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Grid Applications (grid + application)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Information Science and Computing	100%

Selected Abstracts

Performance evaluation of an autonomic network-aware metascheduler for Grids

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 13 2009
A. Caminero
Abstract Grid technologies have enabled the aggregation of geographically distributed resources in the context of a particular application. The network remains an important requirement for any Grid application, as entities involved in a Grid system (such as users, services, and data) need to communicate with each other over a network. The performance of the network must therefore be considered when carrying out tasks such as scheduling, migration or monitoring of jobs. Surprisingly, many existing quality of service efforts ignore the network and focus instead on processor workload and disk access time. Making use of the network in an efficient and fault-tolerant manner is challenging. In a previous contribution, we proposed an autonomic network-aware scheduling architecture that is capable of adapting its behavior to the current status of the environment. Now, we present a performance evaluation in which our proposal is compared with a conventional scheduling strategy. We present simulation results that show the benefits of our approach. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

MyCoG.NET: a multi-language CoG toolkit

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 14 2007
A. Paventhan
Abstract Grid application developers utilize Commodity Grid (CoG) toolkits to access Globus Grid services. Existing CoG toolkits are language-specific and have, for example, been developed for Java, Python and the Matlab scripting environment. In this paper we describe MyCoG.NET, a CoG toolkit supporting multi-language programmability under the Microsoft .NET framework. MyCoG.NET provides a set of classes and APIs to access Globus Grid services from languages supported by the .NET Common Language Runtime. We demonstrate its programmability using FORTRAN, C++, C# and Java, and discuss its performance over LAN and WAN infrastructures. We present a Grid application, in the field of experimental aerodynamics, as a case study to show how MyCoG.NET can be exploited. We demonstrate how scientists and engineers can create and use domain-specific workflow activity sets for rapid application development using Windows Workflow Foundation. We also show how users can easily extend and customize these activities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

A workflow portal supporting multi-language interoperation and optimization

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 12 2007
Lican Huang
Abstract In this paper we present a workflow portal for Grid applications, which supports different workflow languages and workflow optimization. We present an XSLT converter that converts from one workflow language to another and enables the interoperation between different workflow languages. We discuss strategies for choosing the optimal service from several semantically equivalent Web services in a Grid application. The dynamic selection of Web services involves discovering a set of semantically equivalent services by filtering the available services based on metadata, and selecting an optimal service based on real-time data and/or historical data recorded during prior executions. Finally, we describe the framework and implementation of the workflow portal which aggregates different components of the project using Java portlets. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Service selection and workflow mapping for Grids: an approach exploiting quality-of-service information

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 6 2009
Dimosthenis Kyriazis
Abstract The advent of heterogeneous and distributed environments, such as Grid environments, made feasible the solution to computational-intensive problems in a reliable and cost-effective manner. In parallel, workflows with increased complexity that require specialized systems to deal with them are emerging, so as to carry out more composite and mission-critical applications. In that rationale, quality-of-service (QoS) issues need to be tackled in order to ensure that each application satisfies the corresponding user requirements. Therefore, considering the quality provision aspect as fundamental for enabling Grid applications to become QoS compliant, we present an approach for service selection using QoS criteria. The latter is achieved with a suite of components that allow the different mappings of application workflow processes to Grid services that not only meet the user goals and requirements but also maximize his/her benefit in terms of the offered QoS level. We also demonstrate the operation of the aforementioned suite of components and evaluate its performance and effectiveness using a Grid scenario, based on a 3D image rendering application. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Specification, planning, and execution of QoS-aware Grid workflows within the Amadeus environment

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 4 2008
Ivona Brandic
Abstract Commonly, at a high level of abstraction Grid applications are specified based on the workflow paradigm. However, majority of Grid workflow systems either do not support Quality of Service (QoS), or provide only partial QoS support for certain phases of the workflow lifecycle. In this paper we present Amadeus, which is a holistic service-oriented environment for QoS-aware Grid workflows. Amadeus considers user requirements, in terms of QoS constraints, during workflow specification, planning, and execution. Within the Amadeus environment workflows and the associated QoS constraints are specified at a high level using an intuitive graphical notation. A distinguishing feature of our system is the support of a comprehensive set of QoS requirements, which considers in addition to performance and economical aspects also legal and security aspects. A set of QoS-aware service-oriented components is provided for workflow planning to support automatic constraint-based service negotiation and workflow optimization. For improving the efficiency of workflow planning we introduce a QoS-aware workflow reduction technique. Furthermore, we present our static and dynamic planning strategies for workflow execution in accordance with user-specified requirements. For each phase of the workflow lifecycle we experimentally evaluate the corresponding Amadeus components. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

