A grid middleware for distributed Java computing with MPI binding and process migration supports

Abstract

"Grid" computing has emerged as an important new research field. With years of efforts, grid researchers have successfully developed grid technologies including security solutions, resource management protocols, information query protocols, and data management services. However, as the ultimate goal of grid computing is to design an infrastructure which supports dynamic, cross-organizational resource sharing, there is a need of solutions for efficient and transparent task re-scheduling in the grid. In this research, a new grid middleware is proposed, called G-JavaMPI. This middleware adds the parallel computing capability of Java to the grid with the support of a Grid-enabled message passing interface (MPI) for inter-process communication between Java processes executed at different grid points. A special feature of the proposed G-JavaMPI is the support of Java process migration with post-migration message redirection. With these supports, it is possible to migrate executing Java process from site to site for continuous computation, if some site is scheduled to be turned down for system reconfiguration. Moreover, the proposed G-JavaMPI middleware is very portable since it requires no modification of underlying OS, Java virtual machine, and MPI package. Preliminary performance tests have been conducted. The proposed mechanisms have shown good migration efficiency in a simulated grid environment.