented and

tested the application programming interface (API), and

began the testbed assembly. In addition, to improve the 

reliability of identity verification for network applications,

we devised and documented a hybrid quantum authentication scheme and filed a provisional patent application.

In the area of quantum computation, we are working on

fundamental problems at all scales, from the modeling of

physical realizations of quantum bits (qubits), to architectural concepts for quantum computers, to the development

of quantum algorithms. In FY 2002, we developed mathematical methods to compute trapping states for neutral

atoms in optical lattices from the Schrödinger equation

model, extending ITL’s parallel adaptive partial differential

equations solver PHAML to use them. We developed the

concept of a quantum bus architecture based on entanglement swapping and teleportation, and began analysis of its

scalability and error properties. We developed software to

enumerate quantum circuits (i.e., fundamental algorithmic

components) for Boolean functions. Finally, we developed

a novel algorithm to determine whether a finite integer

function is one-to-one. 

As we build expertise in the uses of quantum computing

and communication, ITL’s world class IT program can 

significantly advance the development of the next 

generation of information technology. The web page is

http://math.nist.gov/quantum/.

S E L E C T E D C R O S S C U T T I N G T H E M E S

QUANTUM INFORMATION

Richang Lu, Xiao Tang, Mikko Heikkero (seated),

and Alan Mink designed and engineered the

optics and electronics for the NIST Quantum

Communications Testbed.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

ITLprovides centralized, comprehensive

support for a variety of business applications and administrative systems at NIST.

In FY 2002, we provided system administration for the

new Grants Management Information System. For the

NIST e-Approval system, we completed the rollout and

training for 62 percent of the 3,200 targeted users;

more than 10,000 actions were processed through 

e-Approval in FY 2002. We supported the development

of the e-Approval-based NIST Associate Information

System. For the NIST KnowledgeNet, we implemented

user-requested enhancements, a help module, and an

external reporting capability. Our support for the

Commerce Administrative Management System (CAMS)

continued, with a FY 2003 deployment date. By

supporting these critical services, ITL ensures a secure

and efficient business environment throughout the

agency. The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896/.

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER (CIO)

The Office of the NIST CIO resides within ITL. The 

CIO provides centralized business-level planning and

program management for all NIST information technology (IT) resources and programs. The office administers the NIST IT Strategic Plan, the NIST IT Operations

Plan, the NIST Systems Development Life Cycle, the

NIST IT Architecture Plan, and NIST’s implementation 

of the government-wide 508 Accessibility program. In

FY 2002, we initiated the Security Access Control

Project and issued NIST policies on Persistent Cookies.

We represented NIST at Department of Commerce

(DoC)-sponsored groups and oversaw the actions of the

NIST Information Technology Services Planning Team

(ITSPT). We also implemented the IT Capital Asset

Planning for Supercomputing funds and initiated a

consolidated NIST IT services contract. We planned for

the implementation, in FY 2003, of an entirely new CIO

organization. 

DESKTOP COMPUTING

ITL’s managed desktop program includes over 1,000

desktops to date. Our asset management program

advanced in FY 2002 with the development of a 

web-based IT Asset system, which was integrated with

the LANDesk automated inventory capabilities. We

launched a PC Buying Service so NIST staff can

purchase a computer that meets ITSPT requirements for

implementation of a NIST-wide uniform desktop system.

Over 70 percent of NIST PCs purchased during the year

were bought through the buying service, a total of more

than 800 computers. We upgraded the desktop model to

a Pentium IV and added laptop and high-end workstation models. The website is

http://www.itl.nist.gov/itl_serv.html.

33

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

OF OUR SERVICES PROGRAM

The PC Buying Service Team offers a convenient way to purchase a

computer that meets the Information Technology Services Planning

Team's (ITSPT) requirements for implementation of a NIST-wide

uniform desktop system. Team members include Ricky Hilderbrand,

Jason Barnard, Eric Konig (leader), Paul DeBruin, Denise Miller, and

Dan Diamond.
ENTERPRISE SERVERS

ITL operates the central NIST servers, such as e-mail,

calendar, and application servers. In FY 2002, we

implemented disaster recovery procedures and capabilities for all major systems. We completed a full disaster

recovery test for administrative processing and

completed local disaster recovery tests for other

systems. We implemented a new high availability

central e-mail server. For web services, we moved to a

high availability environment for internal web services

and implemented a web application development environment. The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896.

