Projects
Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering
Simula Metropolitan is a new research unit that is jointly owned by Simula Research Laboratory and Oslo Metropolitan University, formerly Oslo and Akershus University College (HiOA). It is the home of Simula’s research activities on networks and communications, machine learning and IT management, and it is OsloMet’s strategic partner in research, PhD- and MSc- education in digital engineering. Simula Metropolitan is organized as a limited company and it is part of the Simula lab.
Brief overview of activities
The mission of Simula Metropolitan is to do research in digital engineering at the highest international level, to educate and supervise PhD- and master students at OsloMet and to contribute to innovation in society through collaboration, startup-companies and licensing of research results.
Machine Intelligence Department
Machine Intelligence Department (MIND) aims at advancing frontiers of machine learning and data mining, while developing algorithmic and numerical solutions for the analysis of complex systems and high-dimensional data in science and industry, and use these to make intelligent decisions. This includes development of new and efficient methods for matrix and tensor factorisations, data fusion, development of faster and robust learning methods, deep learning, using techniques from statistics, optimization, regularization theory, signal processing, and statistical learning theory. The ultimate goal is to apply the developed techniques to address challenging problems in various real-life applications from biomedical signal and image analysis, systems biology, climate to social and communication networks.
IT Management
The department of IT management conducts research on how to better manage software development work. This includes empirical research on software development methods, benefit management, cost estimation, risk and uncertainty management, use of contracts and models for user involvements. The goal is to produce results that improve software development work and move the software industry towards more evidence-based practices.
Mobile Systems and Analytics
The Mobile Systems and Analytics (MOSAIC) department focuses on empirical characterization of mobile networks, design of new protocols and algorithms for future mobile networks. More specifically, the group’s research interests lie in the areas of experimental evaluation and characterization of mobile networks (e.g. 3G/4G/5G, Wifi and satellite), design of novel protocols and services over mobile networks. The group is actively involved in EU (H2020 MONROE, H2020 MAMI, FP7 RITE, and more) and ESA (HENCSAT) projects as well as national projects (RCN MEMBRANE, RCN NIMBUS).
Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA) was established in 2014 as a response to modern society’s massive and increasing dependability on applications running on top of the Internet. CRNA focuses on the robustness and security of ICT infrastructures, by which we mean that applications should continue to function at the best possible level of quality and security, even in the presence of technical failures, unplanned excessive load, design and implementation flaws in specific components, human error and malicious intent.
The Center receives base funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications. The Ministry has given the Center specific responsibilities through a mandate that includes operating an infrastructure for monitoring the state of the Norwegian telecommunications infrastructure, in particular the mobile broadband networks, and publishing an annual report on that. There is a tight integration between CRNA and Simula@UiB. Whereas CRNA concentrates on safety aspects of digital infrastructures, Simula@UiB has deep expertise in security. CRNA has also established partnerships with mobile operators and relevant stakeholders.
During the past four years CRNA has made a number of key scientific and societal contributions. These include contributions to education and science through the education of master and PhD students and the publication of numerous articles in high impact and respected venues. CRNA has also contributed to informing policy makers and network operators on issues related to digital vulnerability and network performance.
Publications for Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering
Journal Article
Towards a Lightweight Task Scheduling Framework for Cloud and Edge Platform
Internet of Things; Engineering Cyber Physical Human Systems (2023).Status: Accepted
Towards a Lightweight Task Scheduling Framework for Cloud and Edge Platform
Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous in our daily lives, but they have limited computational capacity. Thanks to the advancement in the network infrastructure, task offloading from resource-constrained devices to the near edge and the cloud becomes possible and advantageous. Complete task offloading is now possible to almost limitless computing resources of public cloud platforms. Generally, the edge computing resources support latency-sensitive applications with limited computing resources, while the cloud supports latency-tolerant applications. This paper proposes one lightweight task-scheduling framework from cloud service provider perspective, for applications using both cloud and edge platforms. Here, the challenge is using edge and cloud resources efficiently when necessary. Such decisions have to be made quickly, with a small management overhead. Our framework aims at solving two research questions. They are: i) How to distribute tasks to the edge resource pools and multi-clouds? ii) How to manage these resource pools effectively with low overheads? To answer these two questions, we examine the performance of our proposed framework based on Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool). We have shown via simulations that RSerPool, with the correct usage and configuration of pool member selection policies, can accomplish the cloud/edge setup resource selection task with a small overhead.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Journal | Internet of Things; Engineering Cyber Physical Human Systems |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Keywords | Cloud computing, Edge Computing, Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Resource Pools, Task Scheduling |
