Publications

  • Dmitry Duplyakin, Nikhil Ramesh , Carina Imburgia , Hamza Fathallah Al Sheikh, Semil Jain, Prikshit Tekta, Aleksander Maricq, Gary Wong & Robert Ricci (2023). Avoiding the Ordering Trap in Systems Performance Measurement. USENIX. Published, 07/2023.
  • Sirus Shahini, Mu Zhang, Mathias Payer & Robert Ricci (2023). Arvin: Greybox Fuzzing Using Approximate Dynamic CFG Analysis. AsiaCCS. Published, 07/2023.
  • Joe Breen (2021). POWDER: Platform for open wireless data-driven experimental research. Elsevier. Vol. 197. Published, 10/2021.
  • Joe Breen (2021). Mobile and wireless research on the POWDER platform. ACM. Published, 06/2021.
  • Yuxuan Zhao, Dmitry Duplyakin, Robert Ricci & Alexandru Uta (2021). Cloud Performance Variability Prediction. SPEC. Published, 04/2021.
  • Rufaida Ahmed , Joseph Porter , Abubaker Abdelmutalab & Robert Ricci (2020). A Year of Automated Anomaly Detection in a Datacenter. Rufaida Ahmed. Published, 11/2020.
  • Joe Breen & et al (2020). POWDER: Platform for Open Wireless Data-driven Experimental Research. Proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation and Characterization (WiNTECH). Published, 09/2020.
  • Dmitry Duplyakin , Alexandru Uta , Aleksander Maricq & Robert Ricci (2020). In Datacenter Performance, The Only Constant Is Change. Proceedings of the Twentieth IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing (CCGrid). Published, 04/2020.
  • Alexandru Uta , Alexandru Custura , Dmitry Duplyakin , Ivo Jimenez , Jan Rellermeyer , Carlos Maltzahn , Robert Ricci & Alexandru Iosup (2020). Is Big Data Performance Reproducible in Modern Cloud Networks?. Proceedings of the Seventeenth USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI). Published, 02/2020.
  • Dmitry Duplyakin, Alexandru Uta, Aleksander Maricq & Robert Ricci (2019). On Studying CPU Performance of CloudLab Hardware. MERIT. Published, 10/2019.
  • Sonika Jindal (2019). MME-FaaS Cloud-Native Control for Mobile Networks. ACM. Published, 10/2019.
  • Richard Li, Min Du, David Johnson, Robert Ricci, Jacobus Van der Merwe & Eric Eide (2019). Fluorescence: Detecting Kernel-Resident Malware in Clouds. USENIX. Published, 08/2019.
  • Dmitry Duplyakin, Robert Ricci, Aleksander Maricq, Gary Wong, Jonathon Duerig, Eric Eide, Leigh Stoller, Mike Hibler, David Johnson, Kirk Webb, Aditya Akella, Kuangching Wang, Glenn Ricart, Larry Landweber, Chip Elliott, Michael Zink, Emmanuel Cecchet, Snigdhaswin Kar & Prabodh Mishra (2019). The Design and Operation of CloudLab. USENIX. Published, 07/2019.
  • Hyunwook Baek, Eric Eide, Robert Ricci & Jacobus Van der Merwe (2018). I Heard It through the Firewall: Exploiting Cloud Management Services as an Information Leakage Channel. Proceedings of the Symposium on Cloud Computing (SoCC). Published, 10/2018.
    http://www.flux.utah.edu/paper/baek-socc18
  • Rufaida Ahmed, Zirak Zaheer, Cai Li & Robert Ricci (2018). Harpocrates: Giving Out Your Secrets and Keeping Them Too. IEEE Conference on Secure Edge Computing (IEE SEC). Published, 10/2018.
    http://www.flux.utah.edu/paper/ahmed-sec18
  • Chinmay Kulkarni, Sara Moore, Mazhar Naqvi, Tian Zhang, Robert Ricci & Ryan Stutsman (2018). Splinter: Bare-Metal Extensions for Multi-Tenant Low-Latency Storage. Proceedings of the Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI). Published, 10/2018.
    http://www.flux.utah.edu/paper/kulkarni-osdi18
  • Aleksander Maricq, Dmitry Duplyakin, Ivo Jiminez, Carlos Maltzahn, Ryan Stutsman & Robert Ricci (2018). Taming Performance Variability. Proceedings of the Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI). Published, 10/2018.
    http://www.flux.utah.edu/paper/maricq-osdi18
  • Haryadi S. Gunawi (2018). Fail-Slow at Scale: Evidence of Hardware Performance Faults in Large Production Systems. USENIX. Published, 02/2018.
  • Chinmay Kulkarni , Aniraj Kesavan, Tian Zhang, Robert Ricci & Ryan Stutsman (2017). Rocksteady: Fast Migration for Low-latency In-memory Storage. Proceedings of the Symposium on Operating System Principles (SOSP). Published, 10/2017.
  • Dmitry Duplyakin, David Johnson & Robert Ricci (2017). The Part-Time Cloud: Enabling Balanced Elasticity Between Diverse Computing Environments. Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop on Scientific Cloud Computing (ScienceCloud). Published, 06/2017.
