Irene Zhang, Microsoft Research
Title: The Demikernel Datapath Architecture for Microsecond-scale Datacenter Systems
Abstract:
Datacenter systems and I/O devices now run at single-digit microsecond latencies, requiring nanosecond-scale operating systems. Traditional kernel-based operating systems impose an unaffordable overhead, so recent kernel-bypass OSes (e.g., Arrakis, Ix) and libraries (e.g., Caladan, eRPC) eliminate the OS kernel from the I/O datapath. However, these systems do not offer a general-purpose datapath OS replacement that meet the needs of microsecond-scale systems. As a result, while kernel-bypass hardware is widely available in the datacenter, it is not widely used.
This talk summarizes Demikernel, a flexible datapath OS and architecture designed for heterogenous kernel-bypass devices and microsecond-scale datacenter systems. Demikernel supports a variety of kernel-bypass hardware, including DPDK, RDMA, as well as software bypass solutions like io_uring. To support microsecond-scale operation, Demikernel includes a new nanosecond-scale TCP stack, written in Rust and proposes new memory management, CPU scheduling and network abstractions. Demikernel is currently used by Bing and will go into production with Azure services later this year.
Biography
Irene Zhang is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research. Her work focuses on datacenter operating systems and distributed systems, especially making new datacenter hardware technologies more widely usable by highly-demanding datacenter applications. Irene completed her PhD in 2017 at the University of Washington, where her PhD thesis focused on distributed systems that span mobile devices and cloud servers. Her thesis work received the ACM SIGOPS Dennis Ritchie doctoral dissertation award and the UW Allen School William Chan Memorial dissertation award. Before her PhD, Irene was a member of the virtual machine monitor group at VMware, where she worked on memory resource management and virtual machine checkpointing.
Fabio Kon, University of São Paulo
Title: The Role of Research Software and Research Software Engineers in Science
Abstract:
In the 21st Century, research software has become a ubiquitous tool for scientific research in all fields. It has accelerated the advancement of science and is now an essential means of assuring the reproducibility of results and promoting open science. Fostering the development of robust and sustainable research software is key to building a solid international infrastructure for the science of the future. Research Software Engineers (RSE) are professionals who ensure the quality and robustness of research software. Nevertheless, it is often overlooked by most research institutions and funding agencies, leading to a waste of resources, duplication of work, and lack of long-term sustainability, compromising the advancement of science. In particular, in Cloud Networking research, RSEs can play a crucial role in helping to produce quality software that can be reused across the entire research community. In this case, the RSE must possess a few specific skills. In this keynote, I will give an overview of the current state of Research Software and RSEs, discussing the progress that the scientific community has made so far as well as the challenges that lie ahead of us.
Biography
Fabio Kon is a Full Professor of Computer Science at the University of São Paulo (IME-USP). His research interests span the fields of Distributed Systems, Software Engineering, and Applied Data Science. Prof. Kon is highly involved in education and promoting best practices in software engineering, research software, open-source software, data science, and evidence-based policymaking. He is a member of the Brazilian Computer Society and an ACM Distinguished Scientist. Fabio plays the vibraphone and loves Jazz and Brazilian music.
Roch H. Glitho, Concordia University
Title: Next Generation Clouds for 6G Networks and Beyond
Abstract:
The end-user applications offered by telecommunication networks are becoming more and more sophisticated. The Ultra Reliable Low Latency applications such as remote robotic surgery promised by the fifth-generation networks (5G) being currently deployed are for instance a far cry from the basic voice call and SMS offered by the second-generation networks (2G). Even more advanced applications such as immersive holographic type – communications based – applications are expected from the sixth-generation networks (6G) that will be deployed during the next decade. Several paradigms are at the heart of these networks: Pre-IP for 2G, All-IP for 3G and 4G, and clouds for 5G and Beyond.
The shift to clouds for 5G is motivated by cloud features like scalability, elasticity and efficient usage of resources. These features have the potential of successfully tackling the everlasting overprovisioning and inflexibility challenges of telecommunication networks. However, the clouds that are at the heart of the 5G networks being currently deployed can hardly meet the expectations. Requirements are now emerging for 6G, and they are far more stringent than their 5G counterparts. There is no doubt that current clouds will fall short. This call for next generation clouds.
This keynote speech will start by introducing today’s clouds in 5G, with an emphasis on the shortcomings. This will be followed by a discussion of the emerging 6G use cases and the challenges they pose on the subjacent clouds. We will end the speech by sketching a vision of these next generation clouds.
Biography
Roch H. Glitho has obtained a PhD in tele-informatics (KTH – Sweden) and Masters degrees in business economics (University of Grenoble – France), pure mathematics (University of Geneva, Switzerland) and computer science (University of Geneva). He is a Full Professor of Networking and Telecommunications at Concordia University, Montreal, where he currently holds the Ericsson / ENCQOR Senior Industrial Research Chair on cloud and edge for 5G and Beyond. In the past, he has held a Canada Research Chair and has worked for Ericsson Research as Principal Engineer/Expert. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) and has previously served as IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, Editor-In-Chief of IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials journal, and Editor-In-Chief of IEEE Communications Magazine. He has been granted more than two dozen patents, and has more than a dozen currently under evaluation. He has widely published in areas such as cloud/edge/fog, 5G and beyond, Internet of Things (IoT), and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
Raouf Boutaba, University of Waterloo
Title: Automation in the era of cloud-native telecommunication networks
Abstract:
Contemporary telecommunication networks are moving towards a flexible, agile, and scalable network architecture. These characteristics can be achieved by using cloud-native principles, in which virtualized network functions can be individually deployed and scaled on demand. In this talk, I will begin by discussing the vital role played by cloud data centers in the evolution of telecommunication networks to support emerging use cases. I will then describe the challenges and opportunities that cloudification brings to network automation, including network monitoring, fault and performance management.
Biography
Raouf Boutaba is a University Professor and the Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Before that he served as the Associate Dean Research (2016-2019) and the Associate Dean Innovation and Partnership (2019-2020) in the Faculty of Mathematics. He held an INRIA International Chair in France (2017-2022) and currently hold a University Research Chair at the University of Waterloo. His research interests are in the areas of network and service management. He has published extensively in these areas and received a number of journal and conference best paper awards, including the 2024 CNOM Test of Time Award. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (2007-2010), and served as the Editor-in- Chief of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (2018-2021). He received several awards and recognitions, including the Silver Core from IFIP, the Hal Sobol, the Salah Aidarous, the Joe LociCero, the Dan Stokesbury, and the Donald W. McLellan awards from the IEEE Communications Society, and the McNaugthon Gold Medal from IEEE Canada. He is fellow of the IEEE, the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Canada.
