Currently, there are three open positions:
PhD position(1): Fluid Modelling of Distributed System in Swarms of Cyber-Physical Systems (applications on nanosats/drones/autonomous underwater vehicles)
PhD position(2): Designing high-performance techniques for mobile computing (applications on IoT/drones)
PhD position: Fluid Modelling of Distributed System in Swarms of Cyber-Physical Systems (applications on nanosats/drones/autonomous underwater vehicles)
Keywords: Distributed algorithms; queueing network model; parallel computing; computational fluid dynamics; edge computing; dynamic, mobile networks; differential equations; simulation
Context
Swarm of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)[1] offer novel
opportunities in many emerging application domains, such
automated surveillance systems with swarm of drones, dynamic
earth observation with (nano-)satellite constellations, deep
underwater exploration with swarms of unmanned vehicle[2].
However, CPS swarms introduce multiple non-trivial challenges
for both system designers and operators, particularly in terms
of complexity and cost of the development life-cycle. In this context, this project aims at
providing a novel fluid-model-based methodology to assist system
designers and operators in building and evaluating the
performance of new distributed system in CPS swarms. To foster
the initial research efforts in fluid modelling and simulation,
the target methodology will leverage and extend the software
library and framework recently developed by B. Chianca in his
doctoral project[3].
Our approach relies on a macroscopic modelling (or fluid) of the
dynamics of messages exchanged in a network of mobile nodes,
computed as the limit over a large number of exchanged messages
per unit of time. This approach, which is based on an asymptotic
analysis of network messages dynamics, was successfully extended
from the doctoral project of A. De Cecco[4], who proposed a fluid
modelling of avionics AFDX networks. Such techniques provide
simplified yet relevant design of distributed mobile systems
that permit greatly reducing the simulation run-time when compared to
state-of-the-art simulators[3]. We argue that fluid modelling of
distributed system in CPS swarms affords system designers and
operators valuable opportunities to promptly verify properties
and to estimate the performance of distributed services in
mobile, dynamic environments[5].
Proposed research
In this project, we intend to extend our current methodology in order to enable more accurate and flexible distributed systems simulations and performance evaluation reporting in the face of continuously evolving network topologies. For instance, we are particularly interested in accurately reproducing the dynamic performance variations of mobile, distributed inter-processes communications without compromising the overall simulation run-time. The primary goal of research on improving this modelling methodology is to assist not only the design of novel, fault-tolerant distributed systems but also to contribute to enhance resource allocation and mobility within a CPS swarm. Therefore, this study will consider the entire life-cycle of distributed services on CPS swarms, including the development, planning and operations[6]. Consequently, we will pursue the following specific goals in this project:
- Contribute to verify properties of distributed systems w.r.t. mission level planning of motion and navigation of CPS swarms;
- Contribute to the macroscopic modelling of the network dynamics due to unwanted swarm events such as system reconfigurations or different, challenging failures models (including byzantine failures);
- Promptly estimate the performance of distributed systems in CPS swarm in an efficient manner, contributing therefore to the design, planning and operations of emerging services for CPS swarms;
- Develop and release a stable, open source software library and framework for accurate, lightweight simulations of emerging distributed systems atop of CPS swarms.
Requirements and application
Candidates to this position should hold a Master's degree in Computer
Science/Informatics, Mathematics, Physics or a related field by the
starting date of the PhD. They must be excited by research in
distributed systems, distributed algorithms, computational fluid
dynamics, and/or programming languages, and should have an excellent
academic record in one of these areas. Familiarity with queueing network model
and differential equations would be appreciated.
Teamwork and communication skills are key to this position, and
industrial experience is a plus.
Excellent proficiency in English is required (CECR : C1; IELTS : 7.0; Cambridge English Scale : 185; or equivalent). Knowledge of French is not required.
To apply, please send the following information to ds-resco-recruitment@lists.recherche.enac.fr(Subject=PhD position [ENAC-ONERA-PhD24]: Fluid Modelling of Distributed System in CPS Swarms):
- Curriculum Vitæ
- Letter of motivation that should describe the applicant's background in the areas of the project, reasons for interest in the project, and future plans
- A list of courses and grades of the last two years of study (an informal transcript is enough).