  • Mukund Raj, Mahsa Mizaragar, Robert Ricci, Robert Kirby & Ross Whitaker (2017). Path Boxplots: A Method for Characterizing Uncertainty in Path Ensembles on a Graph. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics (JCGS). Vol. 26, 243-252. Published, 01/2017.
  • "To Copy or Not to Copy: Making In-Memory Databases Fast on Modern NICs" in IMDM. Published, 10/2016.
  • "Active Learning in Performance Analysis" in IEEE Cluster. Published, 10/2016.
  • "The GENI Book", Springer International Publications. Published, 08/2016.
  • "The Need for Flexible Mid-scale Computing Infrastructure” in "The GENI Book". Published, 08/2016.
  • “The InstaGENI Project” in "The GENI Book". Published, 08/2016.
  • “Emulab” in "The GENI Book". Published, 08/2016.
  • “KnowNet: Towards a Knowledge Plane for Enterprise Network Management” in NOMS. Published, 04/2016.
  • “Introducing ConƟguration Management Capabilities into CloudLab Experiments” in CNERT (Awarded Best Paper). Published, 04/2016.
  • “OpenEdge: A Dynamic and Secure Open Service Edge Network” in NOMS. Published, 04/2016.
  • “Realistic Packet Reordering for Network Emulation and Simulation”. Aisha Syed and Robert Ricci. In Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT), December 2015. Published, 12/2015.
  • “POTASSIUM: Penetration Testing as a Service”. Richard Li, Dallin Abendroth, Xing Lin, Yuankai Guo, Hyun wook Baek, Eric Eide, Robert Ricci, and Jacobus Van der Merwe. In Proceedings of the Sixth ACM SymposiumonCloudComputing(SOCC),August2015. Published, 08/2015.
  • “Trust as the Foundation of Resource Exchange in GENI”. Marshall Brinn, Nicholas Bastin, Andrew Bavier, Mark Berman, Jeffrey Chase, and Robert Ricci. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities(Tridentcom), June2015. Published, 06/2015.
  • “Metadata Considered Harmful ... to Deduplication”. Xing Lin, Fred Douglis, Jim Li, Xudong Li, Robert Ricci, Stephen Smaldone, and Grant Wallace. In Proceedings of the 7th USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Storage and File Systems, June2015. Published, 06/2015.
  • “Using Deduplicating Storage for Efficient Disk Image Deployment”. Xing Lin, Mike Hibler, Eric Eide, and Robert Ricci. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities (Tridentcom), June2015. Published, 06/2015.
  • “PhantomNet: Research Infrastructure for Mobile Networking, Cloud Computing and Software-De ned Networking”. Arijit Banerjee, Junguk Cho, Eric Eide, Jonathon Duerig, Binh Nguyen, Robert Ricci, Jacobus Van der Merwe, Kirk Webb, and Gary Wong. ACM GetMobile, 19(2),April2015. Published, 04/2015.
  • “Apt: A Platform for Repeatable Research in Computer Science”. Robert Ricci, Gary Wong, Leigh Stoller, Kirk Webb, Jonathon Duerig, Keith Downie, and Mike Hibler. ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review,49(1),January2015. Published, 01/2015.
  • “The InstaGENI Initiative: An Architecture for Distributed Systems and Advanced Programmable Networks”. Nicholas Bastin, Andy Bavier, Jessica Blaine, Jim Chen, Narayan Krishnan, Joe Mambretti, Rick McGeer, Robert Ricci, and Nicki Watts. Computer Networks, 2014. Published, 03/2014.
  • “GENI: A Federated Testbed For Innovative Network Experiments”. Mark Berman, Jeffrey S Chase, Lawrence Landweber, Akihiro Nakao, Max Ott, Dipankar Raychaudhuri, Robert Ricci, and Ivan Seskar. Computer Networks, 2014. Published, 03/2014.
  • “Weir: A Streaming Language for Performance Analysis”. Anton Burtsev, Nikhil Mishrikoti, Eric Eide, and Robert Ricci. In Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Programming Languages and Operating Systems(PLOS),November2013. Published, 11/2013.
  • “Fast and Flexible: Parallel Packet Processing with GPUs and Click”. Weibin Sun and Robert Ricci. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE Symposium on Architectures for Networking and Communications Systems(ANCS),October2013. Published, 10/2013.
  • Trusted Disk Loading in the Emulab Network Testbed. Cody Cutler, Mike Hibler, Eric Eide, and Robert Ricci. In Proceedings of CSET '10, Washington DC, August 2010. Published, 08/2010.
    http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/papers/tdls-cset10-bas...

