PhD Scholarship, Green and Low Latency In Network Compression

Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Electrical and Computer Science programme. The position is available from 1 January 2023 or later.

Title: Green and Low-Latency In-Network Compression

Research area and project description:

The fast digitalization in diverse verticals have caused an exponential growth in Internet traffic. The fact that many green approaches and proposals rely heavily on the use of the Internet to collect information (e.g. from sensors), influence physical processes (e.g. actuators that control water services, public transportation), and computation hungry analytics only compounds this effect. For example, autonomous vehicles as much as 19TB/hour when in movement. Though energy efficiency of networks and data centres has been improved, the electricity consumed by networks is growing more than three times faster (10% per year) than the global electricity demand (3% per year). It has been reported that, in the best case scenario, ICT will consume 21% of global electricity consumption by 2030, with networks accounting for around half of it. To support digitalization and ICT-powered green initiatives, the question is not whether the network infrastructure will grow. It is whether it can Grow Lean (at least at the same pace of global electricity demand). Otherwise, we run the risk of green initiatives with a net negative effect due to a growing ICT energy usage.

Using new capabilities of network switches, novel data compression techniques being developed in our group at AU, and the unexploited potential to compress data across a massive number of data sources, our team will offer solutions to the growing electricity consumption of the Internet and information and communication technologies (ICT) worldwide.

Given the push for digitalization and heavy use of ICT as enabler of green solutions, reducing network energy usage is crucial to implementing a green transition that does not swap savings in other verticals for equivalent energy expenditure in ICT. To achieve this, we bring together experts from source coding and network theory (Aarhus University and MIT) and practical networking (DTU, U. Neuchatel), and industrial stakeholders (NVIDIA).

We seek a PhD student willing to take the challenge of reducing the Internet’s electricity consumption in a well-funded Danish national project (GROWLean) using In-Network Compression (INC), by exploiting: a) ASIC-based switches entering the mass-market and b) online, multi-source compression algorithms that are compatible to these new network switches. As a side product of our work, the student will help us deliver the fastest suite of data compressors to date with compression rates at line speed (1,000+ Gbps - 3 orders of magnitude higher than the SoA) and ultra-low delay per packet (nanoseconds)

The primary goals of this PhD project  is to (i) design novel compression algorithms that are suitable for deployment in the newest, computation-capable network switches, particularly, for exploiting compression potentials across multiple sources of data; (ii) implement the designs in P4 network switches, e.g., using Tofino chipsets, available in our laboratory and building on recent successes in this area; (iii) to experiment and measure key performance indicators in the lab using both real and synthetic data sets.

The Network Computing, Communications and Storage (NETX) Group operates at the intersection of theory and implementation of communication and computation, machine learning, distributed systems, and Cloud/Edge technologies. For this reason, we encourage applicants with a strong theoretical profile or a strong implementation/programming profile (or ideally both) to apply. Our group also counts with a new and well-funded laboratory to deploy large storage server pods, computing servers, P4 switches, ARM micro-servers for energy efficient edge operations, GPU work station, Jetson TX2 boards and a number of end-user devices.

Project description. For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above, and upload it as a PDF in the application.

Qualifications and specific competences:
We are looking for highly motivated and independent students willing to take the challenge to do a successful 3-year PhD programme in Aarhus University. The ideal candidate will have the following profile (but not all items are required for a successful application):

• Relevant Master’s degree (e.g., Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science), although exceptional candidates from related disciplines (e.g., Applied Mathematics) will also be considered.
• Excellent undergraduate and master degree grades are required.
• Background on networking, hardware development, and software engineering, but candidates from other disciplines will be considered based on their merits and potential.
• Background on linear algebra, mathematics and statistics is desired.
• Strong background on programming and/or hardware design is required.
• Good English verbal and written skills are required.

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Building 5123, Helsingforsgade 10, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark.

Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact Daniel Enrique Lucani Rötter, [email protected]  

How to apply:
Please follow this link  to submit your application. Application deadline is 31 October 2022 23:59 CET. Preferred starting date is 1 January 2023.

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide .

Please note:

• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background. Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with applicable collective agreement.