Towards Ensuring Scalability, Interoperability and Efficient Access Control in a Multi-Domain Grid-Based Environment

The application of grid computing has been hampered by three basic challenges: scalability, interoperability and efficient access control which need to be optimized before a full-scale adoption of grid computing can take place. To address these challenges, a novel architectural model was designed for a multi-domain grid based environment (built on three domains). It was modelled using the dynamic role-based access control. The architecture's framework assumes that each domain has an independent local security monitoring unit and a central security monitoring unit that monitors security for the entire grid. The architecture was evaluated using the Grid Security Services Simulator, a meta-query language and Java Runtime Environment 1.7.0.5 for implementing the workflows that define the model's task. In terms of scalability, the results show that as the number of grid nodes increases, the average turnaround time reduces, and thereby increases the number of service requesters (grid users) on the grid. Grid middleware integration across various domains as well as the appropriate handling of authentication and authorisation through a local security monitoring unit and a central security monitoring unit proved that the architecture is interoperable. Finally, a case study scenario used for access control across the domains shows the efficiency of the role based access control approach used for achieving appropriate access to resources. Based on the results obtained, the proposed framework has proved to be interoperable, scalable and efficiently suitable for enforcing access control within the parameters evaluated.