Requirements and design of a collaborative online visualization and steering framework for grid and e-Science infrastructures (original) (raw)
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Proceedings of the 8th …, 2007
Today's large-scale scientific research often relies on the collaborative use of a Grid or e-Science infrastructure (e.g. DEISA, EGEE, TeraGrid, OSG) with computational, storage, or other types of physical resources. One of the goals of these emerging infrastructures is to support the work of scientists with advanced problem-solving tools. Many e-Science applications within these infrastructures aim at simulations of a scientific problem on powerful parallel computing resources. Typically, a researcher first performs a simulation for some fixed amount of time and then analyses results in a separate post-processing step, for instance, by viewing results in visualizations. In earlier work we have described early prototypes of a Collaborative Online Visualization and Steering (COVS) Framework in Grids that performs both -simulation and visualization -at the same time (online) to increase the efficiency of e-Scientists. This paper evaluates the evolved mature reference implementation of the COVS framework design that is ready for production usage within Web service-based Grid and e-Science infrastructures.
Grid Computing and Scientific Visualization
2008
In this paper we focus on distributed scientific visualization using a grid environment. More specifically, we are interested on basic requirements for distributed graphics applications on such environments. We propose a middleware infrastructure for supporting scientific visualization applications that meets these requirements. We claim that we should consider scientific visualization in grids from an integrated global view of data and programs published by heterogeneous and distributed data sources. This idea can be implemented by CoDIMS which is an environment for the generation of Configurable Data integration Middleware Systems.
A Grid Infrastructure for Parallel and Interactive Applications
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The int.eu.grid project aims at providing a production quality grid computing infrastructure for e-Science supporting parallel and interactive applications. The infrastructure capacity is presently about 750 cpu cores distributed over twelve sites in seven countries. These resources have to be tightly coordinated to match the requirements of parallel computing. Such an infrastructure implies high availability, performance and robustness resulting in a much larger management effort than in traditional grid environments which are usually targeted to run sequential non-interactive applications. To achieve these goals the int.eu.grid project offers advanced brokering mechanisms and user friendly graphical interfaces supporting application steering. The int.eu.grid environment is deployed on top of the J. Gomes et al. gLite middleware enabling full interoperability with existing gLite based infrastructures.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2005
The grid has the potential to transform collaborative scientific investigations through the use of closely coupled computational and visualization resources, which may be geographically distributed, in order to harness greater power than is available at a single site. Scientific applications to benefit from the grid include visualization, computational science, environmental modelling and medical imaging. Unfortunately, the diversity, scale and location of the required resources can present a dilemma for the scientific worker because of the complexity of the underlying technology. As the scale of the scientific problem under investigation increases so does the nature of the scientist's interaction with the supporting infrastructure. The increased distribution of people and resources within a grid-based environment can make resource sharing and collaborative interaction a critical factor to their success. Unless the technological barriers affecting user accessibility are reduced,...
A Grid Middleware Extension for Scientific Visualization
2002
Grid computing infrastructures denote interconnections of massively parallel and distributed computing resources for ubiquitous, integrated, and collaborative usage. While the majority of existing grid software constitutes high-performance and high-throughput batch processing, more and more applications require interactivity and visualization. The latter is supported through the Grid Visualization Kernel (GVK), a middleware extension for fast and efficient interconnection of distant simulation servers and visualization clients. The integration of GVK is provided by specific interface modules for commonly available visualization toolkits, while the actual interconnection is transparently established between arbitrary points on the grid.
Discover: A computational collaboratory for interactive grid applications
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The growth of the Internet and the advent of the computational Grid have made it possible to develop and deploy advanced services and computational collaboratories on the Grid. These systems build on high-end computational resources and communication technologies, and enable seamless and collaborative access to resources, applications and data. In this chapter we present an overview of the DISCOVER computational collaboratory for enabling interactive applications on the Grid. Its primary goal is to bring large distributed Grid applications to the scientists'/engineers' desktop and enable collaborative application monitoring, interaction and control. DISCOVER is composed of 3 key components: (1) a middleware substrate that integrates DISCOVER servers and enables interoperability with external Grid services, (2) an application control network consisting of sensors, actuators, and interaction agents that enable monitoring, interaction and steering of distributed applications, and (3) detachable portals for collaborative access to grid applications and services. The design, implementation, operation and evaluation of these components is presented.
CoDIMS: an adaptable middleware system for scientific visualization in Grids
Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 2004
In this paper we propose a middleware infrastructure adapted for supporting scientific visualization applications over a Grid environment. We instantiate a middleware system from CoDIMS, which is an environment for the generation of configurable data integration middleware systems. CoDIMS adaptive architecture is based on the integration of special components managed by a control module that executes users workflows. We exemplify our proposal with a middleware system generated for computing particles' trajectories within the constraints imposed by a Grid environment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Visualisation on the Grid: A Web Service Approach
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The visualisation strand of the e-Demand project is working to distribute the visualisation pipeline across the Grid, allowing visualisations to be composed as needed. The traditional visualisation pipeline concept is maintained by providing an ability to divide a visualisation into its component parts and then built upon by allowing each of these parts to be deployed on an appropriate grid resource. The implementation has undergone several iterations, using releases of the Globus toolkit and using standard web service technology. A client that allows visualisation services to be composed has been developed. Case studies from a range of domains across the sciences demonstrate reuse of services and multiple path visualisation pipelines. An initial analysis of performance using the scientific case studies as a basis for experimentation is discussed. The issues encountered during the differing implementations of the architecture and those still outstanding are described. Future work is outlined including support for interactivity, collaboration and steering.
Visualisation Element: towards the definition of a new Grid service
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Nowadays, global Grid infrastructures offer production quality services to a large number of Virtual Research Communities (VRCs) and several scientific and industrial applications produce, after long runs, complex output patterns that can be collected and encoded as a unique video which can be easily shown to a wide audience and monitored with the strong impact of multimedia communication. In this contribution we describe the design and prototypal implementation of a new Grid service: the Visualization Element which has been first tested on the Sicilia Grid of COMETA and allows non-expert users to control and show their jobs" evolution using a simple and intuitive web-based interface.
Grids and Web services for e-Science
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Abstract This editorial describes four papers that summarize key Grid technology capabilities to support distributed e-Science applications. These papers discuss the Condor system supporting computing communities, the OGSA-DAI service interfaces for databases, the WS-I+ Grid Service profile and finally WS-GAF the Web Service Grid Application Framework.