Distributed Systems
We Make Services Valuable
The Distributed Systems (DSY) research group of the InIT focuses on scalable and reliable implementation of sophisticated IT-based services. We address questions such as:
- What architecture best suits your specific cloud application?
- Which service model (IaaS, CaaS, PaaS, FaaS, ...) ensures optimal implementation of an application?
- Which tools are needed for development, operation and monitoring of the services?
- How to offer applications "as a service" (SaaS)?
- How to monetize modern IT services?
- How to integrate the "physical world" into complex IT services?
The research group is engaged in international projects within the EU research framework and works closely with partners from the private sector on innovative products within Innosuisse funded or directly financed projects.
The knowledge gained from applied research and development is transferred to students of computer science courses in the following modules:
Research Topics
Cloud Computing
The Init Cloud Computing Lab (ICCLAB) is dedicated to the automated deployment, operation and usage of configurable, highly scalable and resilient IT resources on a pay-per-use basis. In addition to infrastructure virtualization, this includes platform services for automated application delivery, scalable back-end, and monitoring of services and applications.
Service Prototyping
The Service Prototyping Lab (SPLAB) addresses the implementation and validation of complex services in cloud or post-cloud environments. In addition to the migration of existing services to the cloud, the main focus is on modern application architectures (Cloud Native Applications, Microservices, Serverless), the provisioning of tools for optimal implementation, the experimental validation of concepts and their monetization (Cloud Accounting and Billing).
Cloud Robotics
The Init Cloud Comupting Lab (ICCLAB) also addresses the integration of robotic applications into complex networked services. The usage of elastic cloud services allows to extend the capabilities of robots (computing power, context information, artificial intelligence, ...) as well as to manage and coordinate them. Programming frameworks and automation services enable developers to integrate robots into services without having in-depth knowledge at device level.
Projects
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Indoor Navigation for Personalised Shopping
Smart personalised shopping is enabled by a number of cyber-physical technologies including electronic shelf labels (ESLs), beacons, sensors, connected point-of-sales (POS) and so forth. In this project, the already known product location and quantity information associated with the ESLs shall be complemented by ...
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Runtime-Optimised Business Object Transformation (ROBOT)
In the ROBOT project, new scalable methods and technologies to map strongly distributed data models, with as few lossy intermediate representations as possible, are being investigated. A key concern in that is raising the abstraction levels and resource planning compared to conventional big data programming ...
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Actionable Insights and Business Intelligence based on Applied Sciences Messaging Patterns
Researchers in an applied sciences context, including at Zurich University of Applied Sciences, have no adequate means to gain insights into their past e-mail and chat communication. Usually this communication archive is a treasure - a hidden gem - when trying to remember contacts, project opportunities, ...
Publications
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Birchler, Christian; Khatiri, Sajad; Bosshard, Bill; Gambi, Alessio; Panichella, Sebastiano,
2023.
Machine learning-based test selection for simulation-based testing of self-driving cars software.
Empirical Software Engineering.
28(71).
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-023-10286-y
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Toffetti, Giovanni; Militano, Leonardo; Murphy, Seán; Maurer, Remo; Straub, Mark,
2022.
Cloud native robotic applications with GPU sharing on Kubernetes [paper].
In:
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Kyoto, Japan, 23-27 October 2022.
arXiv.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2210.03936
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Militano, Leonardo; Zafeiropoulos, Anastasios; Fotopoulou, Eleni; Bruschi, Roberto; Lombardo, Chiara; Edmonds, Andy; Papavassiliou, Symeon,
2022.
AI-powered Infrastructures for intelligence and automation in beyond-5G systems [paper].
In:
Proceedings of 2021 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps).
2021 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps), Madrid, Spain, 7-11 December 2021.
IEEE.
pp. 1-6.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/GCWkshps52748.2021.9682117
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Spillner, Josef; Gkikopoulos, Panagiotis; Delgado, Pamela; Choirat, Christine,
2022.
Towards reproducible software studies with MAO and Renku.
SoftwareX.
17(100947).
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2021.100947
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Gkikopoulos, Panagiotis; Schiavoni, Valerio; Spillner, Josef,
2021.
Analysis and improvement of heterogeneous hardware support in Docker images [paper].
In:
Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems.
21st International Conference on Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems (DAIS), Valletta, Malta (online), 14-18 June 2021.
Cham:
Springer.
pp. 125-142.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 12718.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78198-9_9