Evaluating and Enhancing the Use of the GridFTP Protocol for Efficient Data Transfer on the Grid

Grid applications often require large data transfers along heterogeneous networks having different latencies and bandwidths, therefore efficient support for data transfer is a key issue in Grid computing. The paper presents a performance evaluation of the GridFTP protocol along some typical network scenarios, giving indications and rules of thumb useful to select the “best” GridFTP parameters. Following some recent approaches that make use of experimental results to optimize data transfers, the paper presents a simple algorithm that suggests the “best” GridFTP parameters for a required transfer session on the basis of historical file transfer data.