Comparing Grid Data Transfer Technologies in the Expand Parallel File System

Data management is one of the most important problems in grid environments. One important challenge facing grid computing is the design of a grid file system. The Global Grid Forum defines a grid file system as a human-readable resource namespace for management of heterogeneous distributed data resources, that can span across multiple autonomous administrative domains. This paper evaluates Expand, a new grid file system according to the Global Grid Forum recommendations that integrates heterogeneous data storage resources in grids using standard grid technologies: GridFTP and the OGSA ByteIO interface defined by the Open Grid Forum.