Building Wireless Grids

The accelerating implementation and remarkable popularity of sophisticated mobile devices, including notebook computers, cellular phones, sensors, cameras, portable GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers, and wireless handhelds such as PDAs (personal digital assistants), contribute to development of wireless grids. Wireless grids feature a flexible and adaptable cyberinfrastructure that supports coordinated and economical access to distributed resources and next-generation applications and services. Generally, wireless grids are classified as ad hoc or standalone, and mixed-mode or hybrid. Ad hoc wireless grids enable diverse applications via MANETs (mobile ad hoc networks) and consist of mobile devices that operate in infrastructureless environments. Mobile network nodes process tasks and provide best effort delivery service to support wireless grid applications (Lima, Gomes, Ziviani, Endler, Soares, & Schulze, 2005). In the healthcare environment, for example, ad hoc wireless grids equipped with sensors monitor the status of critically ill patients and track the location of hospital equipment and supplies. Hybrid or mixed-mode wireless grids augment and extend the capabilities of wireline grids to remote locations; facilitate the shared use of resources and processing power; and consist of components ranging from supercomputers to distributed or edge devices such as very small satellite aperture terminals (VSATs) (Harrison & Taylor, 2006). This chapter features an introduction to factors contributing to the development of present-day wireless grids. Wireless grid technical fundamentals, specifications, and operations are examined. Security challenges associated with safeguarding wireless grids are reviewed. Finally, the distinctive characteristics of innovative wireless grid initiatives are explored and research trends in the wireless grid space are described.