ITAC CENTRAL HELP DESK

To provide improved IT support and response time to

our NIST customers, ITL launched its iTAC Central Help

Desk in Gaithersburg and Boulder. Since its inception,

ITAC has averaged over 1,500 requests per month. We

developed a monthly service metrics report and implemented multi-mode outage notification processes. 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECURITY

OFFICE (ITSO)

ITSO provides NIST with a central resource for

addressing security issues, providing security training

to the NIST staff, responding to incidents, and issuing

security policy, procedures, and guidance. In FY 2002,

ITSO developed and issued a Password Management

Policy and acquired 100 percent user compliance

certification; directed the deployment of the e-NIST

DMZ Firewall to protect over 75 NIST public servers on

three networks and the NIST modem pool; sponsored

several specialized security training sessions and

provided IT security training to 100 percent of the NIST

staff; managed the first annual NIST IT Security Day at

Gaithersburg and Boulder, attended by over 2,000

NIST staff; developed draft policies on certification and

accreditation, and patch management, and updated the

NIST IT Security Program Policy; developed and issued

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

34

guidance on several security issues including system

hardening, risk assessments, contingency planning, and

certification and accreditation; developed and directed

the certification and accreditation program, completing

certification and accreditation of 100 percent of NIST’s

systems; responded, directed, and assisted with the

response and cleanup of virus-related and hacker incidents; directed the completion of FY 2002 Government

Information Security Reform Act requirements, including

self assessments of 100 percent of NIST’s systems;

participated in technical security reviews of several

new NIST applications and systems, such as e-Approval,

Grant Management Information System, Commerce

Administrative Management System, Data Warehouse,

etc.; and participated in the Office of Inspector General

(OIG) Government Information Security Reform Act

evaluation of NIST and the OIG audit of NIST financial

systems. The ITSO website is located at

http://www.nist.gov/its.

NETWORKING

ITL provides a wide range of networking services to

the NIST staff. In FY 2002, we upgraded webcasting

performance and encoding capabilities at NIST, 

while webcasting two or three events per week. We

completed the migration of three buildings to universal

wiring. We implemented a fiber infrastructure for most

buildings to support the Gigabit backbone network. We

implemented the network infrastructure for the e-NIST

firewall and public network. We maintained a 99.8

percent availability of NISTnet. Our telecommunications

staff continued to provide reliable service to NIST users,

while implementing a prototype teleworker capability.

Security audits were also performed in Gaithersburg and

Boulder. The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896.

SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING

NIST scientists and engineers require complex, sophisticated high-performance scientific computing capabilities. ITL provides standardized scientific computing

architectures that allow ready access to and networking

of high-end workstations, parallel computing clusters,

and supercomputing facilities (both internal and

external to NIST) and enable maximum use of collective

memory and processing capacities, as necessary, for the

conduct of NIST research. In FY 2002, we retired an

SP2 cluster. We completed an initial test of the Globus

Grid computing environment. In our PC Cluster, we

upgraded from 64 to 128 CPUs. Lastly, we coordinated

a survey of user requirements for scientific computing at

NIST. The website is http://www.itl.nist.gov/div896.

The original iTAC team: 

Tom Lacko, Linda Helfer 

(Team Leader), Laura Hanlon,

Carolyn Holmes, Angela Beattie,

Charlette Prather, Stephanie 

Auchmoody, and Omar Andrade.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

ITL’sresearch, measurement, and 

standards programs are greatly

enhanced by our interactions with

partners in industry, academia, government, and 

standards developers. In addition to three Cooperative

Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) with

industry in FY2002, we participated in many consortia

and industry interest groups, including the following:

ADVANCED TELEVISION SYSTEMS

COMMITTEE (ATSC)

The ATSC establishes voluntary technical standards for

advanced television systems. ITL staff members Alan

Mink, Robert Snelick, and Wayne Salamon participate

in T3/S17, Digital TV Applications Software

Environment (DASE) Application Programming Interface

(API). ITL has been a catalyst for the approval of an

interactive digital television standard.

AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARDS

INSTITUTE (ANSI)

ANSI has served as administrator and coordinator of 

the U.S. private sector voluntary standardization system

for 80 years. Michael Hogan serves on the ANSI

Information Systems Standards Board (ISSB). Thomas

Rhodes and Lisa Carnahan serve on the ANSI

Healthcare Informatics Standards Board (HISB). NIST/ITL

is an ANSI-accredited standards developer. Michael

McCabe is the contact for the ANSI/NIST-ITL 1/2000,

Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, 

& SMT Information standard.

35

INDUSTRY AND

INTERNATIONAL 

INTERACTIONS

ASTM

ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) is 

a not-for-profit organization that provides a forum for

producers, users, ultimate consumers, and those having

a general interest (representatives of government and

academia) to meet on common ground and write 

standards for materials, products, systems, and services.

Through the participation of Nien-Fan Zhang in

Technical Committee E-11, ITL promotes quality in

statistics.

Lattice Boltzman simulation of the

Taylor-Tomotika instability of a

fluid thread confined within a tube.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

BASIC LINEAR ALGEBRA

SUBPROGRAMS (BLAS) TECHNICAL

FORUM

The BLAS Technical Forum is an industry/government/

academic working group, which is developing 

community standards for sparse matrix operations and

extending the BLAS to new domains. Roldan Pozo

chairs the sparse matrix subcommittee. Through 

participation in the forum, ITL contributes to the 

development of interface specifications and reference

implementations for BLAS.

BIOMETRIC APPLICATION

PROGRAMMING INTERFACE (BIOAPI)

CONSORTIUM 

The BioAPI Consortium is an organization of over 100

members including IT organizations, biometric vendors,

and users. It is international in nature (30 percent of the

members are from overseas). The Consortium developed

the BioAPI specification. It became an ANSI-INCITS

standard (InterNational Committee for Information

Technology Standards) in February of 2002 through the

INCITS fast track process: ANSI/INCITS 358, the BioAPI

specification v1.1. Fernando Podio is a member of the

BioAPI Steering Committee and chairs the BioAPI

External Liaisons Task Group, which was responsible 

for transitioning the specification to formal standards

bodies.

BIOMETRIC CONSORTIUM (BC)

The Biometric Consortium serves as the U.S. government's

focal point for research, development, test, evaluation,

and application of biometric-based personal

identification/verification technology. Fernando Podio

co-chairs the Biometric Consortium as well as the

NIST/Biometric Interoperability, Performance and

Assurance Working Group and the Common Biometric

Exchange File Format Group. ITL was instrumental in

the development of this standard.

COMMON CRITERIA MANAGEMENT

COMMITTEE 

This group of 14 industrialized nations formed a cooperative agreement to recognize the results of security

testing of IT products and systems conducted by 

accredited, independent, third party testing laboratories.

Stuart Katzke chairs the Common Criteria Management

Committee Executive Subcommittee. ITL's leadership in

this area benefits government and industry by increasing

the availability of commercially tested IT products

necessary to build more secure systems and networks

for critical infrastructure applications. 

CROSS INDUSTRY WORKING TEAM

(XIWT)

The XIWT is a multi-industry coalition of information

technology companies that attempts to identify common

issues and concerns in IT strategic directions and policy

matters. ITL’s participation assists in this process by

providing technical guidance that bridges the gap

between the research, standardization, and policy

communities. Doug Montgomery represents NIST on 

the executive committee. 

36

ITL is developing interoperable open 

standards, guidelines, and specifications 

for biometric systems.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

DVD ASSOCIATION (DVDA)

The DVD Association represents standards developers,

software developers, disc and electronics manufacturers,

government agencies, and content developers for DVD

technology and associated technologies. Victor

McCrary represents ITL. Through our representation,

we are facilitating standards, interoperability, and

compatibility for writable DVD media, disc drives, 

and consumer electronic players. 

