Mobile Computing in Physics Analysis - An Indicator for eScience

This paper presents the design and implementation of a Grid-enabled physics analysis environment for handheld and other resource-limited computing devices as one example of the use of mobile devices in eScience. Handheld devices offer great potential because they provide ubiquitous access to data and round-the-clock connectivity over wireless links. Our solution aims to provide users of handheld devices the capability to launch heavy computational tasks on computational and data Grids, monitor the jobs status during execution, and retrieve results after job completion. Users carry their jobs on their handheld devices in the form of executables (and associated libraries). Users can transparently view the status of their jobs and get back their outputs without having to know where they are being executed. In this way, our system is able to act as a high-throughput computing environment where devices ranging from powerful desktop machines to small handhelds can employ the power of the Grid. The results shown in this paper are readily applicable to the wider eScience community.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Presented at the 3rd Int Conf on Mobile Computing & Ubiquitous Networking (ICMU06. London October 200

AstroGrid-D: Grid Technology for Astronomical Science

We present status and results of AstroGrid-D, a joint effort of astrophysicists and computer scientists to employ grid technology for scientific applications. AstroGrid-D provides access to a network of distributed machines with a set of commands as well as software interfaces. It allows simple use of computer and storage facilities and to schedule or monitor compute tasks and data management. It is based on the Globus Toolkit middleware (GT4). Chapter 1 describes the context which led to the demand for advanced software solutions in Astrophysics, and we state the goals of the project. We then present characteristic astrophysical applications that have been implemented on AstroGrid-D in chapter 2. We describe simulations of different complexity, compute-intensive calculations running on multiple sites, and advanced applications for specific scientific purposes, such as a connection to robotic telescopes. We can show from these examples how grid execution improves e.g. the scientific workflow. Chapter 3 explains the software tools and services that we adapted or newly developed. Section 3.1 is focused on the administrative aspects of the infrastructure, to manage users and monitor activity. Section 3.2 characterises the central components of our architecture: The AstroGrid-D information service to collect and store metadata, a file management system, the data management system, and a job manager for automatic submission of compute tasks. We summarise the successfully established infrastructure in chapter 4, concluding with our future plans to establish AstroGrid-D as a platform of modern e-Astronomy.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures Subjects: data analysis, image processing, robotic telescopes, simulations, grid. Accepted for publication in New Astronom

Pervasive computing at tableside : a wireless web-based ordering system

Purpose &ndash; The purpose of this paper is to introduce a wireless web-based ordering system called iMenu in the restaurant industry. Design/methodology/approach &ndash; By using wireless devices such as personal digital assistants and WebPads, this system realizes the paradigm of pervasive computing at tableside. Detailed system requirements, design, implementation and evaluation of iMenu are presented.Findings &ndash; The evaluation of iMenu shows it explicitly increases productivity of restaurant staff. It also has other desirable features such as integration, interoperation and scalability. Compared to traditional restaurant ordering process, by using this system customers get faster and better services, restaurant staff cooperate more efficiently with less working mistakes, and enterprise owners thus receive more business profits. Originality/value &ndash; While many researchers have explored using wireless web-based information systems in different industries, this paper presents a system that employs wireless multi-tiered web-based architecture to build pervasive computing systems. Instead of discussing theoretical issues on pervasive computing, we focus on practical issues of developing a real system, such as choosing of web-based architecture, design of input methods in small screens, and response time in wireless web-based systems.<br /

Grid enabled data analysis on handheld devices

The requirement for information on portable, handheld devices demands the realization of increasingly complex applications for increasingly small and ubiquitous devices. This trend promotes the migration of technologies that were originally developed for desktop computers to handheld devices. With the onset of grid computing, users of handheld devices should be able to accomplish much more complex tasks, by accessing the processing and storage resources of the grid. This paper describes the development, features, and performance aspects of a grid enabled analysis environment designed for handheld devices. We also describe some differences in the technologies required to run these applications on desktop machines and handheld devices. In addition, we propose a prototype agent-based distributed architecture for carrying out high-speed analysis of physics data on handheld devices

Dissemination Level

PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services) RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services) CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services) Revision history: Version Date Authors Institution Section affected, comments 1.0 12/15/09 Marjan Šterk XLAB Final check before submission 0.4.3 12/11/09 Barry McLarnon SAP Moved RBSM to featured scenario and expanded description 0.4.2 12/09/09 Marjan Šterk XLAB Added table scenario-vs-components; corrected many typos 0.4.1 12/09/09 Marjan Šterk XLAB Most of Bernd Scheuermann’s comments integrated 0.4 12/07/09 Marjan Šterk XLAB Core scenario updated; published videos referenced 0.3.5 12/01/09 Marjan Šterk XLAB Some fixmes resolved, integrated Nicolas Vigier’s comment 0.3.4 12/01/09 Nicolas Vigier EDGE Corrected typos 0.3.3 11/27/09 Marjan Šterk XLAB Added core and virual nodes scenario descriptions, and links to demo web pages 0.3.2 11/26/09 Peter Linnell INRIA Review and Proofing of English 0.3.1 11/18/09 Marjan Šterk XLAB Integrated (most of) the comments from Michael Schöttner’s review 0.3 11/06/09 Marjan Šterk XLAB Unified all scenario descriptions, added Executive Summary and Conclusion