A workflow portal supporting multi-language interoperation and optimization

CCLRC Portal infrastructure to support research facilities

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 6 2007
Asif Akram
Abstract The emergence of portal technology is providing benefits in developing portlet interfaces to applications to meet the current and future requirements of CCLRC facilities support. Portlets can be reused by different projects, e.g. the high-profile Integrative Biology project (with the University of Oxford), and in different Java Specification Request 168 Portlet Specification (JSR 168) compliant portal frameworks. Deployment and maintenance of applications developed as portlets becomes easier and manageable. A community process is already beginning and many portal frameworks come with free-to-use useful portlets. As rendering is carried out in the framework, applications can be easily accessible and internationalized. Portlets are compatible with J2EE, thus providing additional capabilities required in the service-oriented architecture (SOA). We also describe how Web service gateways can be used to provide many of the functionalities encapsulated in a portal server in a way to support Grid applications. Portals used as a rich client can allow users to customize or personalize their user interfaces and even their workflow and application access. CCLRC facilities will be able to leverage the work so far carried out on the National Grid Service (NGS) and e-HTPX portals, as they are fully functional and have received detailed user feedback. This demonstrates the usefulness of providing advanced capabilities for e-Research and having the associated business logic in a SOA loosely coupled from the presentation layer for an Integrated e-Science Environment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

GAUGE: Grid Automation and Generative Environment,

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 10 2006
Francisco Hernández
Abstract The Grid has proven to be a successful paradigm for distributed computing. However, constructing applications that exploit all the benefits that the Grid offers is still not optimal for both inexperienced and experienced users. Recent approaches to solving this problem employ a high-level abstract layer to ease the construction of applications for different Grid environments. These approaches help facilitate construction of Grid applications, but they are still tied to specific programming languages or platforms. A new approach is presented in this paper that uses concepts of domain-specific modeling (DSM) to build a high-level abstract layer. With this DSM-based abstract layer, the users are able to create Grid applications without knowledge of specific programming languages or being bound to specific Grid platforms. An additional benefit of DSM provides the capability to generate software artifacts for various Grid environments. This paper presents the Grid Automation and Generative Environment (GAUGE). The goal of GAUGE is to automate the generation of Grid applications to allow inexperienced users to exploit the Grid fully. At the same time, GAUGE provides an open framework in which experienced users can build upon and extend to tailor their applications to particular Grid environments or specific platforms. GAUGE employs domain-specific modeling techniques to accomplish this challenging task. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Performance analysis of high-performance file-transfer systems for Grid applications

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 8 2006
Cosimo Anglano
Abstract Data-intensive Grid applications require the availability of tools able to transfer very large files in the shortest amount of time. Many file-transfer tools, based on solutions aimed at overcoming the limitations imposed by the TCP protocol, have recently been developed. In this paper we experimentally compare the performance of some of these tools in various network scenarios by running experiments on PlanetLab, an open platform for the development, deployment, and access of planetary-scale services, that comprises hundreds of hosts scattered across the globe. Our results show that solutions based on UDP and adopting rate-based algorithms result in better performance than other alternatives in most cases, while solutions based on TCP achieve similar performance only under specific circumstances. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

GridBLAST: a Globus-based high-throughput implementation of BLAST in a Grid computing framework

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 13 2005
Arun KrishnanArticle first published online: 24 JUN 200
Abstract Improvements in the performance of processors and networks have made it feasible to treat collections of workstations, servers, clusters and supercomputers as integrated computing resources or Grids. However, the very heterogeneity that is the strength of computational and data Grids can also make application development for such an environment extremely difficult. Application development in a Grid computing environment faces significant challenges in the form of problem granularity, latency and bandwidth issues as well as job scheduling. Currently existing Grid technologies limit the development of Grid applications to certain classes, namely, embarrassingly parallel, hierarchical parallelism, work flow and database applications. Of all these classes, embarrassingly parallel applications are the easiest to develop in a Grid computing framework. The work presented here deals with creating a Grid-enabled, high-throughput, standalone version of a bioinformatics application, BLAST, using Globus as the Grid middleware. BLAST is a sequence alignment and search technique that is embarrassingly parallel in nature and thus amenable to adaptation to a Grid environment. A detailed methodology for creating the Grid-enabled application is presented, which can be used as a template for the development of similar applications. The application has been tested on a ,mini-Grid' testbed and the results presented here show that for large problem sizes, a distributed, Grid-enabled version can help in significantly reducing execution times. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Features of the Java Commodity Grid Kit

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 13-15 2002
Gregor von Laszewski
Abstract In this paper we report on the features of the Java Commodity Grid Kit (Java CoG Kit). The Java CoG Kit provides middleware for accessing Grid functionality from the Java framework. Java CoG Kit middleware is general enough to design a variety of advanced Grid applications with quite different user requirements. Access to the Grid is established via Globus Toolkit protocols, allowing the Java CoG Kit to also communicate with the services distributed as part of the C Globus Toolkit reference implementation. Thus, the Java CoG Kit provides Grid developers with the ability to utilize the Grid, as well as numerous additional libraries and frameworks developed by the Java community to enable network, Internet, enterprise and peer-to-peer computing. A variety of projects have successfully used the client libraries of the Java CoG Kit to access Grids driven by the C Globus Toolkit software. In this paper we also report on the efforts to develop serverside Java CoG Kit components. As part of this research we have implemented a prototype pure Java resource management system that enables one to run Grid jobs on platforms on which a Java virtual machine is supported, including Windows NT machines. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

