Annual report for download - CoreGRID Network of Excellence

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24CoreGRIDInstitutesOur flexibleGrid platform issuitable for a widerange of devices,from portablePDAs to parallelsupercomputers.Vladimir GetovLeader of the Grid Systems,Tools and Environments Institute,University of WestminsterGRID SYSTEMS, TOOLSAND ENVIRONMENTSObjectivesThe research activities of the STEInstitute are organised in four taskswith the following objectives:Generic Platform: This task addressesthe development of a generic,component-based platform, with focuson its architecture, interoperability,security, and design methodology.This platform is specifying the basic“glue” from which higher-levelcomponents and services can beconstructed. Challenges arise fromheterogeneous software libraries,toolkits, operating systems and existingGrid frameworks. The specification ofthis platform underpins the researchareas of the other three tasks.The research activities of the Institute onGrid Systems, Tools and Environments(STE) focus on developing the designmethodology for a generic componentsystem that integrates applicationcomponents, tools/system components,problem-solving environments (PSE),portal components, and infrastructureresources components. The specificationof the Institute’s generic Grid platformsignificantly advances the state ofthe art. It enables the design ofcomponent-based Grid systems with asingle, seamless and “invisible” Gridsoftware infrastructure. Our researchresults are equally valid for both theclient/server and the peer-to-peerparadigms. The Institute’s approachencompasses both the application of thecomponent model and its integrationinto a service-based framework.The STE Institute involves morethan 80 senior researchers and PhDstudents who participate in elevenresearch groups for implementingthe Institute’s roadmap.The STE Institute’s approach enablesthe design of reconfigurable Gridsystems with dynamic propertiesguaranteed by our componentbasedframework. Our flexible Gridplatform is suitable for a wide rangeof devices, from portable PDAs toparallel supercomputers. Beyond thecontributions of the Institute partners,there exist many individual approachesfor building Grid systems, tools andenvironments by other projects.The STE Institute maintains workingcontacts with key projects, proliferatesCoreGRID results, and fosterscollaboration with relevant researchactivities in Europe and worldwide.The STE Institute brings togethertwelve partners – IPP-BAS, USTUTT,ICS-FORTH, IC, INRIA, SZTAKI, UWC,UNIPI, UOW, UPC, VUA, and CYFRONET– from ten different Europeancountries. In addition two newassociated partners – CATNETS andUNIVIE – joined the Institute in 2007.Mediator Components: This task isresponsible for designing a componentsuite that mediates between theapplications and system layers,providing core services according tothe architecture of the generic platform.These include such capabilities asdynamic application steering, metadataretrieval, and service discovery.The components delivering thesecapabilities are integrated and exposedvia a runtime environment that actsas a gateway to system components,thus addressing the integration aspectsof the generic component platform.Integrated Toolkit: This task isspecifying and designing a toolkitfor simplifying the deployment ofGrid-unaware applications while alsooptimising application performance.More specifically, this involvesdefining and mapping applicationrequirements to the component-basedgeneric platform as well as providingapplication interfaces to the mediatorcomponents. The runtime environmentof such an integrated toolkit is ableto run applications in a Grid and
25AnnualReport2007optimise their performance dynamicallyin a way transparent for the user.Advanced Tools and Environments forProblem Solving: This task involvesdesigning PSEs or portals that takelegacy software and automaticallydeploy it as a service that conforms toa standard service model. The aim isto integrate our generic platform intoPSEs and portals allowing users tocompose, steer, monitor and visualisejob execution in a transparent andsimple way. This work is based onidentified deployment scenarios,using technologies for wrappinglegacy code and mechanisms fordeploying and managing services andjobs in peer-to-peer environments.Industryadded-valueBased on the studies performedwithin the STE Institute, the followingjoined projects have recently beenlaunched in order to implement theidentified research and developmentwork. Thus, the STE Institute continuesand expands its research usingthe prototype Grid systems underdevelopment by these projects:• GridCOMP – building anadvanced component platformfor an effective invisible Grid.• XtreemOS – designing a Linuxbasedoperating system tosupport virtual organisationsfor next generation Grids.• EDGeS – creating a Gridinfrastructure that seamlesslyintegrates a variety of desktop Gridswith production service Grids.Those spin-off projects have beenthe main vehicle for applying theimpact of the Institute’s researchactivities in industrial environmentswith direct contribution to improvingthe European economy in the areaof Grid and service technologies. Inaddition, the STE Institute has beeninvolved in the development of fullscaleuse cases in collaboration withindustrial partners via the currentlyactive spin-off projects. Our industrialpartners for this activity include AtosOrigin, Grid Systems, and IBM.Challenges andperspectivesCurrently, the STE Institute isaddressing the following problemsand scientific challenges:• The combination of applicationsand system software to integratedsoftware assemblies is a centralproblem we are addressing. Theaim of this integration is twofold:(1) to allow applications to better andmore flexibly use Grid resources, and(2) to enable system servicesto effectively steer andcontrol their applications.For this purpose, we are designingand building an integratedcomponent system that has asingle glue layer between allforms of components. Thus mostof the complexity of integratingthe many individual softwareitems will be removed.• The development of applicationsto be run on the Grid is stilldifficult, preventing the widespreadadoption from non-expertusers. The challenge in thiscase is to provide developmentand execution environmentsfor Grid-unaware applications,where the Grid resources canbe transparently exploited.• Finally, applications typically haveto be adapted to run on specifichardware platforms. For improvingperformance, the applications haveto be specifically tuned for eachhardware platform. This situationis not feasible in Grid computingenvironments, since the executionplatform can change on a per-jobbasis, and even at run time. Inthese kinds of environments, theapplications have to adapt to thesystems and resources available.By now, the STE Institute has reachedthe roadmap phase of ongoing,integrated research, mostly fosteredby joint projects, such as GridCOMP,XtreemOS, and EDGeS. Havingreached this critical mass of ongoingresearch activity, our future stepsfocus on achieving sustainability aspart of the CoreGRID network by:• Coordinating activities for Institutepartners’ participation in nationaland international research as wellas industrial projects related to Gridsystems, tools, and environments,assuming the results of thisInstitute as starting points to ensurestable and durable cooperation.• Organisation of an annual workshopto discuss and present newdevelopments in the area of Gridsystems, tools, and environments.• Maintenance and update of theexisting Institute web site withthe aim to have a permanentforum durably hosting informationon European research activitiesrelated to Grid systems, tools,and environments, where theannual workshop will alsobe linked in prominently.• Active participation and supportfor the sustainability activities atCoreGRID level including continuouscollaboration with other CoreGRIDInstitutes and constructive contactswith CoreGRID industrial partners.
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