Research Statement

My research interests are in the fields of computer systems, networking, and
cloud computing.  Because experimentation is central to both systems and
networking research, much of my energy has gone into creating top-quality
experimental environments.  Designing these environments raises a number of
different research problems, and I have worked in a diverse set of areas
including distributed systems, combinatorial optimization, security,
networking, simulation, and embedded systems.  Much of my research has been
done in the context of the widely-used Emulab testbed and its successors such
as CloudLab---I have been a primary architect and implementor of Emulab since
2000.

Research Keywords

  • Computer Systems
  • Computer Security
  • Computer Networks
  • Cloud Computing

Presentations

  • Testbed Update: CloudLab. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/2023.
  • Tutorial: CloudLab for Education. Other, Presented, 05/2023.
  • The Ethics of Collecting Internet Attack Data. Other, Presented, 08/2022.
  • Taming Performance Variability in Systems Performance Experiments (Talk presented to MongoDB Inc performance interest group). Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/2020.
  • Computing Infrastructure for the Future of Our Networked World. Talk given to the University of Utah Alumni Association. Other, Presented, 08/2020.
  • Gathering Reliable Performance Measurements in the Cloud (Keynote talk at the 3rd Workshop on Hot Topics in Cloud Computing Performance.). Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2020.
  • Considerations When Planning for Future MERIs. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/2020.
  • Why We Need Testbeds for Cloud Computing. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/2019.
  • The POWDER/Renew Platform for Mobile and Wireless Research. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/2019.
  • Running 5G Networks on POWDER (demo). Other, Presented, 06/2019.
  • CloudLab: Flexible, Scientific Infrastructure for Research on the Future of Cloud Computing. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2019.
  • Infrastructure For Building Cyber Experimentation Testbeds. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 08/2017.
  • Grand Rounds: Research Reproducibility "Software for Reproducibility" . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 07/2017.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY83D7Jmcrw&featur...
  • Cloud Research With CloudLab, University of Colorado Boulder. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2017.
  • Repeatable Experimentation in PhantomNet, Tutorial at SIGCOMM 2016. Other, Presented, 08/2016.
  • Cloud Research With CloudLab, invited talk at Texas Tech. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2016.
  • Infrastructure for Computer Systems Experimentation, Invited talk, TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 12/2015.
  • Building Community Around Testbeds, Invited talk, NSF Workshop on Accessible Remote Testbeds, Washington, DC. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/2015.
  • ProtoGENI hands-on tutorial given at GENI Engineering Conference 12, with assistance from other Utah personnel and the University of Kentucky. Other, Presented, 11/2011.
  • "Managing Trust in Federated Testbed" at the Symposium on Network Virtualization in Tokyo, Japan. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/2011.
  • ProtoGENI hands-on tutorial given at GENI Engineering Conference 10, with assistance from other Utah personnel and the University of Kentucky. Other, Presented, 07/2011.
  • ProtoGENI hands-on tutorial given at GENI Engineering Conference 9, with assistance from other Utah personnel and the University of Kentucky. Other, Presented, 10/2010.