Proceedings, refereed
Proactive Resource Orchestration Framework for Cloud/Fog Platform
In Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC). Tunis/Tunisia: IEEE, 2023.Status: Accepted
Proactive Resource Orchestration Framework for Cloud/Fog Platform
Cloud computing makes complex computing an off-premise activity by offering software- and hardware-based services using standard security protocols over the Internet. It has been seen that the cloud is not ideal for latency-sensitive applications. Thanks to the current growth of network communication and infrastructure, fog adds a computing resource delegation layer between the user and the cloud. Fog aims to improve latency-sensitive applications support. Here, we propose one unified, proactive resource orchestration framework from a cloud/fog service provider perspective. The framework consists of a predictor and a resource allocator module. Users subscribe to these resources to execute their applications. The framework does not require application-specific information and is modular, meaning a service provider can customise each module. We have presented the framework prototype by showing each module's simulated performance results using the parameters of our cloud/fog research test bed.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Tunis/Tunisia |
| Keywords | Cloud, Fog, Orchestration, Prediction, Resource Allocation |
A Scalable Data Collection System for Continuous State of Polarisation Monitoring
In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON). Bucharest/Romania, 2023.Status: Accepted
A Scalable Data Collection System for Continuous State of Polarisation Monitoring
Our dependency on the telecommunication infrastructure is continuously increasing, as different infrastructures – such as energy and telecommunication – now have mutual dependencies. This calls for increased monitoring of the fibre network, which is a highly critical part of the infrastructure. State of Polarisation (SoP) of light propagating through fibre transmission systems is impacted by any vibrations and mechanical impacts on the fibre. By continuously monitoring the SoP, any unexpected movements of a fibre along a fibre-path may be traced. Movements may be caused by e.g. work in node-rooms impacting patch-cords, trawlers or other types of sub-sea equipment touching or hooking into sub-sea fibre cables, digging close to a fibre-cable, or geophysical phenomena like earthquakes. In this paper, we describe a low-cost, scalable system for SoP monitoring and give examples of patterns monitored in different types of fibre infrastructures. The monitoring system consists of single-unit rack-mount instruments connected to taps from live optical transmission signals. Each instrument has local storage for 1-2 years of data, and is periodically automatically uploading data to a server for backup and data-access purposes. Examples of observed patterns are impact from a thunderstorm on a Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) cable, 50 Hz on a fibre-cable spun around a high-voltage power air-cable, as well as animal impact on a patch-cord.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON) |
| Date Published | 07/2023 |
| Place Published | Bucharest/Romania |
Journal Article
Secure Embedded Living: Towards a Self-contained User Data Preserving Framework
IEEE Communications Magazine 60, no. 11 (2022): 74-80.Status: Published
Secure Embedded Living: Towards a Self-contained User Data Preserving Framework
Smart living represents the hardware-software co-inhabiting with humans for better living standards and improved well-being. Here, hardware monitors human activities (by collecting data) specific to a context. Such data can be processed to offer context-specific valuable insights. Such insights can be used for optimising the well-being, living experience and energy cost of smart homes. This paper proposes a Secure Embedded Living Framework (SELF) that enforces a privacy-preserving data control mechanism by integrating multiple technologies, such as Internet-of-thing, cloud/fog platform, machine learning and blockchain. The primary aim of the SELF is to allow the user to retain more control of its data.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | IEEE Communications Magazine |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pagination | 74–80 |
| Date Published | 11/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISSN | 0163-6804 |
| Keywords | blockchain, Cloud, Data, IoTs, Security, User |
| DOI | 10.1109/MCOM.001.2200165 |
AI Anomaly Detection for Cloudified Mobile Core Architectures
Transactions on Network and Service Management (2022).Status: Published
AI Anomaly Detection for Cloudified Mobile Core Architectures
