Extending the collaborative online visualization and steering framework for computational Grids with attribute-based authorization

Especially within grid infrastructures driven by high-performance computing (HPC), collaborative online visualization and steering (COVS) has become an important technique to dynamically steer the parameters of a parallel simulation or to just share the outcome of simulations via visualizations with geographically dispersed collaborators. In earlier work, we have presented a COVS framework reference implementation based on the UNICORE grid middleware used within DEISA. This paper lists current limitations of the COVS framework design and implementation related to missing fine-grained authorization capabilities that are required during collaborative COVS sessions. Such capabilities use end-user information about roles, project membership, or participation in a dedicated virtual organization (VO). We outline solutions and present a design and implementation of our architecture extension that uses attribute authorities such as the recently developed virtual organization membership service (VOMS) based on the security assertion markup language (SAML).