Some possible M.Sc. Thesis
Topics
Distributed middleware cache
The
application server tier in multi-tier architectures is responsible for
executing the application logic. While it maintains volatile data,
mission-critical data is stored in a database backend. However, as
database access is expensive, many application servers provide a cache,
that stores database records in the object-oriented format needed by
the application programs. When application servers are replicated for
scalability reasons, a special solution is needed for the application
server cache. In this project we develop a distributed object cache
where the application server replicas share their cache
resources.
There are
currently two M.Sc. students working on the topic. I am looking for
students continuing the work and exploring other directions. Possible topics to explore in this context are:
Development of a cache that supports both distribution/sharing and
replication; Load-balancing at the application server tier to
optimally use the distributed cache; Exploitation of special
hardware to speed up the cache (multi-core, DRAM, ...)
Required knowledge:
good
knowledge of distributed systems technology. Experience with large
Java-based distributed software systems highly recommended.
.
Database Virtualization
Data
centers have become a predominant infrastructure for supporting the
ever increasing number of e-commerce applications. These data centers
often host hundreds and thousands of applications concurrently,
distributed over large clusters of server machines. In order to
provide the quality of service required by customers and at the same
time exploit the existing infrastructure as efficiently as possible,
data centers must be able to dynamically assign, replicate or migrate
application components to the different machines in the cluster. Virtualization
is an attractive means to provide component and service migration.
Applications are installed on virtual machines which provide an
abstraction from the physical machines. Current technology allows
virtual machines to be collocated on the same physical machine and to
migrate relatively easily between machines.
However, it is not
clear how well migration actually work for the different tiers of the
typical multi-tier architecture on which current e-commerce application
srun.
The task of this thesis is to analyze the capacity of
current virtualization products to handle virtualization of a
multi-tier architecture. These techniques should then be compared with
data transfer, failover and recovery technology developed in the area
of database and process replication. A final goal is the development of
virtualization techniques specifically designed for multit-tier
architectures.
Required knowledge:
good
knowledge of the internals of database systems and operating systems.
Willingness to explore the technology behind existing systems.
Multicast Communication in Mobile Environments
This work is likely to be in cooperation with SAP Montreal.
While
group communication, multicast primitives and publish/subscribe systems are well explored for
wired networks, mobile environments pose new challenges. Issues are
the low quality network connections of mobile hosts and the variety
with which they can communicate to servers (data plan, SMS, wireless
access points...), and the huge amount of mobile clients that have to be
handled by central services.
A current student is developing a basic
publish/subscribe infrastructure that connects mobile clients via a
central publish/subscribe server.
In a next step we would like to connect the mobile publish/subscribe
system with a central server, and see how large mobile user groups can
be supported.
Require
knowledge:
good knowledge of
distributed systems technology. Willingness to work with existing
software and simulation.