FiVO/QStorMan Semantic Toolkit for Supporting Data-Intensive Applications in Distributed Environments

In this paper we present a semantic-based approach for supporting data-intensive applications in distributed environments. The approach is characterized by usage of explicit definition of non-functional quality parameters regarding storage systems, semantic descriptions of the available storage infrastructre and monitoring data concering the infrastructure workload and users operation, along with an implementation of the approach in the form of a toolkit called FiVO/QStorMan. In particular, we describe semantic descriptions, which are exploited in the storage resource provisioning process. In addition, the paper describes results of the performed experimental evaluation of the toolkit, which confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach for the storage resource provisioning

Grid service discovery with rough sets

Copyright [2008] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.The computational grid is evolving as a service-oriented computing infrastructure that facilitates resource sharing and large-scale problem solving over the Internet. Service discovery becomes an issue of vital importance in utilising grid facilities. This paper presents ROSSE, a Rough sets based search engine for grid service discovery. Building on Rough sets theory, ROSSE is novel in its capability to deal with uncertainty of properties when matching services. In this way, ROSSE can discover the services that are most relevant to a service query from a functional point of view. Since functionally matched services may have distinct non-functional properties related to Quality of Service (QoS), ROSSE introduces a QoS model to further filter matched services with their QoS values to maximise user satisfaction in service discovery. ROSSE is evaluated in terms of its accuracy and efficiency in discovery of computing services

Semantic Services Grid in Flood-forecasting Simulations

Flooding in the major river basins of Central Europe is a recurrent event affecting many countries. Almost every year, it takes away lives and causes damage to infrastructure, agricultural and industrial production, and severely affects socio-economic development. Recurring floods of the magnitude and frequency observed in this region is a significant impediment, which requires rapid development of more flexible and effective flood-forecasting systems. In this paper we present design and development of the flood-forecasting system based on the Semantic Grid services. We will highlight the corresponding architecture, discovery and composition of services into workflows and semantic tools supporting the users in evaluating the results of the flood simulations. We will describe in detail the challenges of the flood-forecasting application and corresponding design and development of the service-oriented model, which is based on the well known Web Service Resource Framework (WSRF). Semantic descriptions of the WSRF services will be presented as well as the architecture, which exploits semantics in the discovery and composition of services. Further, we will demonstrate how experience management solutions can help in the process of service discovery and user support. The system provides a unique bottom-up approach in the Semantic Grids by combining the advances of semantic web services and grid architectures

Forum Session at the First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC03)

The First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC) was held in Trento, December 15-18, 2003. The focus of the conference ---Service Oriented Computing (SOC)--- is the new emerging paradigm for distributed computing and e-business processing that has evolved from object-oriented and component computing to enable building agile networks of collaborating business applications distributed within and across organizational boundaries. Of the 181 papers submitted to the ICSOC conference, 10 were selected for the forum session which took place on December the 16th, 2003. The papers were chosen based on their technical quality, originality, relevance to SOC and for their nature of being best suited for a poster presentation or a demonstration. This technical report contains the 10 papers presented during the forum session at the ICSOC conference. In particular, the last two papers in the report ere submitted as industrial papers

The Grid Observatory

International audienceThe goal of the Grid Observatory project (GO) is to contribute to an experimental theory of large grid systems by integrating the collection of data on the behaviour of the flagship European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) and its users, the development of models, and an ontology for the domain knowledge. The GO gives access to a database of grid usage traces available to the wider computer science community without the need of grid credentials. The paper presents the architecture of the digital curation process enacted by the GO and examples of their exploitation.L'objectif du projet Grid Observatoiry (GO) est de contribuer à une théorie expérimentale de systèmes globalisés à grande échelle en intégrant l'acquisition de données sur le comportement de l'infrastructure de la grille européenne phare (EGI) et de ses utilisateurs, avec le développement de modèles, et d'une ontologie du domaine. Le GO donne accès à une base de données des traces d'utilisation de la grille, mise à la disposition de la communauté scientifique. L'article présente l'architecture du processus de conservation numérique adoptée par le GO et des exemples de l'exploitation des traces collectées