Research Groups

  • Alex Orange, Technician. 01/2019 - present.
  • Dmitry Duplyakin, Postdoc. 08/2017 - 01/2020.
  • Aleksander Maricq, Technician. 01/2017 - present.
  • Keith Downie, Undergraduate Student. 10/2014 - 06/2017.
  • Anton Burtsev, Other. School of Computing. 08/2013 - 07/2017.
  • Yathindra Dev Naik, Graduate Student. School of Computing. 08/2011 - 08/2013.
  • Srikanth Raju, Graduate Student. School of Computing. 08/2011 - 08/2013.
  • Fabien Hermenier, Postdoc. School of Computing. 03/2011 - 11/2011.
  • Vaibhav Sharma, Graduate Student. School of Computing. 08/2010 - 08/2011.
  • Leigh Stoller, Other. 08/2010 - present.
  • Woojin Seok, Other. 08/2010 - 07/2011.
  • Ravin Abraham, Graduate Student. School of Computing. 05/2010 - 08/2010.
  • Srikanth Chikkulapelly, Graduate Student. School of Computing. 01/2010 - 08/2011.
  • Matt Strum, Undergraduate Student. Computer Engineering. 08/2009 - 08/2013.
  • Cody Cutler, Undergraduate Student. School of Computing. 08/2009 - 05/2012.
  • Raghuveer Pullakandam, Graduate Student. School of Computing. 08/2009 - 08/2011.
  • Dan Reading, Technician. School of Computing. 04/2009 - 11/30/2023.
  • Gary Wong, Other. School of Computing. 01/2009 - present.
  • Jonathon Duerig, Other. School of Computing. 12/2008 - present.
  • Tarun Prabhu, Graduate Student. School of Computing. 08/2008 - 06/2010.
  • David Johnson, Other. School of Computing. 08/2008 - present.
  • Mike Hibler, Other. School of Computing. 01/1986 - present.

Research Equipment and Testing Expertise

  • CloudLab: Flexible, scientific infrastructure for research on the future of cloud computing. Researchers use CloudLab to build their own clouds, experimenting with new architectures that will form the basis for the next generation of computing platforms. Contact: contact@cloudlab.us .
  • Emulab is a network testbed, giving researchers a wide range of environments in which to develop, debug, and evaluate their systems. The name Emulab refers both to a facility and to a software system. The primary Emulab installation is run by the Flux Group, part of the School of Computing at the University of Utah. There are also installations of the Emulab software at more than two dozen sites around the world, ranging from testbeds with a handful of nodes up to testbeds with hundreds of nodes. Emulab is widely used by computer science researchers in the fields of networking and distributed systems. It is also designed to support education, and has been used to teach classes in those fields. Contact: testbed-ops@emulab.net .

Geographical Regions of Interest

  • Netherlands
    Hosted a visiting research from VU Amsterdam.

Software Titles

  • Emulab / ProtoGENI / CloudLab / Powder Software. Software used to manage testbeds; used at Utah to run Emulab, CloudLab, Apt, Powder, PhantomNet, and ProtoGENI. Release Date: 01/01/2022.
  • Emulab / ProtoGENI / CloudLab / Powder Software. Software used to manage testbeds; used at Utah to run Emulab, CloudLab, Apt, Powder, PhantomNet, and ProtoGENI; used at more than four dozen other sites worldwide to run related facilities. Release Date: 01/2021.
  • Emulab / ProtoGENI / CloudLab / Powder Software. Software used to manage testbeds; used at Utah to run Emulab, CloudLab, Apt, Powder, PhantomNet, and ProtoGENI; used at more than four dozen other sites worldwide to run related facilities. Release Date: 01/2018.
  • Emulab / ProtoGENI / CloudLab Software. Software used to manage testbeds; used at Utah to run Emulab, CloudLab, Apt, PhantomNet, and ProtoGENI; used at more than four dozen other sites worldwide to run related facilities. Release Date: 01/2017.
  • Emulab / ProtoGENI / CloudLab Software. Software used to manage testbeds; used at Utah to run Emulab, CloudLab, Apt, PhantomNet, and ProtoGENI; used at more than four dozen other sites worldwide to run related facilities. Release Date: 01/2016. Distribution List: Public, open source.
  • Emulab Testbed Management Software. Software for managing testbeds for network and systems research. Released under an open source license, and used by dozens of universities and companies around the world. Periodic release of ongoing software. Release Date: 01/2013.
  • Emulab Testbed Management Software. Software for managing testbeds for network and systems research. Released under an open source license, and used by dozens of universities and companies around the world. Periodic release of ongoing software. Release Date: 01/2012.
  • Emulab Testbed Management Software. Software for managing testbeds for network and systems research. Released under an open source license, and used by dozens of universities and companies around the world. Periodic release of ongoing software. Release Date: 01/2011.
  • Emulab Testbed Management Software. Software for managing testbeds for network and systems research. Released under an open source license, and used by dozens of universities and companies around the world. Release Date: 01/2010.