Re-designing Dynamic Content Delivery in the Light of a Virtualized Infrastructure

We explore the opportunities and design options enabled by novel SDN and NFV technologies, by re-designing a dynamic Content Delivery Network (CDN) service. Our system, named MOSTO, provides performance levels comparable to that of a regular CDN, but does not require the deployment of a large distributed infrastructure. In the process of designing the system, we identify relevant functions that could be integrated in the future Internet infrastructure. Such functions greatly simplify the design and effectiveness of services such as MOSTO. We demonstrate our system using a mixture of simulation, emulation, testbed experiments and by realizing a proof-of-concept deployment in a planet-wide commercial cloud system.Comment: Extended version of the paper accepted for publication in JSAC special issue on Emerging Technologies in Software-Driven Communication - November 201

A novel intermediary framework for dynamic edge service composition

Multimedia content, user mobility and heterogeneous client devices require novel systems that are able to support ubiquitous access to the Web resources. In this scenario, solutions that combine flexibility, efficiency and scalabilityin offering edge services for ubiquitous access are needed. We propose an original intermediary framework, namely Scalable Intermediary Software Infrastructure (SISI), which is able to dynamically compose edge services on the basis of user preferences and device characteristics. The SISI framework exploits a per-user profiling mechanism, where each user can initiallyset his/her personal preferences through a simple Web interface, and the system is then able to compose at run-time the necessary components. The basic framework can be enriched through new edge services that can be easily implemented through a programming model based on APIs and internal functions. Our experiments demonstrate that flexibility and edge service composition do not affect the system performance. We show that this framework is able to chain multiple edge services and to guarantee stable performance

DISco: a Distributed Information Store for network Challenges and their Outcome

We present DISco, a storage and communication middleware designed to enable distributed and task-centric autonomic control of networks. DISco is designed to enable multi-agent identification of anomalous situations -- so-called "challenges" -- and assist coordinated remediation that maintains degraded -- but acceptable -- service level, while keeping a track of the challenge evolution in order to enable human-assisted diagnosis of flaws in the network. We propose to use state-of-art peer-to-peer publish/subscribe and distributed storage as core building blocks for the DISco service

Internet Predictions

More than a dozen leading experts give their opinions on where the Internet is headed and where it will be in the next decade in terms of technology, policy, and applications. They cover topics ranging from the Internet of Things to climate change to the digital storage of the future. A summary of the articles is available in the Web extras section

How to Certify Machine Learning Based Safety-critical Systems? A Systematic Literature Review

Context: Machine Learning (ML) has been at the heart of many innovations over the past years. However, including it in so-called 'safety-critical' systems such as automotive or aeronautic has proven to be very challenging, since the shift in paradigm that ML brings completely changes traditional certification approaches. Objective: This paper aims to elucidate challenges related to the certification of ML-based safety-critical systems, as well as the solutions that are proposed in the literature to tackle them, answering the question 'How to Certify Machine Learning Based Safety-critical Systems?'. Method: We conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of research papers published between 2015 to 2020, covering topics related to the certification of ML systems. In total, we identified 217 papers covering topics considered to be the main pillars of ML certification: Robustness, Uncertainty, Explainability, Verification, Safe Reinforcement Learning, and Direct Certification. We analyzed the main trends and problems of each sub-field and provided summaries of the papers extracted. Results: The SLR results highlighted the enthusiasm of the community for this subject, as well as the lack of diversity in terms of datasets and type of models. It also emphasized the need to further develop connections between academia and industries to deepen the domain study. Finally, it also illustrated the necessity to build connections between the above mention main pillars that are for now mainly studied separately. Conclusion: We highlighted current efforts deployed to enable the certification of ML based software systems, and discuss some future research directions.Comment: 60 pages (92 pages with references and complements), submitted to a journal (Automated Software Engineering). Changes: Emphasizing difference traditional software engineering / ML approach. Adding Related Works, Threats to Validity and Complementary Materials. Adding a table listing papers reference for each section/subsection

Design and implementation of a programmable middleware

This thesis presents a languagebased, safely programmable middleware for the simple, highlevel, and expressive construction of composable open systems. The middleware provides services for pickling, components, and distribution. All are based on a minimal set of primitives and syntax extensions, such that they otherwise can be completely implemented and customized in a highlevel language with automatic memory management, exception handling, higherorder functions, futures, and dynamic types. Using this approach, it becomes possible to describe the complete architecture of the middleware system, and to leverage the language\u27;s safety features in the middleware itself.Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt eine Programmiersprachenbasierte programmierbare Middleware, die eine einfache Konstruktion offener Systeme auf hoher Ebene ermöglicht. Die Middleware bietet Dienste für Pickling, Komponenten und Verteilung an, die allesamt auf einem minimalen Satz an Primitiven und Syntaxerweiterungen beruhen. Der Hauptteil der Dienste kann so in einer höheren Programmiersprache mit automatischer Speicherverwaltung, Ausnahmebehandlung, Prozeduren höherer Ordnung, Futures und dynamischen Typen realisiert werden. Dies ermöglicht es, die Architektur der Middleware vollständig zu beschreiben, sowie die Sicherheitsgarantien der höheren Programmiersprache in der Implementierung der Middleware selbst zu nutzen

Tracking the Economic Value of Embedded Digital Technology: A Supply-side Methodology

This methodological report indicates a way forward in estimating the economic role of embedded digital technology (EDT) from the supply side. We propose a more holistic approach to the production and diffusion of ICT and we develop the foundation of a methodology that would ultimately take into account the overall use and impact of embedded digital technology in the productive process. Technological, economic and statistical arguments support our approach. Current technological development no longer accommodates clear borderlines between ICT and non-ICT goods or between general purpose computers and embedded digital devices. The economics and statistics of ICT reveal the complex and multi-channel contributions of ICT to the productive process. The methodology we propose uses the input-output method known as backward linkages to give a measure of EDT as ICT consumption generated along the value chain by the demand of final goods. We give an account of the methodological limitations of applying the method and an overview of data availability and shortages for its implementation. A simplified application of the methodology to German data is used as an example.JRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