Equitable resource sharing in grid-based computing environments
First Claim
1. A method of allocating grid-based computer resources based on an exchange model exclusively of returned favours.
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method of allocating grid-based computer resources which is based on an exchange model that is predicated exclusively on a system of returned favours. A favour is defined as the act of offering a resource and the method is performed in respect of two or more grid resource providers/consumers which are alternatively known as participants. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of establishing two or more participants in a grid-based computer system where at least one of said participants offers resources. Each participant expects resources to be offered in return in proportion to the level of resources which that participant offers. Primarily, the present invention may be applied in arbitration situations whereby a participant which is offering resources arbitrates conflicting requests for its resources by prioritizing requests from those other participants who have offered favours in the past. The invention may be applied most suitably in the context of applications which can be run in a fragmentary task fashion where each task may be executed independently of each other task comprising the whole application. Specific computational contexts to which the invention may be applied include large-scale computationally intensive calculations such as molecular modeling, analysis of large bodies of data and the like. The invention may be applied to similar evanescent grid-based computer resources such as network storage and similar.
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Citations
20 Claims
- 1. A method of allocating grid-based computer resources based on an exchange model exclusively of returned favours.
- 7. A method as claimed in 6, wherein the step of request prioritization is performed subject to local policies.
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18. A network comprising a plurality of peers, each peer configured to offer and/or consume grid-based computer resources based on an exchange model exclusively of returned favours.
Specification