Economic Evaluation Framework of Resource Allocation Methods in Service-Oriented Architectures

Economic resource allocation in Application Layer Networks (such as Grids) is critical to allow applications and users to effectively exploit computational and data infrastructures like service-oriented computing as a utility. Thus, the evaluation of resource allocation strategies plays a major part in the selection of a resource allocation method. This paper presents an evaluation framework for resource allocation methods in Application Layer Networks, that aims at supporting both a technical and an economic evaluation. The presented evaluation model shows a layered metrics pyramid with different aggregation levels. Statistical methods are used to describe this pyramid. On top of the pyramid, one single number, the social utility, is able to characterize an economic resource allocation method. This number may serve to compare different resource allocation strategies.