GRID-EMBEDDED REMOTE INSTRUMENTATION APPLIED IN THE EARTH SCIENCES

9th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference - SGEM2009, www.sgem.org, SGEM2009 Conference Proceedings/ ISBN 10: 954-91818-1-2, June 14-19, 2009, Vol. 2, 79-86 pp

ABSTRACT

The very sharing of resources that lies at the heart of the Grid concepts is of utmost
importance in the case that we are studying. Securing the sharing of instruments through
industry standard methodologies offers an unprecedented way for scientists to cooperate
efficiently through standardized security means, without the incompatibility of
implementing interoperability layers for each different experiment and site combination.
We performed our model use case analysis in two complementary ways: by the
examination of three specific prototype installations and by study of questionnaires
collected from instrumentation-related scientists. Results from prototypes and
experiments were combined with a wider selection of use cases from the field of earth
sciences. Three prototype installations were built. The goal of this implementation was
evaluating the suitability of existing solutions for the purpose of remote
instrumentation, according to the expectations and impressions of scientists themselves.
The main and absolutely necessary facilities identified are instrument virtualization,
error monitoring and logging, accounting and monitoring/controlling of experiment
execution. Additionally, some other functional requirements exist: the presence of
selection services, the availability of site functional tests, policy decision and
enforcement mechanisms, input and output data management, and workflow
management.

Keywords: grid, remote instrumentation, earth sciences, instrument virtualization