HIERARCHY BASED DYNAMIC TRUST MANAGEMENT IN GRID

Abstract

We are moving from the era of centralized computing to high-performance distributed computing and peer-to-peer networking systems. Grid approach [30] is the term that describes all of these various mechanisms that allow massive number of computers and immense computing power. Grid approach is evolving as an important trend in high-performance computing. It exploits the advantages of the power of distributed systems. The name Grid suggests an analogy with the electrical power grids. For instance, if we wish to use electricity, we do not worry about where it comes from or how it is fed into the wall socket. As long as we are able to plug into the electricity socket, we are able to use the power. Similarly, in order to use the huge, computing resources, the user does not need to know where the application ran, or which storage was used for running his applications. The vision for the Grid approach is that it should be consistent, inexpensive, pervasive and dependable. As the Web browsers and the Web services provide a standard interface to distributed data, the idea of the Grid is to provide a consistent framework for distributed computing resources in the same way. The progress in Grid technology is promising. On the software technology side, Globus Alliance [6] is on its way to develop frameworks for consistent, pervasive, inexpensive and dependable services. Hardware resources can be exploited from thousands of supercomputing centers, educational institutions and other organizations across the globe. As for network technology, the broadband access to the internet is becoming ubiquitous. In order to exploit these resources for high-end scientific solutions, applications that need to span over different. organizations and institutions need to be engineered. The major requirement for design of such collaborative Grid applications is a robust framework that supports security and trust. Grid Security Infrastructure [8] handles issues with authentication and authorization within security. In this dissertation, proposed Trust management framework seeks to lay a foundation for a robust trust framework for Grids