Alternative Software Stacks for OGSA-based Grids

The Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) has been a major step forward for Grid Computing, but its de facto reliance on the Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF) and WS-Notification have left some in the community questioning if the Grid software and protocols have become too complex. In this paper, we consider the feasibility of an "alternative" software stack, based on WS-Transfer and WS-Eventing. We compare and evaluate WSRF/WS-Notification vs. WS-Transfer/WSEventing, first via a "hello world" service and then via a more complete Grid scenario for remote execution called "Grid-in-a-Box". By qualitatively and quantitatively evaluating each approach, we find that while subtle differences exist (e.g., the naming of resources, the creation of resources), the stacks are overwhelmingly equivalent in their functionality and implied performance. Overall, this paper uniquely shows that there could be alternative software stacks for OGSA-based Grids.