Specification-correct and Scalable Coordination of Scientific Applications in Grid Environments

The workflow model for composing Grid applications is based on an imperative model of computation prone to programming errors, which is an issue yet to consider in the Grid community. In this paper, we propose a new unconventional model for programming Grid applications based on two programming phases: (1) formal functional specification, written by the application scientist not interested in any Grid-related issues and representing "what" has to be computed; (2) imperative workflow-based coordination, written by the computer scientist which indicates "how" to efficiently execute the specification on the Grid. A correctness checker automatically connects both parts at compile- time and ensures the correct execution of the workflow coordination with respect to the formal specification. We validate our approach for three real-world applications and show experimental results that demonstrate the correctness and scalability of our coordination model.