Global Grid computing consists in the utilization of computational and storage resources distributed in Wide Area Networks. This presentation overviews the ongoing efforts in the "Grid.it" project for implementing grid network services able to guarantee the required Quality of Service (QoS) to global grid applications. An effort is done within the project to integrate provisioning/resilience mechanisms at the application layer with those available at the network layer. A case study in this direction is presented that utilizes different methods to guarantee fault tolerance to grid applications against specific hardware and software failures.

The aim of this talk is to introduce the Telecommunications Technological Center of Catalonia (CTTC), a non-profit research and development center devoted to basic and applied research related to communications systems. CTTC has five R&D areas; Radio Communications, Access Technology, Optical Networking, IP Technologies and Communications Subsystems. This talk provides insight into the Optical Networking Area, giving and overview of the current research lines (optical intelligence, optical management, optical characterization, and optical packet switching), publications, people involved, etc, paying special attention on ADRENALINE testbed, and hybrid ASON/GMPLS platform that combines both real and emulated OXC/OADMs and links developed at CTTC R&D labs.

The talk presents WONDER, a WDM, ring-based, optical packet network suitable for a high-capacity Metro environment, being studied and prototyped at Politecnico di Torino. We present some alternatives in the node design, and elaborate on the effectiveness of optics with respect to electronics, trying to identify an optimal mix of the two technologies. We present the design and prototyping of a simple but efficient access control protocol, based upon the equivalence of the proposed network architecture with input-buffering packet switches. We discuss the problem of node allocation to WDM channels, which can be viewed as a particular optical network design problem. We finally briefly illustrate the fault protection properties of the WONDER architecture.