Anne Frenkel

VLAM-G: A Grid-based virtual laboratory

The Grid-based Virtual Laboratory AMsterdam (VLAM-G), provides a science portal for distributed analysis in applied scientific research. It offers scientists remote experiment control, data management facilities and access to distributed resources by providing cross-institutional integration of information and resources in a familiar environment. The main goal is to provide a unique integration of existing standards and software packages. This paper describes the design and prototype implementation of the VLAM-G platform. In this testbed we applied several recent technologies such as the Globus toolkit, enhanced federated database systems, and visualization and simulation techniques. Several domain specific case studies are described in some detail. Information management will be discussed separately in a forthcoming paper.

Supporting information access rights and visibility levels in virtual enterprises

In the Virtual Enterprise (VE) paradigm, enterprises must share and exchange a part of their internal local information in order to interact and cooperate with each other towards the achievement of the global VE goals. However, the information access level for every VE partner depends on several “determining features” such as the cooperation relationships, degree of trust, the function of the enterprise in the VE, and contractual/legal agreements, among other issues. Considering these aspects, every enterprise needs to precisely define the appropriate access rights and visibility levels on its information individually for every other VE partner. This paper focuses on the VE access rights definition mechanism designed and implemented within the Distributed Information Management System in the context of the ESPRIT project PRODNET II.

Federated Information Management Requirements for Virtual Enterprises

In VE collaborations, many issues related to information management requirements become crucial, such as the privacy enforcement, information access rights, enterprise visibility levels, data redundancy control, and location transparency aspects. Analysis of the information management requirements in the VE environment lead to a federated information management approach, as the comprehensive support environment for effective information sharing among VE enterprises. In this chapter, the main information management requirements for the VE network are identified and the federated support environmental mechanisms are addressed.

Design of the Federated Information Management Architecture for Prodnet

In ESPRIT project PRODNET II, a federated architecture approach is adopted to support the information management requirements of the VE environment. This approach provides an innovative mechanism for information access rights and visibility level among enterprises, which are exploited through the federated query processing. In this chapter, the design issues of the federated information management components are represented.

Information Management for Material Science Applications in a Virtual Laboratory

The goal of Virtual Laboratory project (VL), being developed at the University of Amsterdam, is to provide an open and flexible infrastructure to support scientists in their collaboration towards the achievement of a joint experiment. The advanced features of VL provide an ideal environment for experiment-based applications, such as the Material Analysis of Complex Surfaces (MACS) experiments, to benefit from different developed interfaces to the hardware and software required by the scientists. To properly support the information management in this collaborative environment, a set of innovative and specific mechanisms and functionalities for efficient storage, handling, integration, and retrieval of the MACS-related data, as well as data analysis tools on the experiment results, are being developed. This paper focuses on the information management in the MACS application case and describes its implementation using the Matisse ODBMS system.

DIMS: Implementation of a Federated Information Management System for PRODNET II

The project PRODNET II (Production Planning and Management in an Extended Enterprise) had as its main objective the development of a reference architecture and a support infrastructure for Industrial Virtual Enterprises (VEs). The PRODNET Distributed Information Management System (DIMS) supports the complex VE information management requirements and is based on a federated database architecture that has been specifically tailored and adapted to the specificities of the VE paradigm. This paper describes the kernel design, main internal components, and general implementation aspects of the DIMS system.