Topology discovery services for monitoring the global grid

The dynamic joint optimization of both computational and network resources has the potential of guaranteeing optimal performance Io geographically distributed grid applications. A grid network information and monitoring service (NIMS) has been recently proposed to complement computational resource status information with network resource status information. NIMS information includes, but is not limited to, information already available in the network control plane (e.g., network topology, link capacity occupation, communication delay). This study first reviews some measurement methodologies and network sensors suitable for implementing NIMS components, and then describes some tools currently utilized for monitoring grid network infrastructures. Finally, two implementations of a NIMS component, called the topology discovery service (TDS), are proposed and evaluated. The TDS provides grid users (e.g., applications) or the programming environment middleware with up-to-date information on the grid network infrastructure topology and status. Both proposed implementations can be utilized in any global grid network based on commercial routers without requiring modifications of router management and control protocols.