1. Universal Acessibility to the Grid via Metagrid Infrastructure
Soha Maad, Brian Coghlan, Eamonn Kenny, Gabriele Pierantoni, Oliver Lyttleton, David O'Callaghan

2. About Universal Accessibility
rooted in the concept of Design for All in Human Computer Interaction
About UA
Relevance
addresses accessibility problems in human interaction with software applications and telematic services.
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

3. About Universal Accessibility
is supported by various development methodologies and platforms.
About UA
Relevance
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

4. About Universal Accessibility
Various application domains benefited from research and development in this area including:
About UA
Relevance
interactive television and media
Challenges
children educational games
interfaces for the physically handicapped
Solutions
interfaces for various devices
Proposal

5. Relevance to the Grid Infrastructure Devices Users
Grid applications involving social interaction
About UA
Relevance
Challenges
Solutions
Infrastructure
Users
Devices
Proposal

6. Challenges G2G G2B G2C Users Infrastructure Users Devices Medicine
Open-ended interactivity
Access for the disabled
Generalised universal access:
G2G
G2B
G2C
About UA
Relevance
e-hospital (e.g. remote consultancy, e-surgery)
e-govt (e.g. G2B, G2C, G2G)
Challenges
e-business (e.g. collaborative engineering)
Users
Solutions
Infrastructure
Users
Devices
Proposal
Medicine

7. Challenges Grid Infrastructure Devices Devices Users
Direct access to remote external devices at the grid boundaries
About UA
Grid
Relevance
Now being solved for each of N middlewares rather than just once
Challenges
Devices
Solutions
Infrastructure
Users
Devices
Proposal

8. Challenges Infrastructure Infrastructure Devices Users
Develop an infrastructure for:
About UA
serving the distant minority
Relevance
coping with cultural diversity
eLearning, independent of geographical location
Challenges
serving enterprise, e.g. management of data centres
Infrastructure
Solutions
Infrastructure
Users
Devices
Proposal

9. Challenges
the lack of an underlying infrastructure similar to that of a desktop OS
Why needed?
To hide user I/O
Plug-n-play of devices
About UA
Relevance
the dilemma between hiding the grid versus making it more transparent
Why hide?
To simplify
Why transparent?
To customise for user access
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal
the software engineering practice adopted in grid middleware development
Why a problem?
Bottom-up middleware, not driven by apps

10. Current Partial Solutions [1]
the development of grid middleware supporting interaction with heterogeneous mobile devices [Jameel et al, 2005]
About UA
Relevance
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

11. Current Partial Solutions [2]
wrapping the computational and resource intensive grid tasks, to allow the accessibility to the grid via hand held devices [Kiani et al, 2005]
About UA
Relevance
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

12. Current Partial Solutions [3]
the development of common web-based grid application portals allowing the applications' users to customize their interfaces to the grid [Lindemann et al, 2005]
About UA
Relevance
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

13. Current Partial Solutions [4]
Enhancement for grid interactivity
[Rosmanith et al, 2005]
About UA
Relevance
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

14. Current Partial Solutions [5]
the development of application models for the grid
[Wu et al, 2005]
About UA
Relevance
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

15. Current Partial Solutions - Summary
While each of these efforts towards universal accessibility to the grid does address the problem to some extent, none of them enables a
complete solution.
About UA
Relevance
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

16. Metagrid Infrastructure
Objective
About UA
Relevance
to host solutions to all issues related to universal accessibility to the grid
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

17. Metagrid Infrastructure
Context
About UA
Relevance
used so far in the context of inter-grid interoperability
extends the notion of interoperability to embrace grid application interoperability (interactivity and universal accessibility).
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

18. Metagrid Infrastructure
Dependencies
About UA
Relevance
heavily based on existing grid middleware services and architecture:
EGEE
Globus
CrossGrid
GridPP
GGF
hosts one or more target grid techologies (hosting WebCom, LCG2 and GT4)
supports its own services
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

19. Metagrid Infrastructure
Transparent Services
About UA
Relevance
transparent grid filesystem:
supports all forms of data access (r/w/x) across arbitrary grid middleware
provides a logical user view of grid data (e.g. supports easy integration of the data centre in the enterprise)
discover data during interaction in media applications.
can improve the utility of the EGEE middleware.
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

20. Metagrid Infrastructure
Metagrid Services
About UA
Relevance
MetaGrid Submission Service (MSS)
MetaGrid Broker (MB)
MetaGrid Security Exchange (MSX)
MetaGrid Job Exchange (MJX)
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

21. Metagrid Infrastructure
Value-Added Services
About UA
Relevance
user interaction services
special purpose discovery services to support various forms of interaction especially in media applications
and intelligent interpreters to support e-Government data semantics.
Challenges
Solutions
Proposal

22. Metagrid Infrastructure
User
User Centric
About UA
Metagrid
Engine
EGEE
GridPP
Globus
Other
Middleware
Relevance
Places the user within the metagrid environment rather than in any one target grid environment
Challenges
The user obtains universal accessibility via the metagrid services, and the target grid technologies are relieved of the need to support direct user and device interactions.
Solutions
Proposal