## Recent Publications

Jesus P.  2012.   Abstractpaulo_cesar_de_oliveira_jesus.pdf

Distributed aggregation algorithms are an important building block of modern large scale systems, as it allows the determination of meaningful system-wide properties (e.g., network size, total storage capacity, average load, or majorities) which are required to direct the execution of distributed applications. In the last decade, several algorithms have been proposed to address the distributed computation of aggregation functions (e.g., COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, and MAX/MIN), exhibiting different properties in terms of accuracy, speed and communication tradeoffs. However, existing approaches exhibit many issues when challenged in faulty and dynamic environments, lacking in terms of fault-tolerance and support to churn.
This study details a novel distributed aggregation approach, named Flow Updating, which is fault-tolerant and able to operate on dynamics networks. The algorithm is based on manipulating flows (inspired by the concept from graph theory), that are updated using idempotent messages, providing it with unique robustness capabilities. Experimental results showed that Flow Updating outperforms previous averaging algorithms in terms of time and message complexity, and unlike them it self adapts to churn and changes of the initial input values without requiring any periodic restart, supporting node crashes and high levels of message loss.
In addition to this main contribution, others can also be found in this research work, namely: a definition of the aggregation problem is proposed; existing distributed aggregation algorithm are surveyed and classified into a comprehensive taxonomy; a novel algorithm is introduced, based on Flow Updating, to estimate the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of a global system attribute.
It is expected that this work will constitute a relevant contribution to the area of distributed computing, in particular to the robust distributed computation of aggregation functions in dynamic networks.

Vilaça R.  2012.   Abstractricardo_manuel_pereira_vilaca.pdf

Large scale data stores have been initially introduced to support a few concrete extreme scale applications such as social networks. Their scalability and availability requirements often outweigh sacrificing richer data and processing models, and even elementary data consistency. In strong contrast with traditional relational databases (RDBMS), large scale data stores present very simple data models and APIs, lacking most of the established relational data management operations; and relax consistency guarantees, providing eventual consistency. With a number of alternatives now available and mature, there is an increasing willingness to use them in a wider and more diverse spectrum of applications, by skewing the current trade-off towards the needs of common business users, and easing the migration from current RDBMS. This is particularly so when used in the context of a Cloud solution such as in a Platform as a Service (PaaS). This thesis aims at reducing the gap between traditional RDBMS and large scale data stores, by seeking mechanisms to provide additional consistency guarantees and higher level data processing primitives in large scale data stores. The devised mechanisms should not hinder the scalability and dependability of large scale data stores. Regarding, higher level data processing primitives this thesis explores two complementary approaches: by extending data stores with additional operations such as general multi-item operations; and by coupling data stores with other existent processing facilities without hindering scalability. We address this challenges with a new architecture for large scale data stores, efficient multi item access for large scale data stores, and SQL processing atop large scale data stores. The novel architecture allows to find the right trade-offs among flexible usage, efficiency, and fault-tolerance. To efficient support multi item access we extend first generation large scale data store’s data models with tags and a multi-tuple data placement strategy, that allow to efficiently store and retrieve large sets of related data at once. For efficient SQL support atop scalable data stores we devise design modifications to existing relational SQL query engines, allowing them to be distributed. We demonstrate our approaches with running prototypes and extensive experimental evaluation using proper workloads.