FINANCIAL SERVICES TECHNOLOGY

CONSORTIUM (FSTC) FAST WORKING

GROUP

ITL participates with FSTC in its FAST (Financial 

Agent Secure Transaction) project. FAST addresses 

e-commerce participants with concerns about valid

identities for other web parties, characteristics being

claimed, promised or contracted for (examples are

payment guarantee, shipping reliability or rights of

product use, and privacy for personal data and business

marketing information. Gordon Lyon represents ITL. 

Our support promotes economical trust and assurance

for e-commerce.

FORUM ON PRIVACY AND SECURITY IN

HEALTHCARE 

Sponsored by the National Information Assurance

Partnership (NIAP, a joint National Institute of Standards

and Technology and National Security Agency initiative)

and the Healthcare Open Systems and Trial (HOST), 

the forum is incorporated as a nonprofit charitable

organization consisting of participating members from

approximately 50 healthcare organizations. Arnold

Johnson represents ITL, which with support from the

NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and NIAP, 

is developing guidance material and reference Common

Criteria (CC)-based profiles to assist, demonstrate, and

educate the healthcare community in specifying

Protection Profile security requirements using the

ISO/IEC 15408 CC standard. 

HEALTH LEVEL 7 (HL7)

HL7 is an ANSI-accredited standards developing 

organization that provides standards for the exchange,

management and integration of data to support clinical

patient care and the management, delivery, and evaluation of healthcare services. Specifically, HL7 seeks to

create flexible, cost-effective approaches, standards,

guidelines, methodologies, and related services for

interoperability between healthcare information

systems. Lisa Carnahan and John Barkley represent 

ITL in the HL7 Conformance Special Interest Group.

HIGH DENSITY STORAGE ASSOCIATION

(HDSA)

The HDSA has a well-defined charter to focus on automated, storage-centric technologies known as jukebox

or library storage and acts as a centralized communicator among the industry, resellers, and users. The group

identifies interoperability, connectivity, and compatibility

issues and develops specifications to enhance the

storage infrastructure. Oliver Slattery represents ITL,

which provides a neutral platform to perform testing and

development that makes it possible for the industry to

improve the interoperability and performance of their

products for the increased demands for high-density

data storage.

37

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of breakup of a

fluid thread confined between parallel plates.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND

ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS (IEEE)

The world's largest technical professional society, IEEE

focuses on advancing the theory and practice of 

electrical, electronics and computer engineering, and

computer science. Daniel Benigni serves on the Board

of Governors of the IEEE Standards Association. Sharon

Laskowski participates in P2001, Web Best Practices

Working Group. David Cypher, Robert Van Dyck, Nada

Golmie, and Nader Moayeri participate in IEEE 802.15,

Working Group for Wireless Personal Area Networks,

and Nader Moayeri also attends IEEE 802.16, Working

Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards. Finally,

Larry Reeker represents ITL on the Industrial Advisory

Board of the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge

(SWEBOK) project, which seeks to identify the body of

knowledge of software engineering and to provide

suitable access to that knowledge. 

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

STANDARDS (INCITS)

INCITS's mission is to produce market-driven, voluntary

consensus standards in a wide range of IT areas.

Michael Hogan serves on the INCITS Policy and

Procedures Committee. ITL technical staff participate in

many working groups, including biometrics (chaired by

Fernando Podio), coding of audio, picture, multimedia

and hypermedia information (chaired by Mike

Rubinfeld), data representation, IT access interfaces, 

IT security techniques, MPEG development, open

distributed processing, and still image coding. Through

these interactions, we contribute our expertise to the

development of IT industry standards.

INTEROPERABLE MESSAGE PASSING

INTERFACE (IMPI)

ITL actively participates in the development of standards

and conformance testing for IMPI. William George, John

Hagedorn, and Judy Devaney represent ITL; our contributions benefit industries that use a parallel code across

different vendor systems, including the embedded

computing community.

