Speaker
Iosif Legrand
(CALTECH)
Description
To satisfy the demands of data intensive grid applications it is necessary to move to
far more synergetic relationships between applications and networks. The main
objective of the VINCI project is to enable data intensive applications to
efficiently use and coordinate shared, hybrid network resources, to improve the
performance and throughput of global-scale grid systems, such as those used in high
energy physics and many other fields of science.
VINCI uses a set of agent-based services implemented in the MonALISA framework to
enable the efficient use of network resources, coordinated with computing and storage
resources. VINCI is an integrated network service system that provides client
authentification and authorization, discovery of services and the topology of
connections, workflow scheduling, global optimization and monitoring. Our strategy
in integrating applications with geographically distributed complex services that may
join and existing ones leave is the use of a multi-agent systems. Agents will act on
behalf of applications describing their environment and requirements, locating
services, agreeing information, and receiving feedback from services and presenting
results. Agents will be required to engage in interactions, to negotiate, and to make
pro-active run-time decisions while responding to changes in the environment. In
particular, agents will need to self organize, and dynamically collaborate for
effective decisions. The distributed agent system can create on demand end to end
optical connections in less than one second independent of the location and the
number of optical switches involved. It monitors and supervises all the created
connections and is able to automatically generate an alterative path in case of
connectivity errors. The alternative path is set up rapidly enough to avoid a TCP
timeout, and thus to allow the transfer to continue uninterrupted. Dedicated agents
are used to monitor the client systems and to detect hardware and software
configuration. They can perform end to end performance measurements and if necessary
to configure the systems. We are developing agents able to interact with GMPLS
controllers and integrate this functionality into the network services provided by
the VINCI framework.
Primary author
Iosif Legrand
(CALTECH)
Co-authors
Catalin Cirstoiu
(CERN)
Ciprian Dobre
(Polytechnic University of Bucharest)
Harvey Newman
(CALTECH)
Ramiro Voicu
(CERN)
Shawn Mckee
(University of Michigan)