WISM 2005 : web information systems modeling

Modern Web Information Systems (WIS) need to satisfy a large number of requirements coming from different WIS stakeholders. Modeling WIS by focusing at one design aspect at-a-time helps the implementation of these requirements. During the last years several model-driven methodologies have been proposed to support the WIS design. Strategic modeling is usually the first step in WIS design. It is a very general characterization of WIS which answers questions like: what is the purpose of the WIS?, which are the WIS users?, what functionality is provided by the WIS?, what is the content of the WIS?, what is the layout and atmosphere of the presentations provided by the WIS?, etc. It is only after answering the above questions at a high abstract level that the designer can proceed with the detailed specifications of the WIS. Data integration is one of the most important characteristics of WIS. Some examples of domains in which data integration is present are: public services and bioinformatics. WIS need to support user interfaces that make a lot of data coming from different sources available to the user in a transparent way. The Semantic Web technologies seem to facilitate the data integration problem on the Web by providing the necessary languages to describe the data semantics. Very often the Web user browses pages that he will like to view again at a later time. The present browsing history mechanisms included in Web browsers proved to be insufficient for an adequate retrieval of already seen information. A semantical organization of the previously visited pages can improve the process of retrieving previously seen data. There is an increasing demand to make WIS personalizable so that these systems better deal with the user interests. WIS design methodologies do propose adaptation techniques in order to realize WIS personalization. Despite the fact that some of these adaptation techniques are very similar (or even the same) in different methodologies, the notations to specify WIS personalization aspects are quite different. By defining a reference model for specifying WIS personalization one could improve the reuse of the personalization specifications and also enable a seamless translation between different specific personalization specifications. The above issues are some of the topics that are tackled in the workshop papers. We hope that we did raise the readers’ interest so that they will have a close look at the papers and possibly contribute to the fascinating and challenging area of WIS modeling

Novel processes for smart grid information exchange and knowledge representation using the IEC common information model

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The IEC Common Information Model (CIM) is of central importance in enabling smart grid interoperability. Its continual development aims to meet the needs of the smart grid for semantic understanding and knowledge representation for a widening domain of resources and processes. With smart grid evolution the importance of information and data management has become an increasingly pressing issue not only because far more data is being generated using modern sensing, control and measuring devices but also because information is now becoming recognised as the ‘integral component’ that facilitates the optimal flexibility required of the smart grid. This thesis looks at the impacts of CIM implementation upon the landscape of smart grid issues and presents research from within National Grid contributing to three key areas in support of further CIM deployment. Taking the issue of Enterprise Information Management first, an information management framework is presented for CIM deployment at National Grid. Following this the development and demonstration of a novel secure cloud computing platform to handle such information is described. Power system application (PSA) models of the grid are partial knowledge representations of a shared reality. To develop the completeness of our understanding of this reality it is necessary to combine these representations. The second research contribution reports on a novel methodology for a CIM-based model repository to align PSA representations and provide a knowledge resource for building utility business intelligence of the grid. The third contribution addresses the need for greater integration of information relating to energy storage, an essential aspect of smart energy management. It presents the strategic rationale for integrated energy modeling and a novel extension to the existing CIM standards for modeling grid-scale energy storage. Significantly, this work has already contributed to a larger body of work on modeling Distributed Energy Resources currently under development at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in the USA.Dr. Martin Bradley on behalf of National Grid Plc. and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

GRID RESOURCE REGISTRY – ABSTRACT LAYER FOR COMPUTATIONAL RESOURCES

The growing number of resources available to researchers in the e-Science domain has openednew possibilities for constructing complex scientific applications while at the same timeintroducing new requirements for tools which assist developers in creating such applications.This paper discusses the problems of rapid application development, the use of distributedresources and a uniform approach to resource registration, discovery and access. It presentsthe Grid Resource Registry, which delivers an abstract layer for computational resources.The Registry is a central place where developers may search for available services and fromwhich the execution engine receives technical specifications of services. The Registry is usedthroughout the lifetime of the e-science application, starting with application design, throughimplementation to execution

Comparison of Information Representation Formalisms for Scalable File Agnostic Information Infrastructures

In the early days of computing, files where just a natural way of storing information -- which reflected the way one would file their punch cards in a cabinet drawer. Unfortunately, the requirement to fragment information into such chunks, is a huge bottleneck for the evolution of global information space that the Internet has become. The concept of file causes several problems including unnatural clustering of information, unnecessary replication of data and very expensive information discovery in distributed computing environments. The overall goal of this work is to design an architecture enabling new era in computing and networking -- a computing infrastructure without the concept of file. Files are seen by many specialists as one of the main bottlenecks of modern IT systems evolution. This is mostly due to a very unnatural fragmentation of information into chunks which are easier to manage by operating systems but much more difficult for information processing tools and eventually by humans themselves