A CORBA Commodity Grid Kit

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 13-15 2002
Manish Parashar
Abstract This paper reports on an ongoing research project aimed at designing and deploying a Common Object Resource Broker Architecture (CORBA) (ww.omg.org) Commodity Grid (CoG) Kit. The overall goal of this project is to enable the development of advanced Grid applications while adhering to state-of-the-art software engineering practices and reusing the existing Grid infrastructure. As part of this activity, we are investigating how CORBA can be used to support the development of Grid applications. In this paper, we outline the design of a CORBA CoG Kit that will provide a software development framework for building a CORBA ,Grid domain'. We also present our experiences in developing a prototype CORBA CoG Kit that supports the development and deployment of CORBA applications on the Grid by providing them access to the Grid services provided by the Globus Toolkit. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

A reference model for grid architectures and its validation

CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 11 2010
Wil van der Aalst
Abstract Computing and data-intensive applications in physics, medicine, biology, graphics, and business intelligence require large and distributed infrastructures to address the challenges of the present and the future. For example, process mining applications are faced with terrabytes of event data and computationally expensive algorithms. Computer grids are increasingly being used to deal with such challenges. However, grid computing is often approached in an ad hoc and engineering-like manner. Despite the availability of many software packages for grid applications, a good conceptual model of the grid is missing. This paper provides a formal description of the grid in terms of a colored Petri net (CPN). This CPN can be seen as a reference model for grids as it clarifies the basic concepts at the conceptual level. Moreover, the CPN allows for various kinds of analyses ranging from verification to performance analysis. We validate our model based on real-life experiments using a testbed grid architecture available in our group and we show how the model can be used for the estimation of throughput times for scientific workflows. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Economics-inspired decentralized control approach for adaptive grid services and applications

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 12 2006
Lei Gao
Grid technologies facilitate innovative applications among dynamic virtual organizations, while the ability to deploy, manage, and properly remain functioning via traditional approaches has been exceeded by the complexity of the next generation of grid systems. An important method for addressing this challenge may require nature-inspired computing paradigms. This technique will entail construction of a bottom-up multiagent system; however, the appropriate implementation mechanism is under consideration in order for the autonomous and distributed agents to emerge as a controlled grid service or application. A credit card management service in economic interactions is considered in this article for a decentralized control approach. This consideration is based on a preliminarily developed ecological network-based grid middleware that has features desired for the next generation grid systems. The control scheme, design, and implementation of the credit card management service are presented in detail. The simulation results show that (1) agents are accountable for their activities such as behavior invocation, service provision, and resource utilization and (2) generated services or applications adapt well to dynamically changing environments such as agent amounts as well as partial failure of agents. The approach presented herein is beneficial for building autonomous and adaptive grid applications and services. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 21: 1269,1288, 2006. [source]

Energy scavenging for energy efficiency in networks and applications

BELL LABS TECHNICAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010
Kyoung Joon Kim
Telecommunication networks will play a huge part in enabling eco-sustainability of human activity; one of the first steps towards this is to dramatically increase network energy efficiency. In this paper we present two novel approaches for energy scavenging in networks. One involves thermal energy scavenging for improving wireless base station energy efficiency, and the other involves mechanical energy scavenging for powering sensors in sensor networks, for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, and for smart grid applications. Power amplifier (PA) transistors in base stations waste 30 percent of the total energy used in a wireless access network (WAN) as heat to the environment. We propose a thermoelectric energy recovery module (TERM) to recover electricity from the waste heat of PA transistors. A fully coupled thermoelectric (TE) model, combining thermoelectricity and heat transfer physics, is developed to explore the power generation performance and efficiency as well as the thermal performance of the TERM. The TE model is comprehensively used to determine optimized pellet geometries for power generation and efficiency as a function of PA transistor heat dissipation, heat sink performance, and load resistance. Maximum power generation and efficiency for various parametric conditions are also explored. Untapped kinetic energy is almost everywhere in the form of vibrations. This energy can be converted into electrical energy by means of transducers to power wireless sensors and mobile electronics in the range of microwatts to a few milliwatts. However, many problems limit the efficiency of current harvesting generators: narrow bandwidth, low power density, micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) scaling, and inconsistency of vibrating sources. We explore energy scavenger designs based on multiple-mass systems to increase harvesting efficiency. A theoretical and experimental study of two degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) vibration-powered generators is presented. Both electromagnetic and piezoelectric conversion methods are modeled by using a general approach. Experimental results for the multi-resonant system are in agreement with the analytical predictions and demonstrate significantly better performance in terms of maximum power density per total mass and a wider bandwidth compared to single DOF (1-DOF) generators. © 2010 Alcatel-Lucent. [source]