Mendes J.  2012.   Abstractmscthesis.pdf

Shoker A.  2012.   AbstractPaper

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is becoming crucial with the revolution of online applications and due to the increasing number of innovations in computer technologies. Although dozens of BFT protocols have been introduced in the previous decade, their adoption by practitioners sounds disappointing. To some extant, this indicates that existing protocols are, perhaps, not yet too convincing or satisfactory. The problem is that researchers are still trying to establish the best protocol' using traditional methods, e.g., through designing new protocols. However, theoretical and experimental analyses demonstrate that it is hard to achieve one-size-fits-all BFT protocols. Indeed, we believe that looking for smarter tactics like fasten fragile sticks with a rope to achieve a solid stick' is necessary to circumvent the issue. In this thesis, we introduce the first BFT selection model and algorithm that automate and simplify the election process of the preferred' BFT protocol among a set of candidate ones. The selection mechanism operates in three modes: Static, Dynamic, and Heuristic. For the two latter modes, we present a novel BFT system, called Adapt, that reacts to any potential changes in the system conditions and switches dynamically between existing BFT protocols, i.e., seeking adaptation. The Static mode allows BFT users to choose a single BFT protocol only once. This is quite useful in Web Services and Clouds where BFT can be sold as a service (and signed in the SLA contract). This mode is basically designed for systems that do not have too fluctuating states. In this mode, an evaluation process is in charge of matching the user preferences against the profiles of the nominated BFT protocols considering both: reliability, and performance. The elected protocol is the one that achieves the highest evaluation score. The mechanism is well automated via mathematical matrices, and produces selections that are reasonable and close to reality. Some systems, however, may experience fluttering conditions, like variable contention or message payloads. In this case, the static mode will not be efficient since a chosen protocol might not fit the new conditions. The Dynamic mode solves this issue. Adapt combines a collection of BFT protocols and switches between them, thus, adapting to the changes of the underlying system state. Consequently, the preferred' protocol is always polled for each system state. This yields an optimal quality of service, i.e., reliability and performance. Adapt monitors the system state through its \emph{Event System}, and uses a Support Vector Regression method to conduct run time predictions for the performance of the protocols (e.g., throughput, latency, etc). Adapt also operates in a Heuristic mode. Using predefined heuristics, this mode optimizes user preferences to improve the selection process. The evaluation of our approach shows that selecting the preferred' protocol is automated and close to reality in the static mode. In the Dynamic mode, Adapt always achieves the optimal performance among available protocols. The evaluation demonstrates that the overall system performance can be improved significantly too. Other cases explore that it is not always worthy to switch between protocols. This is made possible through conducting predictions with high accuracy, that can reach more than 98% in many cases. Finally, the thesis shows that Adapt can be smarter through using heuristics.

Cunha J.  2011.   Abstractthesis.pdf

Spreadsheets can be viewed as programming languages for non-professional programmers. These so-called `end-user'' programmers vastly outnumber professional programmers creating millions of new spreadsheets every year. As a programming language, spreadsheets lack support for abstraction, testing, encapsulation, or structured programming. As a result, and as numerous studies have shown, the high rate of production is accompanied by an alarming high rate of errors. Some studies report that up to 90% of real-world spreadsheets contain errors. After their initial creation, many spreadsheets turn out to be used for storing and processing increasing amounts of data and supporting increasing numbers of users over long periods of time, making them complicated systems.
An emerging solution to handle the complex and evolving software systems is Model-driven Engineering (MDE). To consider models as first class entities and any software artifact as a model or a model element is one of the basic principles of MDE.
We adopted some techniques from MDE to solve spreadsheet problems. Most spreadsheets (if not all) lack a proper specification or a model. Using reverse engineering techniques we are able to derive various models from legacy spreadsheets. We use functional dependencies (a formalism that allow us to define how some column values depend on other column values) as building blocks for these models. Models can be used for several spreadsheet improvements, namely refactoring, safe evolution, migration or even generation of edit assistance. The techniques presented in this work are available under the framework HAEXCEL that we developed. It is composed of online and batch tools, reusable HASKELL libraries and OpenOffice.org extensions.
A study with several end-users was organized to survey the impact of the techniques we designed. The results of this study indicate that the models can bring great benefits to spreadsheet engineering helping users to commit less errors and to work faster.

Proenca J.  2011.   Abstractthesis-colour.pdf

Coordination is a relatively recent field, considerably inspired by concurrency theory [83, 85, 91]. Coordination languages and models [90] are based on the philosophy that an application or a system should be divided into the parts that perform computations, typically components or services, and the parts that coordinate the results and resources required to perform the computations. The coordination aspect focuses on the latter, describing how the components or services are connected. In this thesis we study a specific class of coordination models, namely synchronous, exogenous, and composable models, and we exploit implementation techniques for such models in distributed environments. Our work concentrates on the Reo coordination model [8] as the main representative of this class of coordination models.

