Enhancing grid security infrastructure to support mobile computing nodes

With the rapid development of the global information infrastructure, the use of virtual organization (VO) is gaining increasing importance as a model for studying business and organizational structures. The notion of VO is significant in that it could serve as a basic framework for implementing geographically distributed, cross-organizational application systems in a highly flexible manner. To further enhance the pervasiveness of VO, it is of great importance that participation of mobile computing nodes be supported. Thus, security is a critical issue due to the open nature of the wireless channels that provide connectivity to mobile devices. This paper discusses, from an application angle, the importance of supporting mobile devices in VO. It also discusses the design of security infrastructures that support mobile nodes in mission-specific applications. A simple grid security infrastructure that supports participation of mobile computing nodes is also proposed to illustrate the implementation feasibility of the infrastructure.