Definition of Meta Service

We define a concept of Meta services which describes a way of abstracting and mapping a workflow to a service in computational Grid environments. By using Meta services, a workflow in a Grid environment could adapt various service concepts such as Grid services, Web services, and portal services without modification to the workflow. And the converted Meta services could be shared and reused by users. Furthermore, historical performance data could be included in the Meta service, making effective execution of the workflow possible.

Meta service discovery is used to find and select a service discovery mechanism by context. As multiple service discovery mechanisms (SDM) proliferate across various administrative domains, mobile devices will require a way to locate and select the appropriate mechanism according to the context of the mobile device, such as network domain, location, protocol, and application. We define meta service discovery and explain the motivation for it. We describe our results in building a meta service discovery capability on three existing DHTs and integrated into a new broadcast-oriented SDM. Finally, we analyze the sizing and distribution of DHT entries, including hash distribution of SDM entries according to a geographic population-density scheme.