Postdoc position: Scalable resource management in Edge Cloud Infrastructures at IRISA and the University of Rennes

IRISA and the University of Rennes 1 (France) have an open position
for a Postdoctoral researcher in the domain of edge cloud computing.
Title: Scalable resource management in Edge Cloud Infrastructures
Description:
Cloud computing infrastructures are very powerful and flexible, but
they are also located very far from their end users. Typical network
latencies between an end user and the closest public cloud data center
are in the order of 20-40 ms over high-quality wired networks, and
100-150 ms over 4G mobile phone connections. This performance level is
acceptable for simple applications such as web browsing, but it makes
it impossible to create a wide range of interactive applications. For
example, to enable an "instantaneous" feeling, augmented reality
applications require that end-to-end latencies (including all
networking and processing delays) remain below 20 ms.
To address these issues, a new type of "mobile edge cloud"
infrastructures is being designed. Instead of treating the mobile
operator's network as a high-latency dumb pipe between the end users
and the external service providers, mobile edge clouds aim to bring
cloud resources at the edge of the network, in very close physical
proximity with the end users. This is expected to offer extremely low
latency between the client devices and the cloud resources serving
them.
Mobile edge clouds have very different geographical distribution
compared to traditional clouds. Classical datacenter clouds are
composed of many reliable and powerful machines located in a very
small number of data centers and interconnected by very high-speed
networks. In contrast, mobile edge cloud are composed of a very large
number of points-of-presence with a couple of weak and potentially
unreliable servers, interconnected with each other by commodity
long-distance networks. In a mobile edge cloud, the end users are also
expected to be mobile, which means that the geographical distribution
of resources may not always match the distribution of the computing
demand. A large gathering of end users (e.g., spectators of an
open-air concert) may create hotspots in locations where the available
resources cannot cope with all the demands, while other resources
located further away may be underutilized.
The goal of this research project is to study the magnitude of these
resource/demand mismatch issues that are specific to mobile edge
clouds, and to develop intelligent resource allocation strategies to
overcome them. These strategies will need to take into account the
geographical distribution as well as the importance of the demands in
order to propose a fair distribution of resources among users.
Interestingly, a mobile edge cloud necessarily has (partial) knowledge
about the way applications are organized, about the resource
consumption of individual application components and the data streams
between the components. This should normally allow us to design
strategies which can estimate the performance penalty which would be
incurred of we migrated some given component to a less-loaded
location.
Required qualifications:
- A PhD in large-scale distributed systems, Cloud computing or
high-performance computing.
- Excellent programming skills in Linux environments.
- Excellent communication and writing skills.
- Good command of English.
- Knowledge of the following technologies is not mandatory but will be
considered as a plus:
* Cloud resource scheduling
* Distributed container systems: Kubernetes, Docker Swarm.
* Single-board computers such as Raspberry PI
* Python and shell scripting
* Revision control systems: git, svn.
* Linux distributions: Debian, Ubuntu.
* Note that knowledge of French is *not* required for this position.
Contract duration: 18 months, full time.
Start date: As soon as possible, and in any case no later than June 1st 2017.
Location: Rennes is the capital city of Britanny, in the western part
of France. It is easy to reach thanks to the high-speed train line to
Paris. Rennes is a lively city and a major center for higher education
and research. The job will take place within the INRIA/IRISA research
center, which is internationally recognized for its research in the
domain of information and communication sciences.
Applications deadline: A first selection of candidates will take place
on January 20th 2017. To maximize your chances of success, please send
your application before this date. The position will however remain
open until a suitable candidate is found.
To apply, please send the following documents to Guillaume Pierre
(guillaume.pierre-AT-irisa.fr):
- A detailed CV.
- A motivation letter highlighting your previous research achievements
in a domain close to cloud computing.
- Two recommendation letters.
Contact: for any information bout this position please contact
Guillaume Pierre (guillaume.pierre-AT-irisa.fr).
http://www.globule.org/~gpierre/