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR

INFORMATION PROCESSING (IFIP)

ITL’s Ronald Boisvert chairs the IFIP Working Group on

Numerical Software (WG2.5), which is part of the IFIP

Technical Committee on Programming Languages (TC

2). WG2.5 strives to improve the quality of numerical

computation by promoting international cooperation 

in the development of languages, guidelines, tools, 

and standards for numerical software. 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR

STANDARDIZATION (ISO)

The ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards

bodies from some 140 countries, one from each

country. Nien-Fan Zhang serves on the Committee on

Reference Materials (REMCO) WG1 for ISO Guide 35.

38

Jack Wang, Hari Iyer, Duane Boes, and Jolene Splett discuss issues in

the ISO Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Zhang and Nell Sedransk participate in the management

group for ISO TC 69, Statistical Methods. Our contributions facilitate the development of international agreements that are published as International Standards.

INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE

(IETF)

ITL contributes to the technical development of the

Internet through participation in the IETF, which is 

a large open international community of network

designers, operators, vendors, and researchers

concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture

and the smooth operation of the Internet. Doug

Montgomery, Scott Rose, and Sheila Frankel participate

in the Internet Area; David Griffith participates in the

SUB-IP Area; Mark Carson, Leonard Miller, Doug

Montgomery, and Nader Moayeri participate in the

Routing Area; Okhee Kim, Doug Montgomery, Sheila

Frankel, Nelson Hastings, and Tim Polk participate in the

Security Area; and Doug Montgomery and Mudumbai

Ranganathan participate in the Transport Area. 

JAVATM GRANDE FORUM

The JavaTM Grande Forum (JGF) is an open working

group of industrial, government and academic

researchers, and software developers interested in

improving the JavaTM language and environment for

technical computing applications. Roldan Pozo and

Ronald Boisvert co-chair the Numerics Working Group,

which has worked with Sun Microsystems to implement changes in Java’s specifications which admit

much faster execution (up to ten times faster) for

computing-intensive applications.

JTC1 TAG

The Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) develops,

maintains, promotes, and facilitates IT standards

required by global markets meeting business and user

requirements concerning the design and development 

of IT systems and tools. Michael Hogan represents 

ITL on the U.S. TAG to ISO/IEC JTC1 on Information

Technology, ensuring that ITL has a voice in global 

IT standards development. 

MICROMAGNETIC MODELING ACTIVITY

GROUP (MUMAG)

muMAG is an organization of industrial, government,

and academic researchers investigating fundamental

issues in micromagnetic modeling through the establishment of standard problems for testing micromagnetic

simulation software and the development of a public

domain reference implementation of micromagnetic

simulation software. Michael Donahue and Donald

Porter represent ITL on the steering committee.

NATIONAL INFORMATION ASSURANCE

PARTNERSHIP (NIAP)

NIAP is a NIST/NSA partnership for testing methods and

measures to ensure the quality of information security

systems. ITL’s Ronald Ross serves as Director of NIAP.

Our involvement helps to ensure that the security 

testing needs of federal and industry IT consumers 

and producers are met.

NORTH AMERICAN OPEN MATH

INITIATIVE (NAOMI)

Open Math is a standard for communicating mathematical objects between computer programs. Bruce Miller

represents ITL in this organization.

39

Comparison of experimental data with a lattice

Boltzmann simulation of fluid thread breakup.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

ORGANIZATION FOR THE

ADVANCEMENT OF STRUCTURED

INFORMATION STANDARDS (OASIS)

OASIS is an international consortium dedicated to

accelerating the adoption of product-independent

formats based on public standards. These standards

include XML, HTML, and CGM as well as others that

are related to structured information processing. Lynne

Rosenthal, Lisa Carnahan, Michael Kass, and Mark Skall

represent ITL. ITL’s participation includes the development of conformance tests for these standards.

OBJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP (OMG)

OMG is a nonprofit international consortium of 500

organizations whose mission is to research, develop,

and promote the use of object-oriented technology for

distributed systems development. John Barkley is ITL's

principal representative to OMG.

