The Representation and Computation of QoS Preference with Its Applications in Grid Computing Environments

In Grid computing environment, quality of service (QoS) provisioning must be provided to the end users on the basis of their specific requirements. This paper proposes in a first step QoS attributes for Grid applications. In this matter, a mix of quantitative and qualitative parameters have to be considered. In the context, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique [1] is a possible approach to formulate the QoS requirements of the users for Grid services. In order to apply QoS preference to actual application, we introduce a QoS function and a metric for user's satisfaction degrees. These both tools can be used as an evaluation criterion by the user. Subsequently, an algorithm of service selection considering the user's QoS preference is presented. Our empirical studies indicate that the application can reliably select the optimal service for users.