The topology of the Grid: Connectivity
Summarizing some critical consequences:
the Network Monitoring topology depends on network
performance. In fact if the basic assumption -- internal better than
external -- fails, Network Monitoring returns partially invalid data;
the Characteristic (or metric) used to design the topology must
be one, therefore valid for all applications (unless we want a
topology for distributed computing, one for massive transfers, one for
playback applications etc.);
the Characteristic used to design the topology should be static
(like capacity),
or change only in response to exceptional events (failures,
reconfigurations);
internal paths should be monitored (not necessarily published),
in order to detect the occurrence of exceptional events.
Let's call Connectivity the metric choosen for
designing the topology of Network Monitoring.
Degrees of freedom in the choice of the Connectivity
function:
it is not necessarily a distance (triangular inequality etc.);
it may be a-dimensional (dB);
it may be not relevant for applications, and possibly unpublished.
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