CAREER: Heterogeneous Elastic Computing over the Cloud - from Theory to Practice

现代云服务依赖于虚拟机，因为它们具有高效率和灵活性。除了常规服务外，云服务提供商目前提供的新产品还允许以原始成本的一小部分利用未充分利用的虚拟机。然而，这样的计算资源是高度异构和弹性的。异构意味着虚拟机可以具有不同的计算速度和存储约束。弹性意味着如果出现高优先级的作业，这些虚拟机可以在短时间内（几分钟的量级）被抢占;另一方面，随着时间的推移，新的虚拟机可以用来补偿计算资源的任何短缺。这种行为可能导致计算失败或显著增加计算时间。针对云系统中异构性和弹性的挑战，本项目将制定新的异构弹性计算框架，旨在寻求最佳和可实现的解决方案。该项目的成果可带来可观的经济效益。该项目的教育活动旨在将研究融入教学，包括指导研究生和本科生，以及针对本科生和K-12学生，妇女和代表性不足的少数民族的外展计划，目的是培养对变革计算技术的兴趣。该项目的另一个亮点是调查员新开发的YouTube频道，旨在教育所有人，无论年龄、性别或种族。受实际测量和约束的激励，该项目制定了新的异构弹性计算框架，包括编码和未编码的存储位置。然后，它开发了新的方法，使用组合和信息理论的工具，建立这样的系统的基本权衡。使用这些理论工具，该项目为真实的应用程序设计了低复杂度算法，并在Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud（Amazon EC2）上对其进行了评估，以显示与最先进的解决方案相比，所提出的方法具有显著的优势。该项目围绕以下研究主题展开：（1）异构编码存储弹性计算;（2）异构未编码存储弹性计算;（3）从用户角度看安全未编码存储弹性计算;（4）异构弹性计算：将理论转化为实践。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估，更广泛的影响审查标准。

Modern cloud-services rely on virtual machines due to their high efficiency and flexibility. Alongside regular services, current new offerings from cloud-service providers allow exploiting under-utilized virtual machines at a fraction of the original cost. Such computing resources, however, are highly heterogeneous and elastic. Heterogeneity means that virtual machines can have different computational speeds and storage constraints. Elasticity means that these virtual machines can be preempted under short notice (on the order of minutes) if a high-priority job appears; on the other hand, new virtual machines may be available over time to compensate for any shortage of computing resources. Such behavior can result in computational failure or significantly increase computing time. In response to the challenges of both heterogeneity and elasticity in cloud systems, this project will formulate new heterogeneous elastic computing frameworks, aiming for optimal and implementable solutions. The results of this project can lead to sizable economic benefits. The project's educational activities are designed to integrate research into teaching, and include mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students, alongside outreach programs to undergraduate and K-12 students, women, and underrepresented minorities with the goal of fostering interest in transformational computing technologies. Another highlight of this project is the newly developed YouTube channel by the investigator that is intended to educate everyone regardless of age, gender, or race. Motivated by practical measurements and constraints, this project formulates new heterogeneous elastic computing frameworks with both coded and uncoded storage placements. Then, it develops novel methodologies using combinatorial and information-theoretic tools to establish fundamental tradeoffs for such systems. Using these theoretical tools, the project designs low-complexity algorithms for real applications and evaluates them on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) in order to show significant gains of the proposed approaches compared to the state-of-the-art solutions. The project is structured around research topics: (1) heterogeneous coded storage elastic computing; (2) heterogeneous uncoded storage elastic computing; (3) secure uncoded storage elastic computing from user’s perspective and (4) heterogeneous elastic computing: convert theory to practice.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.