Ellen Witte Zegura

School of Computer Science

College of Computing

Georiga Tech

"Computing in Cirrus Clouds: The Challenge of Intermittent Connectivity"

 

Abstract:

Mobile devices are increasingly relied on for services that go beyond simple connectivity and require more complex processing. Improved connectivity options for mobile devices has enabled applications that transcend an individual device's capabilities by making use of remote processing and storage.  The primary approach in wide-use today to enable such remote processing makes use of cloud computing resources to off-load the "heavy lifting" that may be required in some mobile applications to specially designated servers or server clusters. In reality, a mobile device often encounters, albeit intermittently, many entities capable of lending computational resources.   We call these alternative settings "cirrus clouds".  In this talk I will discuss the unique challenges posed by intermittent connectivity and describe some progress on managing such a setting.

This is joint work with Mostafa Ammar, Mayur Naik and Cong Shi.

 

Bio:

Ellen W. Zegura has conducted research and taught in computer networking for over 20 years.   Her research interests include the Internet, with a focus on its topological structure and services, as well as mobile wireless networking.  In network topology, she is the co-creator of the GT-ITM suite of Internet topology modeling tools, which remains in use 15 years after its original release.  In mobile wireless networking, she and colleagues invented the concept of message ferries to facilitate communications in environments where network connectivity is unreliable and/or sparse.   Almost four years ago, she helped create the Computing for Good initiative in the College of Computing, a project-based teaching and research activity that focuses on the use of computing to solve pressing societal problems.   She is currently co-chair for a Georgia Tech strategic initiative team implementing a plan for Institute-wide action in the area of service learning.

___________________________________________________________________________