混合型网格上基于Access Grid的协同可视化平台

近些年来,AccessGrid(AG)发展得十分迅速,它已经成为人们进行高级合作、组与组之间会议、教学和研究等的最流行工具之一。论文首先介绍了AG的体系结构及所涉及的各种关键技术,然后详细描述了如何在作者所搭建的一个基于GlobusToolkit(GT)和SunGridEngine(SGE)的Cluster网格环境上借助AccessGrid来搭建一个协同可视化的平台。     

Multi-Grid, Multi-User Workflows in the P-GRADE Grid Portal

Computational Grids connect resources and users in a complex way in order to deliver nontrivial qualities of services. According to the current trend various communities build their own Grids and due to the lack of generally accepted standards these Grids are usually not interoperable. As a result, large scale sharing of resources is prevented by the isolation of Grid systems. Similarly, people are isolated, because the collaborative work of Grid users is not supported by current environments. Each user accesses Grids as an individual person without having the possibility of organizing teams that could overcome the difficulties of application development and execution more easily. The paper describes a new workflow-oriented portal concept that solves both problems. It enables the interoperability of various Grids during the execution of workflow applications, and supports users to develop and run their Grid workflows in a collaborative way. The paper also introduces a classification model that can be used to identify workflow-oriented Grid portals based on two general features: Ability to access multiple Grids, and support for collaborative problem solving. Using the approach the different potential portal types are introduced, their unique features are discussed and the portals and Problem Solving Environments (PSE) of our days are classified. The P-GRADE Portal as a Globus-based implementation for the classification model is also presented. The work described in this paper is supported by the Hungarian Grid project (IHM 4671/1/2003), by the Hungarian OTKA project (No. T042459) and a collaboration project with the University of Reading.     

REMUS: A Rerouting and Multiplexing System for Grid Connectivity Across Firewalls

The Grid provides unique opportunities for high-performance computing through distributed applications that execute over multiple remote resources. Participating institutions can form a virtual organization to maximize the utilization of collective resources as well as to facilitate collaborative projects. However, there are two design aspects in distributed environments like the Grid that can easily clash: security and resource sharing. It may be that resources are secure but are not entirely conducive to resource sharing, or networks are wide open for resource sharing but sacrifice security as a result. We developed REMUS, a rerouting and multiplexing system that provides a compromise through connection rerouting and wrappers. REMUS reroutes connections using proxies, ports and protocols that are already authorized across firewalls, avoiding the need to make new openings through the firewalls. We also encapsulate applications within wrappers, transparently rerouting the connections among Grid applications without modifying their programs. In this paper, we describe REMUS and the tests we conducted across firewalls using two Grid middleware case studies: Globus Toolkit 2.4 and Nimrod/G 3.0.     

Grid Service Orchestration Using the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)

Modern scientific applications often need to be distributed across Grids. Increasingly applications rely on services, such as job submission, data transfer or data portal services. We refer to such services as Grid services. While the invocation of Grid services could be hard coded in theory, scientific users want to orchestrate service invocations more flexibly. In enterprise applications, the orchestration of web services is achieved using emerging orchestration standards, most notably the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). We describe our experience in orchestrating scientific workflows using BPEL. We have gained this experience during an extensive case study that orchestrates Grid services for the automation of a polymorph prediction application. Using this example, we explain the extent with which the BPEL language supports the definition of scientific workflows. We then describe the reliability, performance and scalability that can be achieved by executing a complex scientific workflow with ActiveBPEL, an industrial strength but freely available BPEL engine. *The work has been funded by the UK EPSRC through grants GR/R97207/01 (e-Materials) and GR/S90843/01 (OMII Managed Programme).     

Distributed Downloads of Bulk,Replicated Grid Data

Data-sharing scientific communities use storage systems as distributed data stores by replicating content. In such highly replicated environments, a particular dataset can reside at multiple locations and can thus be downloaded from any one of them. Since datasets of interest are significantly large in size, improving download speeds either by server selection or by co-allocation can offer substantial benefits. In this paper, we present an architecture for co-allocating Grid data transfers across multiple connections, enabling the parallel download of datasets from multiple servers. We have developed several co-allocation strategies comprising of simple brute-force, predictive and dynamic load balancing techniques as a means both to exploit rate differences among the various client–server links and to address dynamic rate fluctuations. We evaluate our approaches using the GridFTP data movement protocol in a wide-area testbed and present our results.     

网格计算的研究与探讨

网格是一个基础体系结构,它耦合了:计算机、软件和数据库,通过局域网/广域网,形成一个统一的集成资源。网格计算(Grid Computing)指的是独立的用户组在高速网络上动态地共享计算机资源,形成对用户透明的超级计算环境,以满足不断变化的计算需求。本文介绍了网格计算结构、基本功能、网络的项目及体系结构,并对国内外著名的网格计算理论和应用作介绍,分析了目前网格计算研究的现状和发展前景。     

Collaborative data visualization for Earth Sciences with the OptIPuter

Collaborative visualization of large-scale datasets across geographically distributed sites is becoming increasingly important for Earth Sciences. Not only does it enhance our understanding of the geological systems, but also enables near-real-time scientific data acquisition and exploration across distant locations. While such a collaborative environment is feasible with advanced optical networks and resource sharing in the form of Grid, many technical challenges remain: (1) on-demand discovery, selection and configuration of supporting end and network resources; (2) construction of applications on heterogeneous, distributed environments; and (3) use of novel exotic transport protocols to achieve high performance. To address these issues, we describe the multi-layered OptIPuter middleware technologies, including simple resource abstractions, dynamic network provisioning, and novel data transport services. In this paper, we present an evaluation of the first integrated prototype of the OptIPuter system software recently demonstrated at iGrid 2005, which successfully supports real-time collaborative visualizations of 3D multi-gigabyte earth science datasets.     

网格数据库管理模型与策略

越来越多的网格应用需要管理大容量和广域分布的数据。开放网格服务体系结构中的网格服务提供了动态创建、管理和在网格服务中交换的一致接口。本文探讨了以OGSA网格服务管理网格数据库的模型，网格数据库服务提供支持数据访问的控制和发现、执行数据管理的操作，实现数据资源的虚拟化，通过网格实现现有数据库的访问与集成。同时讨论了相关的优化策略。