IT systems monitoring is a crucial process for managing and orchestrating network resources, allowing network providers to rapidly detect and react to most impediment causing network degradation. However, the high growth in size and complexity of current operational networks (2022) demands new solutions to process huge amounts of data (including alarms) reliably and swiftly. Further, as the network becomes progressively more virtualized, the hosting of nfv on cloud environments adds a magnitude of possible bottlenecks outside the control of the service owners. In this paper, we propose two deep learning anomaly detection solutions that leverage service exposure and apply it to automate the detection of service degradation and root cause discovery in a cloudified mobile network that is orchestrated by ETSI OSM. A testbed is built to validate these AI models. The testbed collects monitoring data from the OSM monitoring module, which is then exposed to the external AI anomaly detection modules, tuned to identify the anomalies and the network services causing them. The deep learning solutions are tested using various artificially induced bottlenecks. The AI solutions are shown to correctly detect anomalies and identify the network components involved in the bottlenecks, with certain limitations in a particular type of bottlenecks. A discussion of the right monitoring tools to identify concrete bottlenecks is provided.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | Transactions on Network and Service Management |
| Date Published | 08/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Los Alamitos, California/U.S.A. |
| ISSN | 1932-4537 |
| Keywords | 5G, AI, Anomaly detection, Autoencoders, deep learning, Mobile networks, Smart Networks |
| DOI | 10.1109/TNSM.2022.3203246 |
Proceedings, refereed
Towards a Privacy Preserving Data Flow Control via Packet Header Marking
In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on High Performance Computing, Data, and Analytics (HPCC). Chengdu, Sichuan/People's Republic of China: IEEE, 2022.Status: Published
Towards a Privacy Preserving Data Flow Control via Packet Header Marking
{Computing infrastructure is becoming ubiquitous thanks to the advancement in computing and the network domain. Reliable network communication is essential to offer good quality services, but it is not trivial. There are privacy concerns. Metadata may leak user information even if traffic is encrypted. Some countries have data privacy preserving-related regulations, but end-users cannot control through which path, networks, and hardware their data packets should travel. Even worse, the user cannot declare their privacy preferences. This paper presents an approach to tackle such privacy issues through data privacy-aware routing. The user can specify their preferences for packet routing using marking and filtering. Routing can work according to such specifications. It is implemented by P4, allowing a vendor-independent realisation with standard off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software components. We presented the initial experimental results of a proof-of-concept run on a unified cloud/fog research testbed.}
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on High Performance Computing, Data, and Analytics (HPCC) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Chengdu, Sichuan/People's Republic of China |
| Keywords | Cloud, Data, Fog, P4, Packets, Privacy, Routing |
Towards a Blockchain and Fog-Based Proactive Data Distribution Framework for ICN
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing, Applications and Technologies (PDCAT). Sendai/Japan, 2022.Status: Published
Towards a Blockchain and Fog-Based Proactive Data Distribution Framework for ICN
Most of today's IP traffic is cloud traffic. Due to a vast, complex and non-transparent Internet infrastructure, securely accessing and delegating data is not a trivial task. Existing technologies of Information-Centric Networking (ICN) make content distribution and access easy while primarily relying on the existing cloud-based security features. The primary aim of ICN is to make data independent of its storage location and application. ICN builds upon traditional distributed computing, which means ICN platforms also can suffer from similar data security issues as distributed computing platforms. We present our ongoing work to develop a secure, proactive data distribution framework. The framework answers the research question, i.e., How to extend online data protection with a secure data distribution model for the ICN platform? Our framework adds a data protection layer over the content distribution network, using blockchain and relying on the fog to distribute the contents with low latency. Our framework is different from the existing works in multiple aspects, such as i) data are primarily distributed from the fog nodes, ii) blockchain is used to protect data and iii) blockchain allows statistical and other information sharing among stakeholders (such as content creators) following access rights. Sharing statistics about content distribution activity can bring transparency and trustworthiness among the stakeholders, including the subscribers, into the ICN platforms. We showed such a framework is possible by presenting initial performance results and our reflections while implementing it on a cloud/fog research testbed.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing, Applications and Technologies (PDCAT) |
| Place Published | Sendai/Japan |
| Keywords | blockchain, Data, Distribution, Fog, ICN, Protection |
Find Out: How Do Your Data Packets Travel?
In Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM). Thessaloniki, Greece: IEEE, 2022.Status: Published
Find Out: How Do Your Data Packets Travel?
