Security, reliability and regulation compliance in Ultrascale Computing System

in Zomaya, A. Y.; Carretero, J.; Jeannot, E. (Eds.) Ultrascale Computing Systems (2019)

Ultrascale Computing Systems (UCSs) are envisioned as large-scale complex systems joining parallel and distributed computing systems that will be two to three orders of magnitude larger than today’s ... [more ▼]

Ultrascale Computing Systems (UCSs) are envisioned as large-scale complex systems joining parallel and distributed computing systems that will be two to three orders of magnitude larger than today’s systems (considering the number of Central Process Unit (CPU) cores). It is very challenging to find sustainable solutions for UCSs due to their scale and a wide range of possible applications and involved technologies. For example, we need to deal with heterogeneity and cross fertilization among HPC, large-scale distributed systems, and big data management. One of the challenges regarding sustainable UCSs is resilience. Another one, which attracted less interest in the literature but becomes more and more crucial with the expected convergence with the Cloud computing paradigm, is the notion of regulation in such system to assess the Quality of Service (QoS) and Service Level Agreement (SLA) proposed for the use of these platforms. This chapter covers both aspects through the reproduction of two articles: [1] and [2]. [less ▲]

Design and Implementation of Legal Protection for Trade Secrets in Cloud Brokerage Architectures relying on Blockchains

Doctoral thesis (2018)

Data Protection legislation has evolved around the globe to maximize legal protection of trade secrets. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to prove trade secret violations in cloud context ... [more ▼]

Data Protection legislation has evolved around the globe to maximize legal protection of trade secrets. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to prove trade secret violations in cloud context. Embedding legal protection as a preemptive measure could effectively reduce such burden of proof in a court of law, which can be implemented by an online broker in the cloud. The primary aim of this research was to propose a model for an online broker that embeds le-gal protection as preemptive measure to reduce burden of proof during litigation. This is a novel area of inter-disciplinary research whose body of knowledge is not yet well established. The underlying concept in the proposed model was built upon the notion of factor analysis from the discipline of unsupervised machine learning. For evaluation, two-stage procedure was implemented that showed ap-plication of legal protection as preemptive measure and subsequently, reduced burden of proof in a court of law. A real time quality of service based dataset for cloud storage providers (Carbonite, Dropbox, iBackup, JustCloud, SOS Online Backup, SugarSync, and Zip Cloud) was used for the technical evaluation. The simulation results showed better results of proposed model as compared to its counterparts in the field, which in court of law can be used as a part of evidence to reduce burden of proof. For legal validation of such conclusion, questionnaires were sent to law and ICT experts. There were total of six respondents (two from the field of ICT, two from the field of law, and two from the field of ICT and Law). The sample (5 out of 6 respondents) agreed that results of our model could be used in the court (or judiciary) as a part of evidence to reduce burden of proof. Theoretically, this part of research (focused on primary aim) is a pioneer effort on providing legal protection to trade secrets in the cloud. Practically, it will benefit an enterprise to negotiate contract with service providers to minimize trade secret misappropriation in the cloud. However, for enterprise that is using decentralized architecture in the cloud e.g. blockchains, contracts could emerge towards smart contracts (an autono-mous software program running over blockchains). In this context, a well negoti-ated contract will not be a solution to minimize trade secret misappropriation. In fact, for this case it is particularly relevant to instantiate role of judiciary over a blockchain. The secondary aim of this research was to develop a model that can be implemented over the blockchain to automatically issue preliminary injunc-tion (or temporary restraining order by court of law) for the breach of contract that can potentially lead to trade secret misappropriation. This part of the re-search extended the previously proposed model by using stochastic modeling from the discipline of data science. High performance computing (HPC) cluster at University of Luxembourg (HPC @ Uni.lu) and docker (a software container platform) were used to emulate contractual environment of three service provid-ers: Redis, MongoDB, and Memcached Servers. The results showed that court in-junction(s) was issued only for Redis and MongoDB Servers. Technically, this difference could be attributed to the fact that Memcached is simply used for caching and therefore, it is less prone to breach of contract. Whereas, Redis and MongoDB as databases and message brokers are performing more complex oper-ations and are more likely to cause a breach. For legal validation of the results, questionnaires were sent to law and ICT experts. There were total of six respond-ents (two from the field of ICT, two from the field of law, and two from the field of ICT and Law). The sample (4 out of 6 respondents) disagreed “ONLY” using the results of the model by the court of law (or judiciary) to issues a preliminary injunction (or temporary restraining order) for the breach of contract. Theoreti-cally, this part of the research is a pioneer attempt for providing legal protection over the blockchain. Practically, it will benefit blockchain driven enterprises to control and stop breach of contract that can potentially lead to trade secret mis-appropriation. In addition to above mentioned applied benefits, following list briefly presents research contributions of this multidisciplinary Ph.D. research in the domain of Law. • It is first in-line to focus on legal protection for trade secrets in the cloud. A well-established similar concept is “information security”, which provides technical protection for trade secrets in the cloud e.g. encryption, hashing etc. • In the domain of case law, despite of the jurisdiction constraint i.e. precedents (or court rulings) are binding on all courts within the same jurisdiction, this research is first in-line to use case law together with newly proposed Delphi Sampling method to provide legal protection for trade secrets in borderless online cloud environment. • It is first in-line to implement notion of “confidentiality by design”, which focuses on a legal person or an enterprise. A well-established similar concept is “privacy by design” that focuses on a physical per-son or human being. • By defying the myth that “smart contracts cannot be breached” and in the context of contract law, this research is first in-line to automate role of the court (evidential hearing). In addition to the above mentioned research contribution in the domain of Law, following list briefly presents research contribution in the domain of ICT. • In the context of multi-criteria decision analysis, this research is first in-line to identify and analyze noise in the data and solves related is-sue of structural uncertainty (or misspecification of criteria). • In the context of machine learning, this research is first in-line to propose “self-regulated multi-criteria decision analysis” that operates without decision maker’s interference and hence, it can be used in the context where automation of decision making process is required. • In the context of multidisciplinary research, this study is first in-line to propose a method of Delphi Sampling that seeks inter-disciplinary validation for research results. [less ▲]

