Federation interoperability - dealing with heterogeneity

This position paper shall contribute to the discussion around heterogeneous resource federation models, strategies, and implementation scenarios. From the authors point of view, overcoming heterogeneity is the most challenging issue where not only the resources but also the federation mechanisms and implementations themselves are heterogeneous when federating across the boundaries of federations. Federation might take place on several abstraction layers where in the end different federations might agree to federate on yet another overarching level. This will ultimately lead towards a massive federated resource pool where users can assemble desired functionality across layers and administrative boundaries upon demand in a seamless manner. This vision is driving our work.