Abstract
Grid computing has recently become an important paradigm for managing computationally demanding applications, composed of a collection of services. The dynamic discovery of services, and the selection of a particular service instance providing the best value out of the discovered alternatives, poses a complex multi-attribute n:m allocation decision problem, which is often solved using a central resource broker. However, decentralized approaches to this service allocation problem represent a much more flexible alternative, thus promising improvements in the efficiency of the resulting negotiations and service allocations. This paper compares centralized and decentralized service allocation mechanisms in Grid market scenarios according to a defined set of metrics. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007.