OPEN GROUP

The OPEN GROUP focuses on the development and

implementation of a secure and reliable IT infrastructure. Shu-Jen Chang participates in Security Services. 

OPTICAL INTERNETWORKING FORUM

(OIF)

The OIF fosters the development and deployment of

interoperable products and services for data switching

and routing using optical networking technologies.

David Su and David Griffith represent ITL in the

Architecture, Internetworking, and Management groups.

OPTICAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

ASSOCIATION (OSTA)

OSTA is an international trade association dedicated 

to promoting the use of writable optical technology 

for storing computer data and images. Xiao Tang 

represents ITL. 

ROSETTANET EBUSINESS STANDARDS

CONSORTIUM

RosettaNet is an independent, self-funded, nonprofit

consortium dedicated to the development and 

deployment of standard electronic commerce interfaces

to align the processes between IT supply chain partners 

on a global basis. Thomas Rhodes represents ITL.

SMART CARD SECURITY USERS GROUP

(SCSUG)

SCSUG develops and promotes the use of standardized

security requirements to ensure that the device security

and data protection needs of the smart card end users

are appropriately represented and met in smart card

products. SCSUG is composed of the major worldwide

credit card brands (financial payment systems):

American Express®, Europay, JCB, MasterCard®,

MondexTM, and Visa®. Stuart Katzke represents ITL.

40

The figure shows a visualization of

a cloud water dataset derived from

a sample dataset and program

provided by the Open Visualization

Data Explorer (OpenDX) software

package.

Portion of a sandstone

sample used in the simulation of fluid flow

through porous media.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

SOCIETY OF MOTION PICTURE AND

TELEVISION ENGINEERS (SMPTE)

SMPTE is an international technical society devoted to

advancing the theory and application of motionimaging technology. Randall Easter participates in the

Study Group on Conditional Access for Digital Cinema.

Charles Fenimore represents ITL on the Video Quality

Experts Group.

VIDEO ELECTRONICS STANDARDS

ASSOCIATION (VESA) 

VESA promotes and develops timely, relevant, open

display and display interface standards, ensuring 

interoperability and encouraging innovation and market

growth. John Roberts represents ITL on four committees

in this organization. As a member of VESA, ITL participates in the technical development of standards and

develops laboratory implementations of proposed 

interface architectures. 

WEB3D CONSORTIUM

The Web3D Consortium provides an open forum for the

creation of open standards for Web3D specifications

and accelerates the worldwide demand for products

based on these standards through the sponsorship of

market and user education programs. Sandy Ressler

represents ITL.

WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM (W3C)

The W3C is an international industry consortium

created to lead the web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution 

and ensure its interoperability. Mark Skall serves on the

Advisory Committee. ITL staff members serve on a host

of committees within this organization, including the

Quality Assurance Activity, the Cascading Stylesheets

(CSS) Working Group (WG), the Document Object

Model (DOM) WG, the Extensible Markup Language

(XML) Protocol WG, the Extensible Stylesheet Language

(XSL) WG, the Math WG, the Schema WG, the SYMM

WG, and the XML Working Group. ITL’s contributions

facilitate web interoperability. 

X 9

X9 develops, establishes, publishes, maintains, and

promotes standards for the financial services industry 

in order to facilitate delivery of financial products and

services. Morris Dworkin participates in X9F, Data and

Financial Information Security Committee, and X9F.1,

Cryptographic Tool Standards and Guidelines. Elaine

Barker, Lawrence Bassham, Sharon Keller, and

Annabelle Lee serve as Editors in X9F.1. Elaine Barker

attends X9F.3, Cryptographic Protocols, and Annabelle

Lee participates in X9F.5, Digital Signature and

Certificate Policy. ITL promotes the security of the financial services industry through participation in this forum.

