Secure Space Computing with Exertions

Exertion-oriented space computing is a valuable advance in distributed and parallel computing seeing as it abstracts out several major problems in distributed computing, such as load balancing and mutual exclusion. The main problem with space computing is that of security due to the fact that exertion spaces are inherently public and ad hoc, thus making it difficult to implement secure groups. The location independent group key interactive management framework presents a federated methodology and protocol for group management that is secure, scalable, and modifiable for the metacomputing exertion-oriented space computing environment. The framework does so through the use of a group establishment protocol, authorization and authentication services, high level cryptography, and persistent group information storage. The SORCER computing grid is used as a validation case for the framework and is presented in this paper.