GridDB-Lite: Database Support for Data-Driven Scientific Applications in the Grid

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to develop a middleware framework to enable efficient execution of queries for extracting the data of interest from large scientific datasets in a distributed environment. The project will develop and evaluate a middleware infrastructure, Grid Database-Lite (GridDB-Lite), to support the following basic database operations in the Grid: selection of the data of interest from datasets distributed among disparate storage systems; and transfer of data from storage systems to compute nodes for processing. The architecture will leverage two developed frameworks: Active Data Repository and DataCutter. The project will also: design a framework to incorporate an object-relational model for querying scientific datasets; develop algorithms for efficient; examine methods for indexing and declustering of large datasets in a distributed environment; and develop and evaluate algorithms for efficient transfer of selected subsets of datasets from distributed storage clusters to processor memories or disks on destination compute clusters. Broader impact and Intellectual merit - This research project proposes to address issues that pertain to a key step in large scale data analysis, which is the extraction of the data of interest from large, distributed datasets. As dataset sizes continue to grow, an efficient solution to this step will be increasingly important to wide-scale deployment of data analysis in the Grid. This project will also have a significant impact on teaching and human resource development. As part of the curriculum in the Biomedical Informatics Department, the proposers will offer a course (BMI731) on large-scale data management and manipulation. This course exposes students in biomedical informatics to grid technologies, and enables computer scientists to discover new data-intensive grid applications. Students in this course will gain experience with GridDB-Lite and will be exposed to application development. A majority of funds in this project will be used to support Ph.D students, and to train them to make long-term research contributions in computer science.