Taming lambda's for applications; the OptIPuter system software

We are developing application abstractions called distributed virtual computers (DVC), which simplify application use of dynamic optical resources. DVC descriptions naturally express communication and computation resource requirements, enabling coordinated resource binding. We describe initial experience with DVCs and how they provide an integrating architecture for lambda grids. The OptIPuter project is a large multiinstitutional project led by Larry Smarr at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Tom DeFanti at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Other software efforts include optical signaling software, visualization, distributed configuration management, and two driving applications involving petabytes of data. We are also constructing a high-speed OptIPuter testbed.