- Names and contact details of at least two people who can write you references, whom we will contact directly.
- If relevant, a link to your publications and/or open-source developments.
The project starts on October 2024 (or eventually sooner, depending on the recruitment process). The duration of the contract/scholarship is 3 years.
Eligibility criteria and Benefits
Applicants of any nationality can apply, but applicants must not have a doctoral degree already or been enrolled in a PhD/doctoral program.
Benefits include:
- French government strongly subsidizes its higher education system, therefore the tuition fees are among the more competitive in Europe
- Doctoral students are eligible for an accommodation in our own campus which contributes significantly to reduce the total cost of living (already much cheaper than bigger European cities)
- Social security coverage included
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Social, cultural and sports events and activities
About Onera and ENAC research laboratories
Onera, the French
Aerospace Lab, and ENAC,
National School of Civil
Aviation, are both located in Toulouse, France, the centre of the
European aerospace industry. Our research laboratories offer ideal
working environments, where researchers can focus on developing new
ideas, collaborations and projects.
The proposed research project is a joint effort between Onera and ENAC. Our common research topics include UAVs systems, sustainable
transportation development, and safety and security of cyber-physical
systems. For further information, please consult our sites:
ENAC , Onera.
References
[1] Schranz, Melanie, et al. "Swarm intelligence and cyber-physical systems: concepts, challenges and future trends." Swarm and Evolutionary Computation 60 (2021): 100762.
[2] Connor, Jack, Benjamin Champion, and Matthew A. Joordens. "Current algorithms, communication methods and designs for underwater swarm robotics: A review." IEEE Sensors Journal 21.1 (2020): 153-169.
[3] Ferreira, Bruno, et al. "A Lightweight Fluid Model for Mobile Ad hoc Distributed Systems." (2022).
[4] Alexandra de Cecco. "Modélisation Fluide de Réseaux. Modélisation et simulation" (Doctoral thesis). UNIVERSITE DE TOULOUSE; UT3, (2016).
[5] Ferrer, Ana Juan, et al. "Towards a cognitive compute continuum: an architecture for ad-hoc self-managed swarms." 2021 IEEE/ACM 21st International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing (CCGrid). IEEE, 2021.
[6] Wu, Yu, et al. "Swarm-based 4D path planning for drone operations in urban environments." IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 70.8 (2021): 7464-7479.
PhD position: Designing high-performance techniques for mobile computing (applications on IoT/drones)
Keywords: Distributed algorithms; replication; graph algorithms; computational fluid dynamics; edge computing; dynamic networks; replicated state machine (RSM)
Context
The design of distributed systems has become increasingly important to
provide reliable services with high availability. Most internet
services rely on large amounts of resources of cloud-centric
infrastructures to tolerate failures and enhance data availability to
users. While such a cloud-centric design has been widely used to
implement popular services, like video stores and social networking,
this computing model alone is unlikely to fit well to emerging
latency-critical applications on dynamic networks, such as
mobile networks and wireless networks.
The growing popularity of cloud-centric distributed systems strongly
relies on advances in hardware and software components of datacenters.
For instance, Li et al. [1] propose a new high-performance replication
protocol based on the assumptions that packet losses and reordering are
rare inside datacenters. However, these assumptions are likely to be
incorrect in dynamic networks.
In a dynamic network, such as a swarm of drones, the design of
reliable distributed systems with high performance is
challenging. System designers should cope with unstable, heterogeneous
resources availability, eventually frequent network partitions and
fast-changing data availability requirements. These
limitations can lead to a dramatic performance degradation of
the distributed system for clients of edge, mobile services.
Suitable techniques and algorithms are therefore required in
order to guarantee high throughput and low latency for emerging
distributed systems on dynamic networks.
Proposed research
This research project focuses on load balancing techniques and
scheduling protocols for achieving high-performance, reliable
distributed systems in dynamic networks.
The availability and fault tolerance of a reliable distributed
system are commonly guaranteed by a replication protocol based
on replicated state machine (RSM). Such a protocol implements a
consensus algorithm, like Fast Paxos [2] and Raft [3], in order to
provide strong consistency throughout distributed, replicated
data. In fact, strongly consistent replication is key to
efficient implementation of critical distributed systems'
building blocks, like distributed lock manager or transactional
key-value store.
