On the suitability of GRID service technology for distributed measurements based on digital signal processing algorithms

Digital signal processing algorithms are nowadays playing an increasingly more important role in most measurement processes. Furthermore, in the presence of poorly digitized data, reliable and repeatable measurement results can often be assured by complementing the adopted procedure with a suitable processing stage. The realization of a “collection” of measurement algorithms to be shared among researchers and technicians who work on similar topics should, thus, be advisable. Complex algorithms, however, suffer from critical drawbacks, in terms of computational burden and hardware resources, when applied to very long acquired records. The authors suggest the adoption of GRID Service as an innovative solution to provide researchers with a collection” of measurement algorithms and concurrently overcome the cited drawbacks. GRID Service is a new hardware/software approach that is capable of merging the higher computational performance of parallel GRID computing with key mechanisms and standards of Web Service. It would be very possible to migrate complex measurement algorithms into services that are available and accessible on the Internet. As an application example, the authors present a GRID Service mandated to power measurement in digital wireless communication systems.