In today's communication-centric world, users generate and exchange a huge amount of data. The Internet helps user data to travel from one part of the world to another via a complex setting of network systems. These systems are intelligent, heterogeneous, and non-transparent to users. In this paper, we present an extensive trace-driven study of user data traffic covering five years of observations, six large ISPs, 21 different autonomous systems, and a total of 13 countries. The aim of this work is to make users aware about how their data travels in the Internet, as the data traffic path is majorly influenced by the interests of ISPs. We showed that shortest land distance between the two countries does not impact data path selection, while data traffic prefers to travel even though country do not share land borders.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM) |
| Date Published | 11/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Thessaloniki, Greece |
| ISBN Number | 978-3-903176-51-5 |
| Keywords | connectivity, Data, Internet, Packets, Routing, Traffic Paths |
A Live Demonstration of In-Band Telemetry in OSM-Orchestrated Core Networks
In Proceedings of the 47th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN). Edmonton, Alberta/Canada: IEEE, 2022.Status: Published
A Live Demonstration of In-Band Telemetry in OSM-Orchestrated Core Networks
Network Function Virtualization is a key enabler to building future mobile networks in a flexible and cost-efficient way. Such a network is expected to manage and maintain itself with least human intervention. With early deployments of the fifth generation of mobile technologies – 5G – around the world, setting up 4G/5G experimental infrastructures is necessary to optimally design Self-Organising Networks (SON). In this demo, we present a custom small-scale 4G/5G testbed. As a step towards self-healing, the testbed integrates four Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors (P4) virtual switches, that are placed along interfaces between different components of transport and core network. This demo not only shows the administration and monitoring of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) VNF components, using Open Source MANO, but also as a proof of concept for the potential of P4-based telemetry in detecting anomalous behaviour of the mobile network, such as a congestion in the transport part.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 47th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN) |
| Pagination | 245–247 |
| Date Published | 09/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Edmonton, Alberta/Canada |
| ISBN Number | 978-1-6654-8001-7 |
| Keywords | Anomaly detection, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Open Source MANO (OSM), P4, Telemetry |
Adaptive Routing in InfiniBand Hardware
In The 22nd IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing. IEEE, 2022.Status: Published
Adaptive Routing in InfiniBand Hardware
Interconnection networks are the communication backbone of modern high-performance computing systems and an optimised interconnection network is crucial for the performance and utilisation of the system as a whole. One element of the interconnection network is the routing algorithm, which directly influences how we are able to utilise the physical network topology. InfiniBand is one of the most common network architectures used in high-performance computing and traditionally it only supported static routing. For multi-path networks such as Fat-trees, static routing is inefficient because it cannot balance traffic in real-time nor utilise multiple paths efficiently under adversarial traffic. This again potentially leads to unnecessary contention and an underutilised network, which has led to numerous proposals on how to avoid this by using adaptive routing. Adaptive routing has recently been introduced in InfiniBand and in this paper we evaluate to what extent the expected benefits of adaptive routing is true for InfiniBand. Through a set of experiments on HDR InfiniBand equipment we describe the basic behaviour of adaptive routing in InfiniBand, its benefits in Fat tree topologies and the unfortunate side effects related to unfairness that adaptive routing in general might introduce, including such phenomena as the reverse parking lot
problem and congestion spreading.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Department of High Performance Computing |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Conference Name | The 22nd IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing |
| Pagination | 463-472 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
Publications
Technical reports
Simula Graduate School of Computing - a Proposal From Simula Research Laboratory for an Educational Collaboration With UiO and UCSD
Simula Research Laboratory, 2010.Status: Published
Simula Graduate School of Computing - a Proposal From Simula Research Laboratory for an Educational Collaboration With UiO and UCSD
| Publication Type | Technical reports |
| Year of Publication | 2010 |
| Publisher | Simula Research Laboratory |
Book Chapter
Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Research
In Simula Research Laboratory - by thinking constantly about it, 533-540. Springer, 2009.Status: Published
Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Research
| Publication Type | Book Chapter |
| Year of Publication | 2009 |
| Book Title | Simula Research Laboratory - by thinking constantly about it |
| Chapter | 38 |
| Pagination | 533-540 |
| Publisher | Springer |
| ISBN Number | 978-3-642-01155-9 |
Proceedings, refereed
Development of a National Workshop to Teach Norwegian Ph.D. Students in Engineering and Science How to Communicate Research
In 2009 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. American Society of Engineering Education, 2009.Status: Published
Development of a National Workshop to Teach Norwegian Ph.D. Students in Engineering and Science How to Communicate Research
| Afilliation | Scientific Computing |
| Project(s) | Center for Biomedical Computing (SFF) |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2009 |
| Conference Name | 2009 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition |
| Publisher | American Society of Engineering Education |
Teaching PhD Students Effective Communication of Scientific Research
In ICERI2009 Proceedings CD. International Association for Technology, Education and Development, 2009.Status: Published
Teaching PhD Students Effective Communication of Scientific Research
| Afilliation | , Scientific Computing |
| Project(s) | Center for Biomedical Computing (SFF) |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2009 |
| Conference Name | ICERI2009 Proceedings CD |
| Publisher | International Association for Technology, Education and Development |
| ISBN Number | 978-84-613-2955-7 |