Topology of Grid Transfer Services

Tom asked for a quick topology of the grid transfer services we (Dan, Felicia, Peter) know about and how we understand them.

1. Globus' GridFTP

A webservice-negotiated, secured FTP transfer of files. Reasonably fast, secure, but requires extra ports to be opened between two nodes that need to use it, and has no feedback on completion.

2. CA-GRID's BulkDataTransfer

CA-Grid's version of data transfer that uses GridFTP. Can be used with performance enhancements like parallel and striped data transfer.


3. CA-GRID's Transfer service

Transfers a file completely over Webservices. This means no extra ports need to be opened, but there is a limitation in how much data you can transport but you get more information about how much data has been transferred.

4. Globus' Reliable File Transfer

Puts an extra layer on GridFTP to allow for status checking and re-initiation of transfers should a connection be lost mid-transfers

Those are the ones we can think of. If we have left any out or you know of any other cool grid transfer services, leave a comment!