IQ-Services: network-aware middleware for interactive large-data applications

摘要

IQ-Services are application-specific, resource-aware code modules executed by data transport middleware. They constitute a 'thin' layer between application components and the underlying computational and communication resources. This layer implements the data manipulations necessary to permit wide-area collaborations to proceed smoothly in the presence of dynamic resource variations. IQ-Services interact with the application and resource layers via dynamic performance attributes, and end-to-end implementations of such attributes also permit clients to interact with data providers. The joint middleware/resource and provider/consumer interactions implemented with performance attributes may be used to realize effective methods for managing the data flows in the large-data, distributed Grid applications targeted by our research. Experimental results in this paper demonstrate substantial performance improvements. These are attained by coordinating network-level with service-level adaptations of the data being transported and by permitting end users to dynamically deploy and use application-specific services for manipulating data in ways suitable for their current needs.