GridPP (UK Grid for Particle Physics) Resources at the University of Glasgow
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
'The Grid' is the next leap in computer interconnectivity. The Internet and the World Wide Web are increasingly an integral part of people's lives, helping the world share information and transfer data quickly and easily. In the same way as we now share files and facts over the global network of computers, in the future the Grid will let us share other things, such as processing power and storage space. The Grid is a practical solution to the problems of storing and processing the large quantities of data that will be produced by industry and the scientific communities over the next decade. Particle physicists are waiting for 2007 when a new particle accelerator opens in the world's largest particle physics laboratory, CERN. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be the most powerful instrument ever built to investigate fundamental physics. Once this is fully functional the amount of data being produced will be massive. All this will be too much for one institution to handle so they need to share resources i.e. to use distributed computing. The Grid is built on the same Internet infrastructure as the web, but uses different tools. Middleware is one of these tools. In a stand alone computer the resources allocated to each job are managed by the operating system e.g. Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X. Middleware is like the operating system of a Grid, allowing users to access resources without searching for them manually. GridPP has developed middleware for the Grid, in collaboration with other international projects. Due to GridPP's open source policy, the middleware can evolve and be improved by the people who use it. Distributed computing has been available to scientists for some time but, in general, the use of different sites has to be negotiated by each scientist individually. They need a separate account on each system and jobs have to be submitted and results collected back by hand. Current distributed computing means the user has a lot of work to do to get their results. This is where the idea of Grid computing comes in. Middleware lets users simply submit jobs to the Grid without having to know where the data is or where the jobs will run. The software can run the job where the data is, or move the data to where there is CPU power available. Using the Grid and middleware, all the user has to do is submit a job and pick up the results. Acting as the gatekeeper and matchmaker for the Grid, middleware monitors the Grid, decides where to send computing jobs, manages users, data and storage. It will check the identity of the user through the use of digital certificates. A digital certificate is a file stored securely on a users computer which allows the Grid to correctly identify a user. The certificates are given to a user by the Certification Authority, with numerous steps to ensure the person applying is who they say they are. The middleware automatically extracts the users' identity from their digital certificate and uses this to log them in. This means users don't have to remember user names and passwords to log onto the Grid, they're automatically logged on using their Grid certificate. After this seamless identification process the middleware will find the most convenient and efficient places for the job to be run and organise efficient access to the relevant scientific data. It deals with authentication to the different sites being used, runs the jobs, keeps track of progress, lets the user know when the work is complete and transfers the result back.
Organisations
- University of Glasgow (Lead Research Organisation)
- European Southern Observatory (ESO) (Collaboration)
- European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) (Collaboration)
- Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY) (Collaboration)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (Collaboration)
- International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK) (Collaboration)
- Biomed Virtual Organisation (Collaboration)
- T2K Collaboration (Collaboration)
- Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Collaboration)
- Stanford University (Collaboration)
- PhenoGrid - Particle Physics Phenomenology on the LHC Grid (Collaboration)
- Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Collaboration)
Publications
Perry J
(2005)
QCDgrid: A Grid Resource for Quantum Chromodynamics
in Journal of Grid Computing
Colling D. J.
(2006)
Adding instruments and workflow support to existing grid architectures
in COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE - ICCS 2006, PT 3, PROCEEDINGS
Jensen, Jens
(2007)
ShibGrid, a Shibboleth based access method for the National Grid Service
in UK e-Science All Hands Conference
Harrison, Karl
(2008)
Using the Grid to enable content-based image retrieval on an industrial scale
in UK e-Science All Hands Conference
Bly M
(2008)
Preparation for WLCG production from a Tier-1 viewpoint
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Hobson, Peter
(2008)
Use of a Computational Grid for the Replay of Digitally-Recorded Holograms
in UK e-Science All Hands Conference
Morey C
(2008)
Use of Cfengine for deploying LCG/gLite middle-ware
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Coles J
(2008)
Grid computing for UK particle physics
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Moscicki J
(2009)
Ganga: A tool for computational-task management and easy access to Grid resources
in Computer Physics Communications
Jensen J
(2009)
Practical Grid Storage Interoperation Interoperation of SRM and SRB Now
in Journal of Grid Computing
Description | Grant_Expression of Interest - Scottish Grid Service (ScotGrid) |
Amount | £25,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Government of Scotland |
Department | Scottish Funding Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2007 |
End | 06/2007 |
Description | Research Contract_EGEE II - Enabling Grids for E-Science in Europe Principal |
Amount | £112,244 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 31688 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 03/2006 |
End | 03/2008 |
Description | Research Contract_EGEE III (Enabling Grids for e-sciencE) |
Amount | £212,222 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 222667 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 04/2008 |
End | 04/2010 |
Description | Research Grant_GridPP4 - the UK Grid for Particle Physics |
Amount | £1,005,944 (GBP) |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2011 |
End | 03/2013 |
Description | Research Grant_Transfer of staff from Imperial College |
Amount | £6,985 (GBP) |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2007 |
End | 09/2007 |
Description | ATLAS |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to LHC experiment at CERN. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | LHC physics. |
Description | Alice |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to LHC experiment at CERN. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | LHC physics. |
Description | BaBar experiment |
Organisation | Stanford University |
Department | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Particle physics detector for B meson studies at SLAC |
Description | CDF |
Organisation | Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Particle physics experiment at Fermilab |
Description | CMS |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support for LHC experiment at CERN. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | LHC physics. |
Description | D0 |
Organisation | Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | particle physics experiment at Fermilab |
Description | H1 |
Organisation | Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY) |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Experiment located at DESY for positron-proton collision studies |
Description | ILC |
Organisation | International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | International Linear Collider project (future electron-positron linear collider studies) |
Description | MINOS |
Organisation | Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, is an experiment at Fermilab designed to study the phenomena of neutrino oscillations |
Description | NA48 |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | CP violation experiment at CERN |
Description | NA62 |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Rare Kaon-decay experiment at CERN |
Description | PhenoGrid |
Organisation | PhenoGrid - Particle Physics Phenomenology on the LHC Grid |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to PhenoGrid |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | A collaboration of UK Particle Physics Phenomenologists who are developing applications for the LHC |
Description | SIXT-VO |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to VO. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Single particle tracking studies for LHC |
Description | SNO experiment |
Organisation | Sudbury Neutrino Observatory |
Country | Canada |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO)Ontario, Canada - neutrino and solar core studies |
Description | Supernemo |
Organisation | University College London |
Department | SuperNEMO |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to experiment |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Neutrinoless double beta decay experiment |
Description | biomed-VO |
Organisation | Biomed Virtual Organisation |
Country | Global |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to VO. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Medical image processing and biomedical data processing. |
Description | esr-VO |
Organisation | European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) |
Department | ESR VO |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to VO. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Earth Science Research covering Solid Earth, Ocean, Atmosphere and their interfaces. |
Description | geant4 |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Department | ALICE Collaboration |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | GridPP collaboration with geant4. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Geant4 is a Monte Carlo simulation toolkit which emulates the interactions of particles. |
Description | lhcb |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to LHC experiment at CERN. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | LHC physics. |
Description | magic Gamma ray telescope VO |
Organisation | European Southern Observatory (ESO) |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to VO. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | collaborative physics |
Description | planck VO |
Organisation | European Southern Observatory (ESO) |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to VO. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Satellite project for mapping Cosmic Microwave Background |
Description | t2k |
Organisation | T2K Collaboration |
Country | Global |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | GridPP support to VO. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to data, equipment and facilities, training of staff and significant intellectual input into our research. |
Impact | Next Generation Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment |