Supporting Research and Collaboration through Integrated Middleware

该提案的重点是设计和构建NSF中间件倡议(NMI)，并将成为两个系统集成商之一，以及扮演服务提供商的角色。NMI计划将加快中间件功能和服务的开发，以支持国家研究和科学界，并将加快在互联网上部署和使用新的和新兴的应用程序。NMI计划的目的是使高级网络社区的成员能够合作开发和组装共同的网络服务和资源(中间件)，以优化应用程序的网络，并为所有用户的共同利益共享有限的资源。UCAID和它的EDUCAUSE和SURA合作伙伴将帮助定义、开发和部署NMI，并将跨三个不同的开发中间件应用程序和计划的流进行集成；一个流是由网格社区和网格中心开发和部署的中间件，另一个流是由研究机构和大学的Internet2社区正在研究的一组中间件计划，第三个流是由独立研究人员和社区开发的中间件。另外两项合作协议主要关注网格技术，然后与更大的学术和研究社区合作，而这项提议侧重于校园基础设施、学科和桌面，然后与网格技术等合作。为了使中间件成功应用于广泛的教育和研究社区，它必须具体解决：a)与校园基础设施的集成：核心中间件服务(如标识符、基本目录服务、第一级身份验证和授权)是将由校园基础设施提供的典型活动。b)与垂直的面向学科的应用程序和中间件集成；如工作台和工具集以及应用程序门户。C)桌面集成(即操作系统、用户界面、个人生产工具)，d)与NMIe的其他两个合作伙伴协调其活动和努力)与正在开发的高性能和网格技术的组件集成。

The proposal focuses on designing and building the NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI), and will be one of two System Integrators as well as playing a Service Provider role. The NMI program will expedite the development of middleware functions and services to support the national research and scientific community, and will also accelerate the deployment and use of new and emerging applications across the Internet. The purpose of the NMI program is to enable members of the advanced networking community to collaborate in developing and assembling common network services and resources (middleware) to optimize the network for applications and to share limited resources for the common good of all users. UCAID, along with its EDUCAUSE and SURA partners, will help define, develop and deploy the NMI and will integrate across three different streams of developing middleware applications and initiatives; one stream is the middleware being developed and deployed by the GRIDS community and the GRIDS Center, another stream is the set of middleware initiative being worked on by the Internet2 community of research institutions and universities, and a third stream is middleware which is being developed by independent researchers and communities.This proposal focuses on the deployment and support of this middleware architecture, and in particular is a focused outreach to the larger academic communities. While the other two Cooperative Agreements primarily focus on GRID technologies and then work with the larger academic and research community, this proposal focuses on the campus infrastructure, discipline and desktop and then works with the GRID technologies, among others. In order for middleware to be successful to the broad education and research community, it must specifically address;a) Integration with campus infrastructure: core middleware services (such as identifiers, basic directory services, and first levels of authentication and authorization) are typical activities that will be supplied by the campus infrastructure.b) Integration with vertical discipline-oriented applications and middleware; such as workbenches and tool sets and application portals. c) Integration at the desktop (i.e., operating systems, user interface, personal production tools), d) coordinate its activities and efforts with the other two partners of the NMIe) Integrate with the components of the developing high performance and GRID technologies.