On The Integration of Telecommunication Measurement Devices Within The Framework Of An Instrumentation Grid

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The possibility to perform distributed measurements, by means of complex tele-laboratory structures, is gaining momentum as a highly relevant aspect in numerous areas, including scientific research in general, environmental monitoring, distance education and training of staff operating over a vast territorial extension. Grid computing architectures or, more generally, service oriented architectures (SOA), viewed as platforms for the integration of distributed resources, play an ever-increasingly significant role, as witnessed by the large number of projects funded by the European Union (EU) on this and related topics. This role is no longer limited to the management of computational resources, and it extends nowadays to the integration of measurement instrumentation and large-scale distributed data acquisition platforms. In such a context, the functionality offered by the grid architecture allows unified control, maintenance, calibration and utilization of “traditional” instrumentation and laboratory equipment, as well as of remote data acquisition probes, by offering the user common standard interfaces and working environments. In this framework, the chapter introduces the design and performance evaluation of a test bench for telecommunication measurement instrumentation, interacting with the grid via the GRIDCC (Grid-enabled Remote Instrumentation with Distributed Control and Computation) middleware.