The aim of this project is to use grid technology to create the efficient working environment AeroGrid, which specifically covers the following aspects:

• Flexible collaboration in virtual organisations as required by the respective project.

• Utilisation of current program versions, data and computing resources across multiple locations.
• Provision of external resources from several providers.
• Detailed traceability of the provenance of calculation results ("Data Provenance").
  

Two objectives are central to the design of AeroGrid:

• Practical usability, in particular for continued operation by the service provider after the project has come to a close.
  In detail, this requires:
  
  • that the software is flexibly useable by integrating it into users’ business processes. Access to external resources in particular should be seamless with regard to operation and authorisation.
  • that the software achieves long-term acceptance through ease of use.
  • that client capability and standardised interfaces provide flexible usability for a broad customer base.
• Transferability to similarly organised associations between research and industry.

AeroGrid allows several partners to collaborate on a data set without having to copy data or programs. Version issues and multiple data storage are thus avoided, and code specialists can provide support within the application more quickly and more effectively. AeroGrid serves as the collaboration platform for the further development of the simulation codes themselves, which generally takes place in close collaboration between DLR and universities.

AeroGrid enables industrial companies, and particularly SMBs, to perform calculations for which they themselves have insufficient computing capacity (e.g. transient flow simulations). In addition, it renders the labour-intensive installation and maintenance of simulation software by the companies themselves unnecessary.

The project partners have previously collaborated on various aeronautics research projects and are very interested in permanently switching to the grid environment now under development. The DLR Institute for Propulsion Technology’s current collaborations with its partners from industry and universities are reflected in the example application scenario of this project.

The main objective of the project is to create a service platform to support research collaborations between industry and public institutions that is both fit for practical use and as generic as possible. An important prerequisite is that project partner T-Systems SfR is already operating the resources used by the project partners at DLR as a service provider. T-Systems SfR’s involvement in the project not only ensures the platform's continued operation after the end of the project and the provision of additional resources (for example at HWW) for the network’s tasks, but also opens up the perspective of the service platform being used in other research associations. AeroGrid partner T-Systems is part of the Private Public Partnership hww GmbH (Höchstleistungsrechner für Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft Betriebsgesellschaft mbH, High-Performance Computers for Science and Industry), the business model of which provides a basis from which to develop this project. Universities, large-scale research institutions and industry are already successfully economically collaborating here.