High Performance and Dependable Computing Systems

Research lines:

Parallel and Distributed Computing Platforms
Multi-tier Architectures
Transactional Systems
Virtualization and Cloud Computing
Performability Models

Members:
Bruno Ciciani, Francesco Quaglia.

PhD Students:
Pierangelo Di Sanzo, Roberto Palmieri, Roberto Vitali.

Post Docs:
Paolo Romano, Andrea Santoro.

The High Performance and Dependable Computing Systems research group is focused on differentiated aspects of computing and service oriented applications and platforms, spanning from theory to modeling, design and implementation. Significant results have been achieved in

(i) the definition of frameworks and protocols for dependability in large scale infrastructures, with particular attention to application contexts entailing manipulation of data within (atomic) distributed transactions;

(ii) the design and implementation of high performace computing platforms, with particular interest to discrete event simulation platforms conforming to both proprietary and standardized protocol stacks;

(iii) the definition and validation of accurate performance and dependability models for components/sub-systems forming the core of the aforementioned computing environments.

The vision characterizing the research of this group is based on a strong synergy between theoretical studies and
design/development techniques aimed at bridging theory and practice by accurately assessing the viability of research results in environments and application contexts based on current technologies, and in those that can be foreseen via emerging technological trends. Up to now, various open source packages have been released as a concrete indication of the effectiveness of the aforementioned approach.

Several research challenges can be easily envisaged along the paths of Quality-of-Service (QoS) oriented design of systems, as well as the design of autonomic systems embedding self* properties aimed at ensuring/guaranteeing/achieving pre-determined performance and/or dependability levels.
The container hosting and framing these challenges will include both traditional system organizations and innovative computing environments relying on systematic use of infrastructure virtualization approaches, such as cloud computing. Further, we plan to target innovative programming models and paradigms, such as concurrent programming based (a) on updates relying on the (software) transactional memory paradigm, and (b) on transparent and automatic techniques supporting reverse computing schemes as a mean for maintaining causal consistency. The latter will complement the wide set of results already achieved in the context of transparent and efficient (volatile) log/restore schemes in support of both fault-tolerance and optimistic synchronization.

Projects:

ARISTOS: Autonomic ReplicatIon of Software TransactiOnal memorieS
January 2010 - December 2012. PTDC Portugal/Italy Bilateral Project

INSYEME: INtegrates SYstem for EMErgencies
November 2007 - October 2010 MIUR - FIRB

WEBMINDS: Wide ScalE Broadband MIddleware for Network Distributed Services
November 2002 - October 2006 Services MIUR - FIRB

PERF: Performance Evaluation of Complex Systems: Techniques, Methodologies and Tools
November 2002 - October 2006 Services MIUR - FIRB