Implementation of the simulation on a Desktop Grid
Creating a desktop grid requires a group of networked computers, a grid server and a grid software platform. For the purpose of this work, a grid was created using 500 Desktop PC installed in student laboratories at the University of Florida (Figure 5) providing a total capacity of 1.6 Teraflops.
Figure 5: One of a Student Laboratories that was incorporated to the grid project.
The United Devices Grid MP® platform, a commercial grid computing software package was used in this project. The primary reasons for selecting this software were that: 1) it is no intrusive, that is, it remains in the background when the user is active, 2) it is very tolerant of desktop PC failures, 3) matches scheduling of tasks to resources, and 4) provides a set of tools that facilitate management of the desktop machines. The installation of the Grid MP system was done by local technical staff with the assistance of United Devices.
Figure 6 shows the architecture of the microirrigation grid simulation. The user carries out three tasks: 1) Create the necessary data files, 2) initiate the simulation, and 3) recover the results. This architecture was implemented using an adaptive grid service flow management model developed by Long (2004).
Figure 6. Conceptual architecture of the hydraulic simulation using the grid.
References
Long, Yu. 2004. Adaptive and Customizable Grid Service Flow Management. Ph.D. Dissertation. Computer and Information Science Department. University of Florida. Under development.