On translating grid requirements to network configurations through policy-based management

Computing grids require the underlying network infrastructure to be properly configured in order to have appropriate communications among the grids´ nodes. The management of networks and the management of grids are currently executed by different tools operated by different administrative personnel. Eventually, the grid communication requirements need corresponding support from the network management tools, but such requirements are fulfilled only when grid administrators manually asks network administrators for corresponding configurations. In this paper we propose a policy translation mechanism that creates network policies given grid requirements expressed in grid policies. We also present a system prototype that allows (a) grid administrators to define grid policies, and (b) network administrators to define translating rules. These rules are used by the proposed translation mechanism to generate the necessary underlying network configuration policies.