Efficient data access for Open Modeling Interface (OpenMI)components

Data management for linked (or coupled) simulationmodels can be a challenging task when deploying togrid environments. In cases where the linked models conformto a standard interface for data input and output, generalpurposedata providers can be used to supply data to themodels from online sources, reducing the complexity of thedeployment. We have developed a data provider componentthat conforms to the Open Modeling Interface (OpenMI)that is suitable for use on computational grids. Throughthe application of three techniques, caching, prefetching,and pipelining, the component efficiently retrieves datafrom standards-based web services and delivers the datato OpenMI-compliant models. Each technique resulted invarying performance improvements both within a singlesimulation and across multiple simulations concurrentlyexecuting on a cluster. In this paper we report on the designof the component and the evaluation of its performance.