Secure, Efficient Data Transport and Replica Management for High-Performance Data-Intensive Computing

TL;DR

This paper introduces secure, high-performance data transport and replica management services for Data Grids, enhancing reliability and efficiency in data-intensive scientific applications across distributed environments.

Contribution

It presents the design and implementation of GridFTP and a replica management service, extending FTP with features tailored for Data Grid needs, including security and performance enhancements.

Findings

GridFTP extends FTP with striping and partial access.

Preliminary performance results show improved data transfer efficiency.

Integration with Globus Toolkit enhances security and management.

Abstract

An emerging class of data-intensive applications involve the geographically dispersed extraction of complex scientific information from very large collections of measured or computed data. Such applications arise, for example, in experimental physics, where the data in question is generated by accelerators, and in simulation science, where the data is generated by supercomputers. So-called Data Grids provide essential infrastructure for such applications, much as the Internet provides essential services for applications such as e-mail and the Web. We describe here two services that we believe are fundamental to any Data Grid: reliable, high-speed transporet and replica management. Our high-speed transport service, GridFTP, extends the popular FTP protocol with new features required for Data Grid applciations, such as striping and partial file access. Our replica management service integrates a replica catalog with GridFTP transfers to provide for the creation, registration, location, and management of dataset replicas. We present the design of both services and also preliminary performance results. Our implementations exploit security and other services provided by the Globus Toolkit.