The IceT Framework for Metacomputing

IceT is based on the premise that distributed computations involve resources, processes, data, and users, and that secure yet exible mechanisms for cooperation and communication between these entities is the key to metacomputing infrastructures. The IceT computing environment is a dynamically changing virtual machine which is constructed by assembling multiple hosts or by merging of, or recursive aggregation of existing virtual machines. Merging of these virtual machines results in multiple time-shared virtual platforms. Upon these combined resources, data and processes are mutually accessible, trans-ferable and executable amongst multiple users. This design permits wider access to computational resources and programming libraries and enables better workload allocation without compromising owner security or priority. This paper discusses the advantages of such a design and how they are implemented in the IceT project.