Grid Characteristics and Uses: A Grid Definition

This paper discusses the concept of grid towards achieving a complete definition using main grid characteristics and uses found in literature. Ten definitions extracted from main literature sources have been studied allowing the extraction of grid characteristics while grid uses are defined in terms of the different types of application support provided by grids. A grid definition is proposed using these characteristics and uses. This definition may be very useful to determine the limits of the grid concept as well as to explore new application fields in grid computing. In this sense, the extracted characteristics are employed to determine the potential benefits a grid infrastructure may provide to Computer Supported Collaborative Learning applications.