High performance deep packet inspection on multi-core platform

Deep packet inspection (DPI) provides the ability to perform quality of service (QoS) and Intrusion Detection on network packets. But since the explosive growth of Internet, performance and scalability issues have been raised due to the gap between network and end-system speeds. This article describles how a desirable DPI system with multi-gigabits throughput and good scalability should be like by exploiting parallelism on network interface card, network stack and user applications. Connection-based parallelism, affinity-based scheduling and lock-free data structure are the main technologies introduced to alleviate the performance and scalability issues. A common DPI application L7-Filter is used as an example to illustrate the applicaiton level parallelism

Checkpointing as a Service in Heterogeneous Cloud Environments

A non-invasive, cloud-agnostic approach is demonstrated for extending existing cloud platforms to include checkpoint-restart capability. Most cloud platforms currently rely on each application to provide its own fault tolerance. A uniform mechanism within the cloud itself serves two purposes: (a) direct support for long-running jobs, which would otherwise require a custom fault-tolerant mechanism for each application; and (b) the administrative capability to manage an over-subscribed cloud by temporarily swapping out jobs when higher priority jobs arrive. An advantage of this uniform approach is that it also supports parallel and distributed computations, over both TCP and InfiniBand, thus allowing traditional HPC applications to take advantage of an existing cloud infrastructure. Additionally, an integrated health-monitoring mechanism detects when long-running jobs either fail or incur exceptionally low performance, perhaps due to resource starvation, and proactively suspends the job. The cloud-agnostic feature is demonstrated by applying the implementation to two very different cloud platforms: Snooze and OpenStack. The use of a cloud-agnostic architecture also enables, for the first time, migration of applications from one cloud platform to another.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, appears in CCGrid, 201

Difusion of Free/Opensource Software as Innovation: A Case Study of METU

In this research, the diffusion of free and open source software (FOSS) on desktop PCs at Middle East Technical University in Ankara (METU) is investigated within the framework of the diffusion of innovation theory. This work aims to propose some policies for the migration to FOSS on desktop PCs at METU. The research is conducted through two similar web-based surveys. The first survey was held during 27-28 September 2003 after the examination of exemption for the IS100 course. The second survey was held between 23 March and 24 May 2004 in the whole of the METU campus. This survey was open to all students and academic and non-academic staff with a METU network account. There were 402 participants in the first survey and 1224 in the second. As expected, Microsoft OS rules the desktop PCs within the METU campus. According to the surveys, there is a rather large PC user base which could potentially migrate to GNU/Linux system. In addition to a large amount of data, it has been found out that a migration to FOSS is welcomed greatly by the users if the process is explained on the basis of public economic gains. However personal migration is still difficult if the user is left alone to install any new OS. Activities which will eventually increase the awareness for FOSS at METU, change in the curriculum of the IS100 course, collaboration among METU FOSS users and creation of a software catalog with possible FOSS equivalent for METU courses are some of the propositions which will eventually help the migration process. Furthermore, different innovation-decision models are discussed based on the research findings.

Key Success Factors for the Project of Migrating to the Open Office Suite

The penetration and performance of free software is raising issues regarding its true capacities and, particularly, the desirability of choosing it. It is from this perspective that the Linux Migration Project was launched within the Sous-secrétariat à l’inforoute gouvernementale et aux resources informationnelles (SSIGRI). Its accompaniment by a team of researchers from CIRANO is intended to assess the risks and identify the conditions for success. The purpose of this report is to identify and assess the key success factors of this project. Principal results An analysis of the project’s characteristics has enabled its specific features to be identified and the analytical tool to be adapted. From this approach, analysis of the key success factors has revealed that the pilot project substantially contributes to the reflection about migrating to free software. It demonstrates that, despite medium to high risk exposure, such a migration can be controlled. This is supported by considerable managerial ability and the reliability of the technology. Finally, it draws attention to a major problem that arises in a migration context: the absence of a shared interoperability framework, as is seen in two out of three parameters. The assessment grid of the project’s key success factors (Table 1, p. 6) allows the following to be ascertained: The importance of the Risk Assessment and Monitoring factor during the software implementation process. Its estimated value of 3.7, in particular due to the absence of a common interoperability framework and the impossibility of remedying it within the context of the project, lowers the average of the Processes success factor, which is 4.8/7. Managerial skills are high (6.2/7), and the values found for this factor’s components are generally comparable. Technology is assessed at 5.5/7; this parameter covers a contrasted reality: The technology’s intrinsic characteristics (independence with regard to software and publishers, cost controls, data continuity), assessed at 6.6/7, raise this ratio. The technology’s performance, assessed at 4.5/7, lowers this ratio. It implicates both the intrinsically high quality of the software tested, and problems due to the context of the pilot project—characterized, as it was, by the absence of a migration plan (choice of services/people to migrate) and to the absence of a common interoperability framework.

The Economics of Free and Open Source Software: Contributions to a Government Policy on Open Source Software

This document seeks to lay the groundwork for a government policy on free and open source software. We briefly characterize the extent of the open source software phenomenon. We analyse its pros and cons for the government, in its role as both an engine of economic development and a large user of information and communications technologies. We conclude with a series of recommendations for the government, as both “economic and industrial policy maker” and “large user.”free software, intellectual property rights, free source code, open source code, free operating system, GPL licence, BSD licence, innovation, forking,