Grid Computing

Abstract

In this developed and demanding realm of scientific and technical computing,

Grid computing and its capabilities brought a new change in the Computer
technology (especially in parallel processing) .This sharing of computing (Grid
computing) capacity is transforming a number of business processes in a variety
of industries. From solving emergency scenarios at a space agency in a fraction of
time through “in-silico” testing, computing grids enables organizations to
complete and compute intensive jobs faster than before.

Grid computing mainly enables the virtualization of distributed computing and

data resources such as processing, network bandwidth and storage capacity to
create a single system image, granting users and applications seamless
capabilities to vast IT capabilities. Just as internet user views a unified instance of
content via web, a grid user essentially sees a single, large virtual computer.

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the benefits of Grid computing that
lead to advancement in technology.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Distributed computing
Advantages of distributed computing
Disadvantages of distributed computing
3. Grid computing
3.1 What is grid computing?
3.2 Definitions
3.3 Origin
3.4 Features
4. Conceptual Framework
4.1 Virtual Organization
4.2 Resources
5. Evolution of Grid architecture
5.1 Grid architecture model
5.2 OGSA architecture model
6. Standards
6.1 OGSI Standard
6.2 WSRF Standard
7. Advantages of grid computing
8. Disadvantages of grid computing
9. Applications
10. Conclusion

Reference
www.ibm.com/grid/
www.gridcomputing.org
www.keepmedia.com
1. INTRODUCTION
The rapid pace of change that has always characterized computer technology
continues with no letup. These changes cover all aspects of computer technology,
from underlying integrated circuit technology used to construct computer
components to the increasing use of parallel organization concepts in combining
those components. Further these changes also covered computing methods which
enable to improve system’s scalability, through put, reliability. The recent
computing methods like distributed computing, grid computing also enhance the
processing speed.

2. DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING
Distributed computing is a type of parallel processing and a method of computer
processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or
more computers that are communicating with each other over a network.
An example of distributed computing is BOINC, a service in which large
problems can be divided into many small problems which are distributed to
many computers. Later the small results are reassembled into a larger solution.

2.1 Advantages of distributed computing:-

1. Openness
2. Scalability
3. Monotonicity
4. Pluralism
5. Unbounded non determinism

2.2 Drawbacks and disadvantages:-

1. A distributed system can decrease the overall reliability of computations if the
unavailability of a node can cause a disruption of other nodes if they are not
connected or planned properly.
2. Trouble shooting and diagnosing problems in a distributed system can also
become more difficult, because the analysis may now require connecting to
remote nodes or inspecting communications being sent between nodes.
3. Only few types of computations are well suited for distributed environments,
due to the amount of network communication or synchronization required
between nodes.
4. A distributed system consists of a set of software agents that work together to
implement some intended functionality. Because the agents in a distributed
system don’t operate in a uniform processing environment, they must
communicate by protocol stacks that are intrinsically less reliable than direct
code invocation and shared memory.

The above bottlenecks due to distributed computing can be solved by GRID

COMPUTING

3. GRID COMPUTING
3.1 What is grid computing?
Grid computing is an emerging computing model that provides the ability to
perform higher throughput computing by taking advantage of many networked
computers to model a virtual computer architecture that is able to distribute
process execution across a parallel infrastructure. Grids use the resources of
many separate computers connected by a network and provide ability to perform
many computations at once than would be possible on single computer.

Grid computing has emerged as one of the key computing paradigms thatenable
the creation and management of Internet-based utility computinginfrastructure,
called Cyberinfrastructure, for realization of e-Scienceand e-Business at the
global level

3.2 Definitions
The term GRID COMPUTING originated in the early 1990s as a metaphor for
making computer power as easy to access as electric power grid.
Today there are many definitions of grid computing.
Some of them are as follows:
· The definitive definition of a grid is provided by lan foster as a three point check
list. The three points of check list are
1. Computing resources are not administered centrally
2. Open standards are used
3. Non trivial quality of service is achieved
· Plaszczak/wellner defines grid technology as “The technology that enables
resource virtualization, on demand provisioning, and service (resource) sharing
between organizations.”
· IBM defines grid computing as “the ability using a set of open standards and
protocols, to gain access to applications and data, processing power, storage
capacity and vast array of other computing resources over the internet. A grid is a
type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection, and
aggregation of resources distributed across ‘multiple’ administrative domains
based on their (resources) availability, capacity, performance, cost, and users
quality of service requirements.”

3.3 Origin
Like the internet, the grid computing evolved from computational needs of “Big
science”. Fully functional Proto-Gird systems date back to the early 1970’s with
distributed computing system (DCS) project at the University of California,
Irvine. David Farber was the main architect. This projects final report was
published in 1977.This technology was mostly abandoned in 1980’s and seen as
insurmountable as the administrative and security issues involved in having
many machines did not control the computation.
In early 1990’s the ideas of grid were again brought together by Ian Foster, Carl
Kesselman and Steve Tuecke, the so called “Fathers of the Grid”. They led the
effort to create the Globus Toolkit incorporating not just CPU management but
also storage management, security provisioning, data movement, monitoring and
a toolkit for developing additional services based on the same infrastructure
including agreement negotiation, notification, trigger mechanisms, and
information aggregation.

3.4 Features
· Grid computing offers a model for solving massive computational problems by
making use of the unused resources (CPU cycles and/ or disk storage) of large
numbers of disparate computers, often desktop computers, treated as virtual
cluster embedded in a distributed telecommunications infrastructure.
· Grid computing focus on the ability to support computation across
administrative domain seta apart from the traditional computer cluster or
traditional distributed computing.
· Grid offers a way to solve Grand challenge problems like protein Folding,
financial modeling, earth quake simulation, climate/weather modeling and a way
of using Information technology resources optimally inside an organization.
· Grid computing has the design goal of solving problems too big for any single
super computer, whilst retaining the flexibility to work on multiple smaller
programs. Thus grid computing provides a multi user environment.
· This approach implies the use of secure authorization techniques to allow
remote users to control resources.
· Grid computing involves sharing heterogeneous resources (based on different
plat forms, hardware/ software architectures and computing languages), located
in different places belonging to different administrative domains over a network
using open standards. In short we can say Virtualzing computing resources.
· Grid computing is often confused with cluster computing. The key difference is
that a cluster is a single set of nodes in one location , while a grid is composed of
many clusters and other kinds of resources (eg: networks ,storage facilities)
4. Conceptual framework
Grid computing reflects a conceptual framework rather than a physical resource.
The grid approach is utilized to provision a computational task with
administratively-distant resources. The focus of grid technology is associated
with the issues and requirements of flexible computational provision beyond the
local administrative domain.

4.1 Virtual organization

A grid environment is created to address resource needs. The use of that
resources (e.g.: CPU cycles, disk storage, data, software programs, peripherals) is
usually characterized by its availability outside of the context of the local
administrative domain. The ‘external provisioning’ approach entails creating a
new administrative domain referred to a virtual organization (VO) with a distinct
and separate set of administrative policies. The context for Grid ‘job execution’ is
distinguished by the requirements created when operating outside of the home
administrative context. Grid technology is employed to facilitate formalizing and
complying with the Grid context associated with your application execution.
.

4.2 Resources
One characteristic that currently distinguishes Grid computing from distributed
computing is the abstraction of a ‘distributed resource ‘into grid resource. One
result of abstraction is that allows resource substitution to be easily
accomplished. Some of overhead associated with this flexibility is reflected in the
middleware layer and temporal latency associated with the access of a grid
resource. This overhead, especially the temporal latency, must be evaluated in
terms of the impact on computational performance when grid resource is
employed

5. Evolution of grid computing architecture

In 1998, it was stated that “a computational grid is a hardware and software
infrastructure that provides dependable, consistent, pervasive, primarily centered
on the computational aspects of grids. Later iterations broadened this definition
with more focus on coordinated resource sharing and problem solving in multi-
institutional virtual organizations.
Assigning users, resources and organizations from different domains to VO
remains one of the key technical challenges in grid computing. The task includes
the determination of a definition of resources mechanisms, such as
identifications and application of appropriate resource sharing methods,
specification and application of rules and conditions for member assignment,
security federation or delegation and access control among participants.

The above characteristics and requirements lead to the definition of architecture

of VO
Many architectural models have been developed. Few of them are
5.1. Grid architecture model:
A new architecture model and technology has been developed for establishment
and management of cross organizational resource sharing. This new architecture,
called Grid architecture, identifies the basic components of a grid system. The
grid architecture defines the purpose and functions of its components, while
indicating how these components interact with one another. The main focus of
the architecture is on interoperability among resource providers and users in
order to establish the sharing relationships. The interoperability, in turn,
necessitates common protocols at each layer of the architecture model, which
leads to the definition of a grid protocol architecture as shown in figure 1
The above figure shows the component layers of the grid architecture and the
capabilities of each layer. Each layer shares the behavior of the underlying
component layers.
· Fabric layer:- This layer defines the interface to local resources, which may be
shared. This includes computational resources, data storage, networks, etc.
· Connectivity layer:-this layer defines the basic communication and
authentication protocols required fro grid-specific networking-service
transactions.
· Resource layer:- this layer uses communication and security protocols to control
secure negotiation, initiation, monitoring, accounting, and payment for the
sharing of functions to access and control local resources.
· Collective layer: - While the resource layer manages an individual resource, the
collective layer is responsible for all global resources.
· Application layer:- This layer enables resources in a grid environment through
various collaboration and resource access protocols.
5.2. OGSA architecture and goal:-
The grid architecture is designed for controlled resource sharing. In contrast,
emerging architectures help the earlier- defined grid architecture quickly adapt to
a wider technology domain. OGSA is layered architecture, with clear separation
of the functionalities at each layer.
As shown in figure2 the core architecture layers are Open Grid Services
Infrastructure (OGSI) and OGSA platform services. The platform services
establish a set of standard services including policy, logging, and networking
services. High-level applications and services use these lower-layer platform core
components to become a part of resource- sharing grid.
The Global Grid Forum(GGF) has adopted the OSGA platform.
The IBM vision of the OGSA can be summarized as shown in figure3. This is a
layered architecture, with the lowest layer comprising the basic IT resources,
such as servers, storage and network services. This includes the hardware and
corresponding software support for operating systems, subsystems, and the
components that control them. The layer above IT resources handles security,
workflow, databases, file systems, directories and messaging software.

