ImageFlow: Workflow Based Image Processing with Legacy Program in Grid

As image processing has been widely used in many scientific research areas, how to find a powerful and inexpensive approach to solve large-scale image processing problems poses great challenges. In this paper, based on workflow theory and Web service technology, we present a novel image processing framework called ImageFlow, which enables images to be processed by distributed legacy software coupled with interconnected target systems. The salient features of ImageFlow are: (1) Workflow based image processing; (2) General running service (GRS) for legacy programs; (3) Adaptive data transfer mechanism with SOAP attachment and GridFTP; and (4) Workflow based software deployment. The experimental results show that our approaches are feasible and efficient. SOAP attachment over HTTP is more preferable for transferring small size of data, while GridFTP performs better when transferring large-scale data. In addition, compared with the sequential deployment model, workflow based software deployment can gain higher speedup when constructing large-scale systems.