Jalapeno – Decentralized Grid Computing using Peer-to-Peer Technology

This report presents the Jalapeno grid computing system. Jalapeno is implemented using the Java programming language and uses peer-to-peer technology provided by the Project JXTA protocols. Project JXTA defines a set of communication protocols allowing any network connected device to communicate in a peer-to-peer manner. The system consists of manager, worker and task submitter hosts. The task submitter submits a collection of tasks, called a task bundle, to be processed by the system to a randomly chosen manager. The manager splits the bundle into a set of new, smaller bundles which are forwarded to equally many, randomly chosen, other managers which repeat the process. Each manager have a small (<100) number of connected workers. During task bundle splitting the manager will, depending on its current load, reserve a number of tasks to be processed by its workers. Workers return the results to their managers which will send them to the task submitter. The system is self configuring: hosts volunteering their computing power will at first become workers only but will eventually become managers if they can not find and connect to another manager within a certain time. The system offers a framework for the development of applications solving embarrassingly parallel type of problems but can also be used for other kinds of problems. The framework automatically splits the problem into smaller sub-problems to be distributed to workers. Furthermore, the system makes it extremely easy for users to participate and volunteer their computing power through the use of Sun’s Java Web Start technology.