One of the most exciting promises of
Computational Grids are their ability to execute “virtual
applications”, ones that involve more than one applications spanning
multiple organisations. This increases computing power for complex
analysis whilst appearing to be a single application. The
Distributed Atmospheric Science (DAS) project, which is funded by
GrangeNet and commenced in January 2005, plans to explore issues
associated with these virtual applications.
In order to allow
virtual applications to be built:
- The network performance between the organisations must be
comparable to performance within an organisation;
- Middleware must mask the heterogeneity of the underlying
platform technologies, such as differences in operating systems,
security policies, resource configuration, etc and
- Software tools and development environments must be created to
allow rapid specification and creation of virtual applications,
particularly where legacy codes are involved.
Leveraging off the DSTC funded Nimrod/G and the
ARC funded GriddLeS projects, the DAS project team is exploring
current challenges in building a virtual atmospheric sciences
application. The team will deploy three existing atmospheric science
models across GrangeNet which, when combined, can provide detailed
air pollution control strategies to be performed under a variety of
different climatic and weather conditions
GrangeNet is a
Government funded high performance research network that provides
the enabling technology for the development of grid and advanced
communications services.
More information at:
www.csse.monash.edu.au/~davida/griddleshttp://www.grangenet.net/
