Towards Context Constrained Authorisation for Pervasive Grid Computing

This paper describes our on-going work on the design and development of a context constrained authorisation architecture to support pervasive grid computing. It discusses security implications when bridging pervasive computing and grid computing, and analyses the limitations of current grid authorisation solutions in this pervasive grid environment. We propose some novel grid authorisation enhancements that takes into account not only users´ static attributes, but also their dynamic contextual attributes inherent in pervasive computing. The design has adhered to open grid standards and specifications, and is based upon a modular layered approach so that any existing or emerging authorisation mechanisms or solutions can easily be plugged into or unplugged from the architecture. In addition, the architecture can inter-work with and be easily integrated with other grid security building blocks.