Data management and transfer in high-performance computational grid environments

An emerging class of data-intensive applications involve the geographically dispersed extraction of complex scientific information from very large collections of measured or computed data. Such applications arise, for example, in experimental physics, where the data in question is generated by accelerators, and in simulation science, where the data is generated by supercomputers. So-called Data Grids provide essential infrastructure for such applications, much as the Internet provides essential services for applications such as e-mail and the Web. We describe here two services that we believe are fundamental to any Data Grid: reliable, high-speed transport and replica management. Our high-speed transport service, GridFTP, extends the popular FTP protocol with new features required for Data Grid applications, such as striping and partial file access. Our replica management service integrates a replica catalog with GridFTP transfers to provide for the creation, registration, location, a...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: PC
• Authors: William E. Allcock, Joseph Bester, John Bresnahan, Ann L. Chervenak, Ian T. Foster, Carl Kesselman, Sam Meder, Veronika Nefedova, Darcy Quesnel, Steven Tuecke
• Keywords: Data Grid, Management, PC 2002, Replicas, So-called Data Grids