10-040
US Grid Projects: PPDG and iVDGL
Richard P. Mount, SLAC
We describe the creation and operation of an international Virtual-Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL) of unprecedented scale and scope, comprising heterogeneous computing and storage resources in the U.S., Europe - and ultimately other regions - linked by high-speed networks, and operated as a single system for the purposes of interdisciplinary experimentation in Grid-enabled data-intensive scientific computing. Our goal in establishing this laboratory is to drive the development, and transition to every day production use, of Petabyte-scale virtual data applications required by frontier computationally oriented science. In so doing, we seize the opportunity presented by a convergence of rapid advances in networking, information technology, Data Grid software tools, and application sciences, as well as substantial investments in data-intensive science now underway in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. We expect experiments conducted in this unique international laboratory to influence the future of scientific investigation by bringing into practice new modes of transparent access to information in a wide range of disciplines, including high-energy and nuclear physics, gravitational wave research, astronomy, astrophysics, earth observations, and bioinformatics. iVDGL experiments will also provide computer scientists developing data grid technology with invaluable experience and insight, therefore influencing the future of data grids themselves. A significant additional benefit of this facility is that it will empower institutions and regions that normally have little access to top tier facilities and state of the art software systems, hence bringing the methods and results of international scientific enterprises to a diverse, worldwide audience.
Keywords:	ivdgl, grid, data grid, data intensive computing, petascale, petabyte, networks
Contact:	Richard P. Mount (SLAC)
	richard.mount@stanford.edu