Regulatory issues for mobile grid computing in the European Union

Abstract

While regulatory issues on telecommunications and data handling have been established in a generic and service-neutral manner, typically independent of detailed technical applications or application domains, the uprise of new technology and new systems requires always a revisiting of those regulations. Thus, since the new trend of mobile grids — including an integrated traditional grid computing, knowledge handling, and multi-domain dynamics — has started most recently, a careful analysis of regulatory effects within the European Union (EU) is highly essential for potential new stakeholders. Therefore, this paper summarizes the most relevant regulatory aspects for mobile grid systems on a EU level, such as contractual agreements, security, and data protection. In this respect, the eCommunications framework serves as the starting point to assess relevance of existing EU regulations. In turn, mobile grid characteristics and respective roles are depicted. This is followed by presenting the eCommunications framework. Finally, those existing regulations are evaluated on how well they reflect relevant aspects of service provisioning in a mobile grid.