The Integrated Tokamak Modelling (ITM) Task Force aims at providing a suite of codes for preparing and analyzing future ITER discharges. In the framework of the ITM, the universal access layer (UAL) provides the capability of storing and retrieving data involved in simulation. The underlying data structure is hierarchical and the granularity in data access is given by the definition of a set of consistent physical objects (CPOs). To describe the data structure of the overall ITM database, the XML schema description (XSD) has been used. Originally intended to describe the structure of XML documents, XSD is used here to provide an unambiguous way of describing how data are structured, regardless of the actual implementation of the underlying database.
The MDSplus-based UAL implementation is currently under test and other prototypes for investigating alternative data storage systems are foreseen.