Resource Discovery in Wireless, Mobile and Ad hoc Grids – Issues and Challenges

Recent advancements in technology and computing environments have extended the scope of classification criteria for traditional grids to include wireless, mobile and ad hoc grids based on the criteria of Accessibility. The realization of the benefits of grids to a larger extent is based on the effective discovery of resources (which could be heterogeneous in nature) that are part of the grid. Thus making resource discovery an integral part of grid environments. An Accessible grid is one that consists of a collection of devices (or resources) which could be fixed or mobile and the connectivity could be wired or wireless with infrastructure being pre-defined or adhoc. The accessibility criteria requires resource discovery to be dynamic as wireless grids focus on wireless connectivity, mobile grids on issues related to mobility and ad hoc grids on ad hoc nature. With resource discovery methods falling broadly under centralized, distributed and semi-distributed (hybrid) models and computing environments falling under structured (it includes grid and p2p), semi-structured (it includes p2p) and unstructured (it includes p2p and adhoc) categories, the suitability of existing resource discovery approaches to wireless, mobile and adhoc grids is still an open research issue. KeywordsGrid, Grid Computing Classification, Resource Discovery, RD classification, Computing Environments