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
Bottleneck Identification in Cloudified Mobile Networks based on Distributed Telemetry
Transactions on Mobile Computing (2023): 1-18.Status: Published
Bottleneck Identification in Cloudified Mobile Networks based on Distributed Telemetry
Cloudified mobile networks are expected to deliver a multitude of services with reduced capital and operating expenses. A characteristic example is 5G networks serving several slices in parallel. Such mobile networks, therefore, need to ensure that the SLAs of customised end-to-end sliced services are met. This requires monitoring the resource usage and characteristics of data flows at the virtualised network core, as well as tracking the performance of the radio interfaces and UEs. A centralised monitoring architecture can not scale to support millions of UEs though. This paper, proposes a 2-stage distributed telemetry framework in which UEs act as early warning sensors. After UEs flag an anomaly, a ML model is activated, at network controller, to attribute the cause of the anomaly. The framework achieves 85% F1-score in detecting anomalies caused by different bottlenecks, and an overall 89% F1-score in attributing these bottlenecks. This accuracy of our distributed framework is similar to that of a centralised monitoring system, but with no overhead of transmitting UE-based telemetry data to the centralised controller. The study also finds that passive in-band network telemetry has the potential to replace active monitoring and can further reduce the overhead of a network monitoring system.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Journal | Transactions on Mobile Computing |
| Pagination | 1–18 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISSN | 1558-0660 |
| Keywords | Anomaly, Bottleneck, classification, congestion, Mobile Cloud Network, Telemetry |
| URL | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10239332 |
| DOI | 10.1109/TMC.2023.3312051 |
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
Detecting Physical Impacts by Monitoring State of Polarisation in a Live Fibre-To-The-Home Data-Communication Air-Cable
In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS). Hamamatsu, Shizuoka/Japan: OPTICA, 2023.Status: Accepted
Detecting Physical Impacts by Monitoring State of Polarisation in a Live Fibre-To-The-Home Data-Communication Air-Cable
Heavy wind may tear cables down, damaging infrastructure, triggering outage in data-communication networks. We demonstrate local observations of wind in the access-network, monitoring State of Polarisation in a live Fiber-To-The-Home air-cable.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | GAIA, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, NorNet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) |
| Date Published | 11/2023 |
| Publisher | OPTICA |
| Place Published | Hamamatsu, Shizuoka/Japan |
| Keywords | Fibre-To-The-Home, Monitoring, State of Polarisation |
A Live Demonstration of HiPerConTracer 2.0
In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM). Split/Croatia, 2023.Status: Accepted
A Live Demonstration of HiPerConTracer 2.0
HiPerConTracer is an open source tool for large-scale, long-term, high-frequency Ping and Traceroute measurements. Using such measurements, it is possible to obtain information about latency in the network, as well as about the actual routing. This proposed live demo provides an overview over the tool and its features, as well as an introduction of how to use it for performing measurements, storing the results, querying selected results, and post-processing them for visualisation.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, GAIA, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM) |
| Date Published | 09/2023 |
| Place Published | Split/Croatia |
| Keywords | HiPerConTracer, Internet, Measurement, Round-Trip Time, Tools, Traceroute |
Towards A Data Privacy-Aware Execution Zone Creation on Cloud/Fog Platform
In Proceedings of the 49th Euromicro Conference Series on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA). Durrës/Albania: IEEE, 2023.Status: Published
Towards A Data Privacy-Aware Execution Zone Creation on Cloud/Fog Platform
Cloud computing is now a `go-to' platform for running various types of application. A wide spectrum of users needing software and hardware resources have embraced the cloud. Following the cloud business model, one is either a cloud-based service provider or a cloud service (hardware and software) user. There is a continuous evolution in the cloud ecosystem to support the ever-changing features of user applications. The cloud ecosystem has added a new resource delegation model to accommodate such new requirements. This new resource delegation model is known as fog. Both cloud and fog platforms employ complex hardware and software to provide better run-time support for applications. This paper presents a message-based privacy-aware application execution zone management framework for the cloud/fog platform. The framework aims to create a static execution zone based on the performance of the user application and the data privacy requirements. It also enables the user to set the resource termination conditions. Here, we have prototyped the proposed framework and showed how the proposed approach works with message structure and experiments with the P4 switch. We also present how the prototype could be implemented on a cloud/fog platform.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, NorNet, 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 49th Euromicro Conference Series on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Durrës/Albania |
| Keywords | Cloud, Data, Fog, Message, Privacy, resource management |
High-Precision Round-Trip Time Measurements in the Internet with HiPerConTracer
In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM). Split, Dalmacija/Croatia: IEEE, 2023.Status: Published
High-Precision Round-Trip Time Measurements in the Internet with HiPerConTracer
Accurately measuring Round-Trip Times (RTT) for Internet communications is important for various research topics, ranging from protocol performance and congestion control to routing and network security. Unix systems, particularly Linux and FreeBSD, provide some features to obtain network packet timing information, but there is a lack of documentation for these. With High-Performance Connectivity Tracer (HiPerConTracer), there is already an open source tool for running large-scale, long-running and high-frequency ICMP Ping and Traceroute measurements. However, it lacks support of high-precision timing. As part of this paper, first the network packet timestamping features of Unix systems are analysed and introduced, to provide the reader with a detailed overview over the available methods, their usage, as well as their limitations. Then, enhancements to HiPerConTracer are presented for adding high-precision timestamping support, as well as a UDP module to also perform UDP Ping and Traceroute measurements. Finally, the newly added features are demonstrated in a proof-of-concept analysis.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, GAIA, NorNet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM) |
| Date Published | 09/2023 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Split, Dalmacija/Croatia |
| Keywords | HiPerConTracer, Internet, Measurement, Packet Timestamping, Round-Trip Time, Tools |
A Scalable Infrastructure for Continuous State of Polarisation Monitoring for Revealing Security and Vulnerability Impacts in Optical Networks
In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Telecommunications (ConTEL). Graz, Steiermark/Austria: IEEE, 2023.Status: Published
A Scalable Infrastructure for Continuous State of Polarisation Monitoring for Revealing Security and Vulnerability Impacts in Optical Networks
Optical networks are spanning the world. They are the main medium for carrying all types of data-traffic. From a vulnerability and security perspective, it is therefore the most important part of the network to protect against any physical impacts that may cause disruptions or security incidents. In this paper, we demonstrate and describe a scalable, low-cost monitoring system based on detecting the state of polarisation in the fibre cables. We give examples on how any direct movement of fibre-cables or fibre-cords as well as indirect vibrations on the cable can be detected, and how basic characteristics in the patterns can be used for recognition of these events.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2023 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Telecommunications (ConTEL) |
| Date Published | 07/2023 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Graz, Steiermark/Austria |
| Keywords | Hardware, Infrastructure, Monitoring, Software, State of Polarisation |
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: Published
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) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, 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: Published
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) | GAIA, 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 | 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 |
| Keywords | Critical Infrastructure, Monitoring, State of Polarisation |
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 |
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 |