Processing of medical images in virtual distributed environment

Abstract

The processing of medical images within a PACS system depends on high capacity of communication channels and high performance of computational resources. We introduce pilot project utilizing grid technology to distribute functionality of PACS system to several machines located in distant places which allows economizing utilization of network channels. We also discuss benefits and disadvantages of virtualization techniques allowing to separate physical machine capabilities from the operating system. We compare this pilot project utilizing high speed CESNET 2 network with similar mature projects based mainly on P2P secure connection, centralized system and proprietary protocols.