The global grid model is steadily being uptaken by individuals wishing to trade in grid services. The grid was originally driven by organisations attempting to share high performance computing resources but there are recent moves to apply the model to the exchange of other services. It is important that an appropriate economic model be applied to the exchange of services if the global grid approach is to be applied beyond academia and free/share communities. We have built a simulation model of our prototype to investigate the buyer/seller and open market models of services. We are also experimenting with tightly-coupled value-add chains of services in a market economy that would scale to the size of the global grid. KEY WORDS Internet; performance modelling; economics and management; grid systems.
Heath A. James, Kenneth A. Hawick