A Case for Cooperative and Incentive-Based Coupling of Distributed Clusters

Research interest in Grid computing has grown significantly over the past five years. Management of distributed resources is one of the key issues in Grid computing. Central to management of resources is the effectiveness of resource allocation as it determines the overall utility of the system. The current approaches to superscheduling in a grid environment are non-coordinated since application level schedulers or brokers make scheduling decisions independently of the others in the system. Clearly, this can exacerbate the load sharing and utilization problems of distributed resources due to suboptimal schedules that are likely to occur. To overcome these limitations, we propose a mechanism for coordinated sharing of distributed clusters based on computational economy. The resulting environment, called \emph{Grid-Federation}, allows the transparent use of resources from the federation when local resources are insufficient to meet its users' requirements. The use of computational economy methodology in coordinating resource allocation not only facilitates the QoS based scheduling, but also enhances utility delivered by resources.Comment: 22 pages, extended version of the conference paper published at IEEE Cluster'05, Boston, M

Preliminary specification and design documentation for software components to achieve catallaxy in computational systems

This Report is about the preliminary specifications and design documentation for software components to achieve Catallaxy in computational systems. -- Die Arbeit beschreibt die Spezifikation und das Design von Softwarekomponenten, um das Konzept der Katallaxie in Grid Systemen umzusetzen. Eine Einführung ordnet das Konzept der Katallaxie in bestehende Grid Taxonomien ein und stellt grundlegende Komponenten vor. Anschließend werden diese Komponenten auf ihre Anwendbarkeit in bestehenden Application Layer Netzwerken untersucht.Grid Computing

A theoretical and computational basis for CATNETS

The main content of this report is the identification and definition of market mechanisms for Application Layer Networks (ALNs). On basis of the structured Market Engineering process, the work comprises the identification of requirements which adequate market mechanisms for ALNs have to fulfill. Subsequently, two mechanisms for each, the centralized and the decentralized case are described in this document. These build the theoretical foundation for the work within the following two years of the CATNETS project. --Grid Computing

Theoretical and Computational Basis for Economical Ressource Allocation in Application Layer Networks - Annual Report Year 1

This paper identifies and defines suitable market mechanisms for Application Layer Networks (ALNs). On basis of the structured Market Engineering process, the work comprises the identification of requirements which adequate market mechanisms for ALNs have to fulfill. Subsequently, two mechanisms for each, the centralized and the decentralized case are described in this document. --Grid Computing

Exploring the catallactic coordination approach for peer-to-peer systems

Efficient discovery and resource allocation is one of the challenges of current Peer-to-Peer systems. In centralized approaches, the user requests can be matched to the fastest, cheapest or most available resource. This approach, however, shows scalability limits. In this paper, we explore the catallactic coordination as a decentralized economic approach for resource allocation in peer-topeer networks. The economic model of the catallaxy is based on the selfinterested maximization of utility and the negotiation of prices between agents. We evaluate the feasibility of our approach by means of simulations and compare the proposed system with a centralized baseline approach. Our results indicate that while in the catallacic approach the number of control messages exchanged between the peers grows due to the negotiation process, its service provision rate is fairly constant in different dynamic environments.Peer Reviewe

Dynamic constrained coalition formation among electric vehicles

Background: The use of electric vehicles (EVs) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies have been advocated as an efficient way to reduce the intermittency of renewable energy sources in smart grids. However, operating on V2G sessions in a cost-effective way is not a trivial task for EVs. The formation of coalitions among EVs has been proposed to tackle this problem. Methods: In this paper we introduce Dynamic Constrained Coalition Formation (DCCF), which is a distributed heuristic-based method for constrained coalition structure generation (CSG) in dynamic environments. In our approach, coalitions are formed observing constraints imposed by the grid. To this end, EV agents negotiate the formation of feasible coalitions among themselves. Results: Based on experiments, we show that DCCF is efficient to provide good solutions in a fast way. DCCF provides solutions whose quality approaches 98% of the optimum. In dynamically changing scenarios, DCCF also shows good results, keeping the agents payoff stable along time. Conclusions: Essentially, DCCF’s main advantage over traditional CSG algorithms is that its computational effort is very lower. On the other hand, unlike traditional algorithms, DCCF is suitable only for constraint-based problems

Multiscale design for system-wide peer-to-peer energy trading

The integration of renewable generation and the electrification of heating and transportation are critical for the sustainable energy transition toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. These changes require the large-scale adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs). Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading has gained attention as a new approach for incentivizing the uptake and coordination of DERs, with advantages for computational scalability, prosumer autonomy, and market competitiveness. However, major unresolved challenges remain for scaling out P2P trading, including enforcing network constraints, managing uncertainty, and mediating transmission and distribution conflicts. Here, we propose a novel multiscale design framework for P2P trading, with inter-platform coordination mechanisms to align local transactions with system-level requirements, and analytical tools to enhance long-term planning and investment decisions by accounting for forecast real-time operation. By integrating P2P trading into planning and operation across spatial and temporal scales, the adoption of large-scale DERs is tenable and can create economic, environmental, and social co-benefits

Self-organizing resource allocation for autonomic networks

Application-layer networks (ALN) are software architectures that allow the provisioning of services requiring a huge amount of resources by connecting large numbers of individual computers, e.g. grids and P2P-Networks. Self-organization, like proposed by the autonomic computing concept, might be the key to controlling these systems. The CATNET project evaluates a decentralized mechanism for resource allocation in ALN, based on the economic paradigm of the Catallaxy. The economic model is based on self-interested maximization of utility and self-interested cooperation between software agents, who buy and sell network services and resources to and from each other.Peer Reviewe