Projects

The list of possible topics for the current academic year are the following (more can be added if needed):

#1. Exploring the Intel Smart Edge Open solution

The Intel Smart Edge Open (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/tools/smart-edge-open/overview.html , previously known as OpenNESS, https://www.openness.org/)  is a recent initiative to facilitate the development of applications and network functions for the edge with cloud-like agility. From the project presentation, it is made by a cloud-native software toolkit that enables highly optimized and performance edge platforms across a heterogeneous network.  This project aims at exploring what is Intel Smart Edge Open, what it does, and hand-on examples of this software toolkit running in a real (lab) environment.

Student: XXX; tutor: Fulvio Risso

#2. The Cloudfare DDoS mitigation architecture

Cloudfare is a company whose business is guaranteeing that Internet services (e.g., web servers) remains available, also in case of massive outages such as DDoS attacks. This project aims at exploring how the Cloudfare architecture works, with a special look at how their dataplane solutions, based on eBPF, manage to achieve such a massive scale. In addition, the project is expected to highlight the different products offered by Cloudfare outside DDoS and their main characteristics/architecture.

Student: Attilio Oliva (s317312) ; tutor: Federico Parola, Davide Miola, Fulvio Risso

#3. The CPU bonanza

Differently from the past years, in which the design of new CPUs was limited to a few companies (e.g., Intel, AMD, ARM), in the recent years we have assisted to a new wave of "custom" CPUs, designed by several companies, and oriented to provide a competitive advantage for their products. The most notable example is Apple, which designs and uses its novel M1/M2 chips, but other companies such as Amazon, Alibaba, Baidu, Tesla, Meta are following.

This project aims at providing an overview of the existing and planned chips, their main characteristics (e.g., in terms of traditional CPU-based processing capabilities and integrated accelerators), their target application (e.g., traditional data center; workload acceleration; artificial intelligence; etc.), and more.

Finally, this project is expected to highlight whether, some of the above chips can be a suitable options for future software-based network services.

Student: Salvatore Cirone (s298877); tutor: Federico Parola, Davide Miola, Gabriele Elia, Fulvio Risso