Security architecture for computational grids

Abstract

State-of-the-art and emerging scientific applications require fast access to large quantities of data and commensurately fast computational resources. Both resources and data are often distributed in a wide-area network with components administered locally and independently. Computations may involve hundreds of processes that mast be able to acquire resources dynamically and communicate efficiently. This paper analyzes the unique security requirements of large-scale distributed (grid) computing and develops a security policy and a corresponding security architecture. An implementation of the architecture within the Globus metacomputing toolkit is discussed.