41

Simulation of phase

separation of a 

mixture of two 

fluids under shear.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 2002

MEDAL AND NIST AWARDS

John Barkley, Software Diagnostics and Conformance

Testing Division, and David Ferraiolo and Richard

Kuhn, both of the Computer Security Division, received

the Department of Commerce Gold Medal for scientific/engineering achievement in creating, developing,

and transferring the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

technology to private industry. 

Michael Donahue and Donald Porter, Mathematical

and Computational Sciences Division, received, with

NIST colleague Robert McMichael, the Bronze Medal

Award for 

scientific and

engineering

achievement in

the advancement

of computational

techniques for

simulating the

behavior of

micromagnetic

materials.

Walter Liggett, Jr., Statistical

Engineering Division, along

with NIST colleagues Samuel

Low and Jun-Feng Song,

received the 2002 Judson C.

French Award for developing

a framework for providing

traceability to U.S. national

standards in the area of

Rockwell C-scale hardness

testing.

William Majurski, Software

Diagnostics and

Conformance Testing

Division, received the Bronze

Medal Award for scientific

achievement in the design

and development of distributed models, architectures,

and reference implementations of healthcare information systems.

EXTERNAL RECOGNITION

William Burr, David Cooper, and Tim Polk, Computer

Security Division, were recognized at a ceremony at the

White House Conference Center at the inauguration of

the Federal Bridge Certification Authority (FBCA). Burr

was recognized as a "Founding Father" of the FBCA.

Cooper and Polk were cited for their unparalleled

contribution to the development and operation of the

FBCA, which provides a new secured way for federal

agencies to

exchange

information,

with each

other and

with their

constituents.

42

STAFF RECOGNITION

(from left) Donald L. Evans, Secretary of Commerce,

Rick Kuhn, John Barkley, Dave Ferraiolo, Benjamin 

Wu, Deputy Under Secretary, Technology

Administration, and Arden Bement, NIST Director
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Wo Chang, Information

Access Division, received

recognition from the World

Wide Web Consortium

(W3C)'s Synchronized

Multimedia (SYMM)

Working Group (WG) for his

contribution of hosting and

editing the Synchronized

Multimedia Integrated

Language (SMIL) 2.0 interoperability test suite. W3C viewed the interoperability

test suite as vital for SMIL 2.0 to become a W3C

Recommendation. The SMIL 2.0 Recommendation

represents a cross-industry agreement on an XMLbased language that allows authors to write interactive

multimedia presentations. 

The Network Journal

honored Alicia Clay,

Computer Security Division,

in their annual 40-UnderForty Achievement Awards

program. The awards recognize individuals across

industry lines that have

achieved significant levels 

of success and made

substantial contributions in

their areas of business and community service. 

Clay organizes regional workshops for small 

businesses across the nation. 

Dianne O'Leary (left) and David Gilsinn,

Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division,

together with NIST colleague Geraldine Cheok (right),

won the Best Paper Award for their contribution to the

19th Annual Symposium on Automation and Robotics

in Construction (ISARC 2002). Their paper, entitled

"Reconstructing Images of Bar Codes for Construction

Site Object Recognition," was selected as top paper of

the 88 manuscripts from 20 countries that were

accepted for presentation. Their paper describes 

techniques for the automated recognition of bar codes

from LADAR (laser distance and ranging) optics.

Michael Hogan, ITL Office 

of the Director, received the

National Committee for

Information Technology

Standards (NCITS) 2001

Chairman’s Annual Award.

Hogan was honored for “his

dedication to NCITS and

success in expanding its

program of work. His long-term

commitment to procedures,

institutional memory and the ‘good of the organization’

serve as a strong foundation for the vision and opportunities he brings to NCITS.” 

Kevin Mills (center), Advanced Network Technologies

Division, led an ITL research team that received the

2001 Bytes for the Buck award, given annually to

DARPA’s Active Networks project judged most productive and cost-effective. In addition to Mills, the team

included Stefan Leigh (left) and Andrew Rukhin (right),

Statistical Engineering Division, and Virginie Galtier and

Yannick Carlinet, guest scientists from Loria Université

Nancy and Ecole des Mines Nancy, respectively. The 

ITL team focused on developing a standard means to

specify processor (CPU) demands for mobile computer

programs, also known as mobile code. 

