Evaluating a Bio-Inspired Approach for the Design of a Grid Information System: The SO-Grid Portal

This chapter proposes a bio-inspired approach for the construction of a self-organizing Grid information system. A dissemination protocol exploits the activity of ant-inspired mobile agents to replicate and reorganize metadata information on the basis of the characteristics of the related Grid resources. Resource reorganization emerges from simple operations of a large number of agents, in a "swarm intelligence" fashion. Moreover, a discovery protocol allows Grid clients to locate useful resources on the Grid through a semi-informed approach. This chapter also describes the SO-Grid Portal, a simulation portal through which registered users can simulate and analyze the ant-based protocols. This portal can be used by researchers to perform "parameter sweep" studies, as it allows for the graphical comparison of results obtained in previous sessions. We believe that the deployment of the SO-Grid portal, along with the definition and discussion of the protocols presented in this chapter, can foster the understanding and use of swarm intelligence, multi-agent and bio-inspired paradigms in the field of distributed computing.