A Grid-based Virtual Reactor: Parallel performance and adaptive load balancing

This paper addresses the problem of porting distributed parallel applications to the Grid. One of the challenges we address is the change from static homogeneous cluster environments to dynamic heterogeneous Grid resources. We introduce a generic technique for adaptive load balancing of parallel applications on heterogeneous resources and evaluate it using a case study application: a Virtual Reactor for simulation of plasma chemical vapour deposition. This application has a modular architecture with a number of loosely coupled components suitable for distribution over the Grid. It requires large parameter space exploration that allows using Grid resources for highthroughput computing. The Virtual Reactor contains a number of parallel solvers originally designed for homogeneous computer clusters that needed adaptation to the heterogeneity of the Grid resources. In this paper we study the performance of one of the core parallel solvers on the Grid, apply the developed technique for adaptive load balancing to the solver, evaluate the efficiency of this approach and outline an automated procedure for optimal utilization of heterogeneous Grid resources for high-performance parallel computing.