6. Standards
Standards are critical to interoperability within a distributed computing
platform, especially an advanced platform that provides a service-oriented,
loosely coupled, cross-platform programming model. Standards enable platform
services to more simply integrate with middleware and also helps to reduce
complexity to heterogeneous and cross-enterprise orchestration and integration.
There are two core standards that are available in the grid standardization
6.1. The OGSI standard:
The base component of the OGSA architecture is OGSI. This is a grid software
infrastructure standard based on the emerging web services standards. The goal
of OGSI is to provide maximum interoperability among OGSA software
components.
Figure 4 shows the layering of The OSGI components in a web service with new
interfaces and behaviors. The most notable point is the extension of WSDL to
provide additional state description mechanisms. In addition to this ,the
specification is a set of behaviors and interfaces to support service life-cycles
stages: for example collection management, state-change notifications, service
creation mechanisms and instance reference mechanisms.
Message-level interoperability is a key feature of this standard, and it is achieved
by using XML as the core message format and schema. One of the requirements
of the services defined by OGSI is the ability to describe the concepts of state
data, life-cycle properties, and instance behaviors using an OGSI description
model.
6.2. The WSRF standard:
WSRF is a collection of specifications to support grid services or other stateful
resources and is comparable to OGSI. There are many motivations behind WSRF
specifications and the most notable contribution is the intersection of grid
computing and web services standards and their alignment with SOA principles.
This alignment will continue to help define open standards through interoperable
and compatible plug-and-play service extensions to the grid architectures,
thereby increasing acceptance and facilitating integration. Through this
alignment with the web service as stack Grid services can use existing web
services standards, such as WS-Notification, WS-Addressing and WS-Security
and build extensions for extended capabilities such a service state data, lifetime,
grouping and reference management.

7. Advantages of grid computing

Grid computing has evolved into an important discipline within the computer
industry by differentiating itself from distributed computing through an
increased focus on resource sharing, manageability and high performance.
1. Consolidation: - From servers to applications to whole sites, consolidation is a
key benefit of Grid computing model, especially in the data center. Consolidation
not only minimizes the infrastructure necessary to meet an enterprise’s business
demands, but also reduces costs by migrating from proprietary or single-use
systems to commercial off-the-shelf(COTS)-based systems that can be shared by
multiple applications.
2. Modular computing: - Modular computing, especially in the data center,
minimizes and simplifies the infrastructure using building blocks that address
higher density, lower power, lower thermals, simplified cabling, and ease of
upgrading and management. Blade
Servers are an excellent example of modularity.
3.Virtualization: - By creating pools of resources enabled by highly automated
management capabilities, virtualization can enable an IT system administrator to
utilize far resources in data center, making the resources accessible to more than
single application sitting on single physical server.
4. Utility computing: -Utility computing allows an infrastructure to be managed
analogously to an electric utility, applying a pay-per-use model, thereby
optimizing and balancing the computing needs of an enterprise, and allowing it
to run maximum efficiency.
8. Disadvantages of Grid computing
There are some disadvantages with grid computing.
1. Resource sharing is further complicated when grid is introduced as a solution
for utility computing where commercial applications and resources become
available as shareable and on demand resources.
2. The concept of commercial on-demand shareable adds new, more difficult
challenges to the already complicated grid problem list including service level
features, accounting, usage metering, flexible pricing, federated security,
scalability, and open-ended integration.
9. Applications
Grid computing is applied in many fields. Some of them are
1. Oracle application server 10g, component of oracle fusion middleware has been
specifically designed to run enterprise applications on computing grids.
2. IBM, seeking to push grid computing beyond its scientific and technical roots
and into mainstream of commercial business enterprises.

10. Conclusion
The grid architecture and global standards serve a major role in determining the
adoption rate of grids in the commercial world. Grid services convections are non
trivial in their functions; they solve some of the fundamental issues in distributed
computing. With these intersections of services and standards enables a
transformation by applying the full power of traditional distributed systems to
grids, including naming and binding techniques, across the widest possible set of
web services.
Thus I conclude that emergence of grid computing is an important milestone in
the development of global web services because it provides uniformity and
consistency for many vital distributed system functions.