Self-Regulated Multi-criteria Decision Analysis: An Autonomous Brokerage-Based Approach for Service Provider Ranking in the Cloud

in 9th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom 2017), December 11-14, Hong Kong China. (2017)

The use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) by online broker to rank different service providers in the Cloud is based upon criteria provided by a customer. However, such ranking is prone to bias ... [more ▼]

The use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) by online broker to rank different service providers in the Cloud is based upon criteria provided by a customer. However, such ranking is prone to bias if the customer has insufficient domain knowledge. He/she may exclude relevant or include irrelevant criterion termed as ’misspecification of criterion’. This causes structural uncertainty within the MCDA leading to selection of suboptimal service provider by online broker. To cater such issue, we propose a self-regulated MCDA, which uses notion of factor analysis from the field of statistics. Two QoS based datasets were used for evaluation of proposed model. The prior dataset i.e., feedback from customers, was compiled using leading review websites such as Cloud Hosting Reviews, Best Cloud Computing Providers, and Cloud Storage Reviews and Ratings. The later dataset i.e., feedback from servers, was generated from Cloud brokerage architecture that was emulated using high performance computing (HPC) cluster at University of Luxembourg (HPC @ Uni.lu). The results show better performance of proposed model as compared to its counterparts in the field. The beneficiary of the research would be enterprises that view insufficient domain knowledge as a limiting factor for acquisition of Cloud services. [less ▲]

Attacks and protection for Intellectual Property Rights, Privacy, and Contracts in the Cloud

Presentation (2017)

Factor for Science Park Planning

in World Technopolis Review (WTR) (2014), 3(2), 97-108

The importance of a science park as an instrument of economic development has been realized by developed economies for past three decades. To comprehend the same, developing economies are also planning ... [more ▼]

The importance of a science park as an instrument of economic development has been realized by developed economies for past three decades. To comprehend the same, developing economies are also planning and implementing science park ventures. However, in terms of planning, science parks are not objects of global consensus because unlike hotel and restaurant chains, which could be planned with similar standards in different regions or countries, there is no single global standard that can be best-fit for science parks. To meet the need for a better understanding of planning, this research studied science parks in developed and developing economies to identify factors that are globally used in this context. This research also extends our knowledge of best practices for growth, governance and sustainability in science parks, and highlights future trends and external factors that may contribute significantly during planning. [less ▲]

Survivable Passive Access Network (SPAN)

in Conference on Next-Generation Communication and Sensor Networks (Optics East), October 02-04, Boston, Massachusetts USA. (2006)

Wavelength Division Multiplexed based Passive Optical Networks (WDM-PON) are subjected to wide variety of incidental failures. It is preferred in WDM-PONs to provide fault management (survivability) at ... [more ▼]

Wavelength Division Multiplexed based Passive Optical Networks (WDM-PON) are subjected to wide variety of incidental failures. It is preferred in WDM-PONs to provide fault management (survivability) at link layer level. In this paper, our objective is to determine the factors, which can increase the scope of survivability at link layer, not available currently. We propose a cost-effective recovery mechanism, called "Survivable Passive Access Network" (SPAN). SPAN is a multi-level protection scheme that has potential to be highly efficient and scaleable in terms of performance budget. BER performance and power penalty factors remain acceptable while switching traffic from normal path to protection path in case of failure. [less ▲]