Java, Peer-to-Peer, and Accountability: Building Blocks for Distributed Cycle Sharing

The increased popularity of grid systems and cycle sharing across organizations leads to the need for scalable systems that provide facilities to locate resources, to be fair in the use of those resources, and to allow untrusted applications to be safely executed using those resources. This paper describes a prototype of such a system, where a peer-to-peer (p2p) network is used to locate and allocate resources; a Java Virtual Machine is used to allow applications to be safely hosted, and for their progress to be monitored by the submitter; and a novel distributed credit system supports accountability among providers and consumers of resources to use the system fairly. We provide experimental data showing that cheaters are quickly identified and purged from the system, and that the overhead of monitoring jobs is effectively zero.