Service-oriented layer 1 virtual private network for grid applications

Abstract: Emerging data-intensive Grid applications call for service-oriented layer 1 virtual private networks (VPNs) as their data plane. Layer 1 VPNs are created by dividing a physical network into web service enabled partitions. In this paper, we introduce the concept of fundamental lightpath, and propose that a fundamental lightpath be taken as the basic unit of optical network partitions. We then enlist the key web service operations a Lightpath Web Service (LP-WS) should support, such as concatenation, partitioning, etc. Furthermore, we discuss the LP-WS in the context of a business process, where institutions involved in a collaborative Grid project acquire a pool of LP-WSs from optical carrier networks, and then integrate these LP-WSs with discipline-specific web services into a workflow