Provenance Implementation in a Scientific Simulation Environment

Abstract

Abstract. Many of today's engineering applications for simulations are lacking machanisms to trace the generation of results and the underlying processes. Especially computations conducted in distribued computing environments as Grids are lacking suitable means to keep track of used resources. Trust of engineers in results produced within distribued simulation environments is very limited without this information. This paper will demonstrate how trust and confidence in simulation results could be achived for engineering applications. It will highlight the backgrounds of the application, of provenance recording, the mapping to the application, and finally the implementation of provenance awareness for the application. Additionally it will present examples of analyzing the information stored to be of further use to the engineer.

A model of process documentation to determine provenance in mash-ups

“…The recording component's implementation and performance has also been presented elseswhere Simmhan et al 2006]. Likewise, the querying component has been evaluated in a number of domains including including organ transplant management [Kifor et al 2006], aerospace simulation [Kloss and Schreiber 2006], fault tolerant systems [Townend et al 2005], and bioinformatics .…”

“…This model facilitates the sharing of process documentation between institutions; it allows for the development of tools that work across domains and applications and allows for the creation of future-proof process documentation by independent application components running on a variety of platforms. These properties have been evidenced by the model's use in a variety of domains, including healthcare [Kifor et al 2006], fault tolerant systems [Townend et al 2005], aerospace engineering [Kloss and Schreiber 2006], and bioinformatics ].…”

PrIMe

“…In this paper, we have given examples from two case studies in bioinformatics (ACE) and medicine (OTM). In addition, we and our collaborators have applied PrIMe to an aerospace application that allows engineers to conduct extensive and detailed simulations on the design of new fighter aircraft [Kloss and Schreiber 2006]. Other examples where PrIMe has been applied is in agent-based electronic healthcare records ], scientific workflows , an ecological simulation system ] and a Brain Atlas Imaging application ].…”

“…a record of their provenance, may be treated with some scepticism by those who study and view them. This same concept of provenance, although usually referred to in the context of physical objects, such as works of art or manufacturing [Kloss and Schreiber 2006], may also be applied to data and information generated within computer applications. Knowing the provenance of data enables its consumers to be more confident of its validity and fitness-for-purpose, and provides understanding of how the data came to be as it is, thus creating confidence that the application containing and using the data is performing as expected.…”

Requirements for a Provenance Visualization Component

“…TENT [8] is a software integration and workflow management system that simplifies work by building up simulation process chains in distributed environments. The visualization concepts provide a graphical way for evaluation of the workflows regarding increased quality and trust of the outcome [9].…”