Prof. Omer Rana

Title: Service Orchestration & Enactment Across Cloud & Edge Resources


Abstract: 

Many Internet of Things (IoT) applications today involve data capture from sensors that are close to the phenomenon being measured, with such data subsequently being transmitted to Cloud data centers for analysis and storage. Currently devices used for data capture often differ from those that are used to subsequently carry out analysis on such data.
Increasing availability of storage and processing devices closer to the data capture device, perhaps over a one-hop network connection or even directly connected to the IoT device itself, requires more efficient allocation of processing across such edge devices and data centers. Scalability in this context needs to consider both cloud resources and
initial processing on edge resources closer to the user. We refer to these as "vertical workflows" – i.e. workflows (a combined set of services) which are enacted across resources that can vary in: (i) type and behaviour; (ii) processing and storage capacity; (iii) latency and security profiles. Understanding how a workflow can be enacted across these resource types is outlined, motivated through multiple application scenarios. The overall objective considered is the completion of the workflow within some deadline and security constraints -- but with flexibility on where data processing is carried out.

Biography: 

Omer F. Rana is Professor of Performance Engineering at Cardiff University, with research interests in high performance distributed computing, data analysis/mining and multi-agent systems. He was formerly the deputy director of the Welsh eScience Centre and had the opportunity to interact with a number of computational scientists across Cardiff University and the UK. He is a fellow of Cardiff University's multi-disciplinary "Data Innovation" Research Institute. Rana has contributed to specification and standardisation activities via the Open Grid Forum and worked as a software developer with London-based Marshall Bio-Technology Limited prior to joining Cardiff University, where he developed specialist software to support biotech instrumentation. He also contributed to public understanding of science, via the Wellcome Trust funded "Science Line", in collaboration with BBC and Channel 4.
Rana holds a PhD in "Neural Computing and Parallel Architectures" from Imperial College (London Univ.), an MSc in Microelectronics (Univ. of Southampton) and a BEng in Information Systems Eng. from Imperial College (London Univ.). He serves on the editorial boards (as Associate Editor) of IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, (formerly) IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing and ACM Transactions on Internet Technology. He is a founding-member and associate editor of ACM Transactions on Autonomous & Adaptive Systems.