The body of research effort on load balancing techniques and scheduling
protocols has yielded significant performance gains in cloud-centric
systems. Aspnes et al. [4] develop on-line load balancing techniques to
minimize the maximum load of requests in distributed computing clusters.
Regarding RSM, Alchieri et al. [5] propose a scheduling protocol that
simplifies the work done by the scheduler while improving the
performance of the system. Yet, further research is needed for
evaluating these techniques and protocols in dynamic edge computing,
where the availability of nodes' resources is barely unpredictable and
the network topologies evolve continuously.
In order to provide a valuable trade-off between enforcing strong
consistency and providing high-performance, we are highly interested in
investigating new load balancing techniques and scheduling protocols for
emerging mobile distributed systems. To conduct this exciting,
promising research, we will combine ideas from two disciplines:
distributed algorithms and computational fluid dynamics. Therefore, we
intend to review the techniques to dynamically handle operations
throughout moving replicas based on fast, advanced simulation of system
messages flows to enforce ordering and timing constraints.
Requirements and application
Candidates to this position should hold a Master's degree in Computer
Science/Informatics, Mathematics, Physics or a related field by the
starting date of the PhD. They must be excited by research in
distributed systems, distributed algorithms, computational fluid
dynamics, and/or programming languages, and should have an excellent
academic record in one of these areas. Familiarity with queueing network model
and differential equations would be appreciated.
Teamwork and communication skills are key to this position, and
industrial experience is a plus.
Excellent proficiency in English is required (CECR : C1; IELTS : 7.0; Cambridge English Scale : 185; or equivalent). Knowledge of French is not required.
To apply, please send the following information to ds-resco-recruitment@lists.recherche.enac.fr(Subject=PhD position [ONERA-ENAC-PhD24]: high-performance mobile computing:
- Curriculum Vitæ
- Letter of motivation that should describe the applicant's background in the areas of the project, reasons for interest in the project, and future plans
- A list of courses and grades of the last two years of study (an informal transcript is enough).
- Names and contact details of at least two people who can write you references, whom we will contact directly.
- If relevant, a link to your publications and/or open-source developments.
The project starts on October 2024 (or eventually sooner, depending on the recruitment process). The duration of the contract/scholarship is 3 years.
Eligibility criteria and Benefits
Applicants of any nationality can apply, but applicants must not have a doctoral degree already or been enrolled in a PhD/doctoral program.
Benefits include:
- French government strongly subsidizes its higher education system, therefore the tuition fees are among the more competitive in Europe
- Doctoral students are eligible for an accommodation in our own campus which contributes significantly to reduce the total cost of living (already much cheaper than bigger European cities)
- Social security coverage included
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Social, cultural and sports events and activities
About Onera and ENAC research laboratories
Onera, the French
Aerospace Lab, and ENAC,
National School of Civil
Aviation, are both located in Toulouse, France, the centre of the
European aerospace industry. Our research laboratories offer ideal
working environments, where researchers can focus on developing new
ideas, collaborations and projects.
The proposed research project is a joint effort between Onera and ENAC. Our common research topics include UAVs systems, sustainable
transportation development, and safety and security of cyber-physical
systems. For further information, please consult our sites:
ENAC , Onera.
References
[1] Li, J., Michael, E., Sharma, N. K., Szekeres, A., & Ports, D. R.
(2016). Just say NO to Paxos overhead: replacing consensus with
network ordering. In 12th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design
and Implementation (OSDI 16) (pp. 467-483).
[2] L. Lamport. Fast Paxos. (2006). Distributed Computing, 19(2).
[3] Ongaro, D., & Ousterhout, J. (2014). In search of an understandable
consensus algorithm. In 2014 USENIX Annual Technical Conference
(USENIX ATC 14) (pp. 305-319).
[4] Aspnes, J., Azar, Y., Fiat, A., Plotkin, S., & Waarts, O. (1997).
On-line routing of virtual circuits with applications to load balancing
and machine scheduling. Journal of the ACM (JACM), 44(3), 486-504.
[5] Alchieri, E., Dotti, F., & Pedone, F. (2018). Early
scheduling in parallel state machine replication. In Proceedings of the
ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing (pp. 82-94).
