DOE2000 Collaboratory Interoperability Framework Project

  The DOE2000 Collaboratory Infrastructure Framework project is investigating the software technologies required to support the development of DOE collaboratories and the interoperation of collaboratory components and tools. The goal of the project is to improve software quality, reduce duplication of effort, enhance interoperability, and promote interlab cooperation by developing a common software infrastructure that can be shared by many projects. This infrastructure will provide essential distributed computing functions such as resource location, data transport, security, and multicast services.

Collaboratory Interoperability Framework (CIF) participants are based at four DOE national laboratories:

• Argonne National Laboratory
• Distributed Supercomputing Lab
• Primary Contact: Ian Foster
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Distributed Collaboratories Project
• CIF Project Information
•  Primary Contact: Deb Agarwal
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• EMSL Collaboratory
• Primary Contact: Jim Myers
• Sandia National Laboratories
• Primary Contact: Bruce Mah

To contact the team working on the CIF project, send email to cif@injector.ca.sandia.gov

A brief requirements document lists an initial set of requirements for DOE collaboratories.
The white paper for the project is also available. 

Current Progress

Standard Communication API

One of the significant products of this project will be the common communication library which includes both unicast and multicast with various levels of reliability and ordering capabilities. Reliable multicast provides efficient data dissemination across geographically distant collaborating sites. The goal is to provide an easy to use common interface to a suite of diverse communication protocols, reliable multicast included. The current definition of the standard communication API  is available.  We are still working on definition of the API including the definition of a standard set of exceptions.  This document will be circulated to the DOE2000 pilots as soon as possible to obtain feedback regarding the API.

Communication Infrastructure

Simultaneously with the API definition effort, we have made considerable progress in developing the low-level infrastructure that will be used to implement the API. The Nexus communication library has been extended to support the integration of multicast capabilities and user control of communication protocol parameters. Unreliable multicast is now supported; reliable multicast will be added next.

Directory Service

Efficient communication in heterogeneous environments requires mechanisms for obtaining information about the structure and state of the environment in which applications operate. Collaboratory applications need to know the location and capabilities of the participants in collaborative sessions. To meet these and other requirements for information, we have developed and deployed a directory service based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, called the Metacomputing Directory Service.

Immediate Plans

CIF participants are currently engaged in four activities:

• Implementation of the Standard Communication API
• Working with DOE2000 participants to identify requirements and testbeds
• Deploying commercial and public-domain CORBA systems, with a view to evaluating their utility for DOE2000 applications.
• Deploying reliable multicast mechanisms, with a view to making these available to DOE2000 applications.

Related Projects
 

The Nexus multithreaded communication library (and an overview paper, in postscript).

The Globus distributed computing infrastructure toolkit (and an overview paper, in postscript).

Totem (and InterGroup).

The XTP reliable multicast, and the Sandia implementation.

The Diesel Collaboratory.

Other Relevant Pointers
 

The LANL CORBA page and Doug Schmidt's CORBA page.

A description of WUSTL Research on High-performance, Real-time, and Reliable CORBA

Xerox Parc's ILU

The Flick Flexible IDL Compiler Kit at Utah