Annual report for download - CoreGRID Network of Excellence

Each task comprises two to threeresearch groups which constitute thebasic building blocks of the Institute.These tasks define clear-cut objectivesand produce concrete research results.Moreover, the Institute contributestowards the horizontal activity onTrust and Security providing novelrobust mechanisms and techniquessuch as checkpointing and recoverysystems. Last but not least, there isstrong contribution to the recentlyestablished horizontal activity onService Oriented Architectures (SOAs).The scientific interaction between theresearchers of the Institute duringthe third year of the project producedmore than 40 joint research papers,many of them published in well-knowninternational journals and presentedat conferences, while a total of twelveCoreGRID technical reports have beenpublished on the CoreGRID website.One of the publications was selected asbest paper at the 7th IEEE InternationalSymposium on Network Computingand Applications (IEEE NCA08).The workshops and technical meetingsorganised by the SA Institute allowedthe dissemination of the scientificoutput to other CoreGRID Institutes aswell as to external organisations. InFebruary 2007, a special issue of thejournal Future Generation ComputerSystems (FGCS) published selectedpapers. During the third year of theproject the CoreGRID Workshop onGrid Programming Model, Grid and P2PSystems Architecture, Grid Systems,Tools and Environments, took placeJune 12-13, 2007 at FORTH, Heraklion-Crete, Greece. The workshop wasjointly organised by the PM SA and STEInstitutes. A special CoreGRID Springervolume, to appear soon, will includeselected publications of this workshop.ObjectivesThe main objective of the SA Instituteis to significantly improve architecturaldesigns of Next Generation Grids byperforming collaborative research onthe following key architectural aspects:• To apply and extend results fromresearch on peer-to-peer systems forenabling higher scalability and selforganisationof Grid infrastructures.• To investigate the mechanismsfor fault-tolerance and robustnessof the Grid infrastructure toassure reliable Grid services.• To study methods for adaptabilityand self-management in order toestablish paradigms for automaticand low-cost Grid management.To achieve scalability we extend theresults from research on peer-topeersystems and propose scalableapproaches for resource discovery. Wepropose dependability mechanismsfor all levels of the Grid includingcheckpointing and recovery. Wedevise techniques for fault toleranceand robustness for Grid services,providing a more reliable Gridarchitecture. In adaptability and selfmanagement,we develop mechanismsfor automated adaptation andreconfiguration of Grid infrastructure.Through these objectives, the SAInstitute aims to contribute to themandatory architectural principlesof the Next Generation Grids byscalability of services, resilience,straightforward administration andconfiguration management.The scientific highlights of theSA Institute could be brieflysummarised as follows:• The design of a hybrid P2P-basedsystem that works efficiently formulti-attribute queries on staticand dynamic attributes and itsexperimental evaluation on existingGrid platforms (Grid 5000).• The development of dependabilitymechanisms based onvirtualisation techniques thatlead to zero downtime. Theproposed solution is applicableto individual servers, clusters,as well as Grid infrastructures.• Modelling and prediction ofworkloads and system behaviourwith impact to adaptable solutionsfor self-managing systems thatprovides support for scheduling.• Refinement of scalable, dependableand adaptable Grid solutions,and their experimentationof real Grid platforms.• Investigation of the fault conditionsof existing Grid infrastructures (e.g.EGEE) towards the developmentof a framework that will proposeconcrete solutions for low-costautomatic fault managementin Next Generation Grids.The SELFMAN FP6 EU project is aspin-off of CoreGRID involving mainlypartners from the SA Institute andindustrial partners. This project isrelated to the areas of peer-to-peercomputing and adaptability/selfmanagement.This collaborationprovides the SA Institute withreal-world use cases, especially fordependability and self-managingapplications. Other EU spin-offprojects were proposed duringthe last EU call from partners ofthe SA Institute and industry.Industryadded-valueThe IAB members pointed to theP2P paradigm as a useful examplethat could lead to real scalablesolutions in Next Generation Grids,while emphasising the importance ofdependability for high quality serviceprovision and low cost automatedself-management. The remarks of theIAB members provide strong indicationthat currently the research work withinthe SA Institute has the right focuswhile the produced results lead tosolutions of interest to industry.Achievementsand perspectivesSeveral obstacles have to be overcomebefore the objectives of the NextGeneration Grid are achieved. Gridshave to become more robust andpervasive. The challenges faced by theSA Institute for System Architectureconstitute the cornerstone upon whichany Grid middleware should be built.During the CoreGRID project, concretesolutions and major steps have beenmade towards the invisible Grid.The researchers involved in the SAInstitute of CoreGRID are determinedto work together after the end of theNoE as witnessed by the responsesto the sustainability questionnaire.Currently, the partners explore thepossibility to define common FP7projects to ensure the viability of thestrong bonds that were developedduring the duration of CoreGRID. Mostpromising appears to be the track onSoftware Services. Another promisingdirection on which much of the futurefocus of the Institute will be directedis the Desktop Grids. An FP7 proposalentitled EDGeS: Enabling DesktopGrids for e-Science has been approvedfor a number of partners of the SAInstitute with the aim to integratethe advantages of two important Gridconcepts: service Grids like EGEE andDesktop Grids. In another effort aFET project was proposed aiming tosupport self-evolving, self-describingservice-oriented systems, in order tomake them suitable for the new eraof knowledge aggregation, supportfor user-oriented social networkingand pervasive IT infrastructures.19AnnualReport2007