Design and implementation of a picture archiving and communications system based on X windows system, TCP/IP, and SQL

This paper describes current research in picture archiving and communications system (PACS). A PACS has been developed and implemented using a new approach. The standards TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), SQL (Structured Query Language) and X Windows System are the basic elements. Our PACS consists of four major components: display stations, a supervisor, a relational database server and image servers. These components are connected through a communication network. Users on a display station can perform a query for both images and text data, using the SQL-IE query language we developed in this project. The SQL-IE (SQL Image Extension) language is an extension to the standard SQL language and gives users the possibility to display images. Images are stored in a distributed image database. The text data and information related to the images are stored in a central relational database. A general communication interface with a database server has been developed. We designed a supervisor to manage the complete PACS. The TCP/IP is used for communication. A user interface for PACS has been implemented based on the X Windows System. Some performance measurements have been carried out and a brief discussion of these is presented.