Towards trust-aware resource management in grid computing systems

Resource management is a central part of a Grid computing system. In a large-scale wide-area system such as the Grid, security is a prime concern. One approach is to be conservative and implement techniques such as sandboxing, encryption, and other access control mechanisms on all elements of the Grid. However the overhead caused by such a design may negate the advantages of Grid computing. This study examines the integration of the notion of "trust" into resource management such that the allocation process is aware of the security implications. We present a formal definition of trust and discuss a model for incorporating trust into Grid systems. As an example application of the ideas proposed, a resource management algorithm that incorporates trust is presented. The performance of the algorithm is examined via simulations.