Simplifying the Software Infrastructure of Computer and Communication Systems

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This research proposal concerns the software infrastructure of computer and communication systems. Examples of such software infrastructure are operating system kernels, system libraries, forwarding engines in network routers, naming and rendezvous services, transport protocols, and many more. These infrastructure components are at the heart of all IT systems and as such, are critically important for the performance, security, and reliability of the many electronic systems that strongly affect every individual and society at large.The overarching goal of this research project is to investigate radically simpler approaches to the design and implementation of software infrastructure. In the operating system and virtualization domain, this mostly concerns algorithms and data structures, while in the area of networks and distributed systems, communication protocols are the primary subject. Specifically, the research is aimed at finding and uncovering simple and atomic underlying patterns for the design of low-level systems. With these patterns, it will be possible to decompose, redesign, and rebuild systems using a simple and modular composition of basic building blocks. This will lead to simpler systems that are easier to analyze, verify, and also teach. Ultimately, it will also result in a better charting of the overall design space.The specific areas that will be investigated are a novel operating system kernel that, among other design ideas, will be integrated with a novel communication substrate that can efficiently scale from intra-core communication to wide-area networking. The unique proposition of this proposal is the integrated consideration of both operating systems and networking aspects of the overall research problem. The results will be disseminated through scientific publications and open software. The resulting open-source software ecosystem will be very beneficial to Canadian industry.