The Panlab infrastructure manages interconnection of different distributed testbeds to provide services to customers for various kind of testing. Such testing activities need support from a coordination center instantiated here as the so-called Panlab Office. This raises then the following main roles in the Panlab concept:
- Panlab Partner as the provider of infrastructural elements necessary to support the testing services. Partners are connected to the Panlab Office for offering functionality to the customers.
- Panlab customer utilizes a service provided by the Panlab office, (e.g. to carry out R&D activities, implement and evaluate new technologies, products, or services). They take benefit from the Panlab testing offerings.
- Panlab Office realizes a brokering service for the test facilities by coordinating
- the provision of the testing infrastructures and services
- the Panlab Partner test-sites
- the communication path between them and customers
The Panlab overall architecture relies on a number of additional architectural components including the Panlab search and composition engine called “Teagle” and a Panlab repository that stores testbed descriptions and testing results. In its most basic working mode, Panlab offers to go manually through the operational steps for the creation and realization of testing projects. Operations are then executed by personnel of the Panlab Office involving partners and customers. Thus, the testbed metadata held in the Panlab repository is entered manually as well as testing configurations, etc. But in a more elaborated working mode, intending to automate the Panlab related processes, the so-called Teagle tool will offer, (among other functionalities) an online form where the testbed representatives can enter the relevant data describing the testbed and its resources, and Panlab customers may then search the Panlab repository to find suitable resources needed for doing their tests.