Bridging the Data Management Gap Between Service and Desktop Grids

Abstract

Volunteer computing platforms have become a popular means of providing vast amounts of processing power to scientific applications through the use of personal home computers. To date, with little exception, these systems have focused solely on exploiting idle CPU cycles and have yet to take full advantage of other available resources such as powerful video card processors, hard disk storage capacities, and high-speed network connections. As part of the EDGeS project, we are working to expand this narrow scope to also utilize available network and storage capabilities. In this paper we outline the justifications for this approach and introduce how decentralized P2P networks are being built in the project to distribute scientific data currently on the Grid.