43
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Victor McCrary, Chief, Convergent

Information Systems Division,

received the prestigious Percy Julian

Award from the National

Organization for the Professional

Advancement of Black Chemists and

Chemical Engineers (NOBCCHE).

This is the highest award given by

NOBCCHE for significant achievement in pure and applied research.

Geoffrey McFadden, Mathematical

and Computational Sciences

Division, was elected a Fellow of

the American Physical Society (APS).

McFadden was recognized "for

fundamental insights into the effect

of fluid flow on crystal growth and

for an innovative approach to phase

field methods in fluid mechanics."

McFadden has published more 

than 100 papers on crystal growth with colleagues in

academia and at NIST.

Judith Newton, Software

Diagnostics and Conformance

Testing Division, received the

National Committee for Information

Technology Standards (NCITS) 2001

Merit Award. Newton was recognized for her dedication as an

officer and project editor in the

development of data and metadata

standards, as well as successful

outreach efforts in emphasizing the importance of

metadata standardization to the user community. 

Fernando Podio, Convergent

Information Systems Division,

received recognition from the

Federal Laboratory Consortium for

Technology Transfer (FLC) for his

leadership role in the development

of interoperability and data interchange standards and specifications

for biometric technologies and the

transfer of these specifications to the

private sector. 

Mike Rubinfeld, Information

Access Division, received a

2002 Merit Award from the

InterNational Committee for

Information Technology

Standards (INCITS). The award

cites "substantial management

accomplishments as the

Chairman of the INCITS

Technical Committee L3,

Coding of Audio, Picture, Multimedia, and Hypermedia

Information, that led to key international standards." 

Nell Sedransk, Chief, Statistical

Engineering Division, was

named a Fellow of the

American Statistical Association

(ASA). Sedransk was recognized "for outstanding statistical

leadership in our national

metrology program, for consultative contributions in the

statistics of oncology, for developing methods to achieve more

ethical clinical trials, and for

service to the profession."

Ray Snouffer, Computer

Security Division, received the

prestigious Arthur S. Flemming

Award, which is given annually

by George Washington

University to recognize those

who have performed

outstanding and meritorious

work for the federal government. Snouffer was recognized

in the Applied Science category for his sustained 

contributions and leadership in improving security 

of commercial cryptographic products and thus the

security of federal agencies and private sector organizations. Snouffer heads ITL’s Cryptographic Module

Validation Program. 

44
Founded in 1901, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is

a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Commerce Department's

Technology Administration. NIST's mission is to develop and promote measurements, standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade,

and improve the quality of life. NIST carries out its mission in four cooperative programs:

the NIST Laboratories, conducting research that advances the nation's

technology infrastructure and is needed by U.S. industry to continually

improve products and services; 

the Baldrige National Quality Program, which promotes performance

excellence among U.S. manufacturers, service companies, educational organizations, and healthcare providers; conducts outreach programs and manages

the annual Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award which recognizes performance excellence and quality achievement; 

the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a nationwide network of local

centers offering technical and business assistance to smaller manufacturers;

and 

the Advanced Technology Program, which accelerates the development

of innovative technologies for broad national benefit by co-funding R&D partnerships with the private sector. 

NIST has an operating budget of about $839 million and operates in two locations: Gaithersburg, Maryland and Boulder, Colorado. NIST employs about

3,000 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support and administrative personnel. The website is http://www.nist.gov.

About ITL

For more information about ITL, contact:

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8900

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8900

Telephone: (301) 975-2900

Facsimile: (301) 840-1357

E-mail: itlab@nist.gov

Web site: http://www.itl.nist.gov

NOTE: Reference to specific commercial products or brands is for information 

purposes only; no endorsement or recommendation by the National Institute of Standards

and Technology, explicit or implicit, is intended or implied.

OPNET is a registered trademark of OPNET Technologies.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Solaris, Java, and Jini are trademarks or registered

trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

*Bluetooth SIG Inc. U.S.A. owns the Bluetooth trademarks.