Macedo N.  2010.   Abstractnunomacedomsc.pdf

Every program starts from a model, an abstraction, which is iteratively re ned until we reach the
nal result, the implementation. However, at the end, one must ask: does the nal program resemble
in anyway the original model? Was the original idea correct to begin with? Formal methods
guarantee that those questions are answered positively, resorting to mathematical techniques. In
particular, in this thesis we are interested on the second factor: veri cation of formal models.
A trend of formal methods defends that they should be lightweight, resulting in a reduced
complexity of the speci cation, and automated analysis. Alloy was proposed as a solution for this
problem. In Alloy, the structures are described using a simple mathematical notation: relational
logic. A tool for model checking, automatic veri cation within a given scope, is also provided.
However, sometimes model checking is not enough and the need arises to perform unbounded
veri cations. The only way to do this is to mathematically prove that the speci cations are correct.
As such, there is the need to nd a mathematical logic expressive enough to be able to represent
the speci cations, while still being su ciently understandable.
We see the point-free style, a style where there are no variables or quanti cations, as a kind
of Laplace transform, where complex problems are made simple. Being Alloy completely relational,
we believe that a point-free relational logic is the natural framework to reason about Alloy
speci cations.
Our goal is to present a translation from Alloy speci cations to a point-free relational calculus,
which can then be mathematically proven, either resorting to proof assistants or to manual proving.
Since our motivation for the use of point-free is simplicity, we will focus on obtaining expressions
that are simple enough for manipulation and proofs about them.

Silva A.  2010.   Abstractthesis.pdf

﻿Computer systems have widely spread since their appearance, and they now play a crucial role in many daily activities, with their deployment ranging from small home appliances to safety critical components, such as airplane or automobile control systems. Accidents caused by either hardware or software failure can have disastrous consequences, leading to the loss of human lives or causing enormous financial drawbacks. One of the greatest challenges of computer science is to cope with the fast evolution of computer systems and to develop formal techniques which facilitate the construction of dependable software and hardware systems. Since the early days of computer science, many scientists have searched for suitable models of computation and for specification languages that are appropriate for reasoning about such models. When devising a model for a particular system, there is a need to encode different features which capture the inherent behavior of the system. For instance, some systems have deterministic behavior (a calculator or an elevator), whereas others have inherently non-deterministic or probabilistic behavior (think of a casino slot machine). The rapidly increasing complexity of systems demands for compositional and unifying models of computation, as well as general methods and guidelines to derive specification languages.

Ferreira JF.  2010.   Abstractthesis-a4-colour.pdf

Algorithmic problem solving provides a radically new way of approaching and solving problems in general by using the advances that have been made in the basic principles of correct-by-construction algorithm design. The aim of this thesis is to provide educational material that shows how these advances can be used to support the teaching of mathematics and computing.
We rewrite material on elementary number theory and we show how the focus on the algorithmic content of the theory allows the systematisation of existing proofs and, more importantly, the construction of new knowledge in a practical and elegant way. For example, based on Euclid’s algorithm, we derive a new and efficient algorithm to enumerate the positive rational numbers in two different ways, and we develop a new and constructive proof of the two-squares theorem. Because the teaching of any subject can only be effective if the teacher has access to abundant and sufficiently varied educational material, we also include a catalogue of teaching scenarios. Teaching scenarios are fully worked out solutions to algorithmic problems together with detailed guidelines on the principles captured by the problem, how the problem is tackled, and how it is solved. Most of the scenarios have a recreational flavour and are designed to promote self-discovery by the students. Based on the material developed, we are convinced that goal-oriented, calculationa algorithmic skills can be used to enrich and reinvigorate the teaching of mathematics and computing.

Paulo J.  2009.   Abstractpp09.pdf

Keeping critical data safe and accessible from several locations has become a global preoccupation, either being this data personal, organizational or from applications. As a consequence of this issue, we verify the emergence of on-line storage services. In addition, there is the new paradigm of Cloud Computing, which brings new ideas to build services that allow users to store their data and run their applications in the Cloud. By doing a smart and efficient management of these services' storage, it is possible to improve the quality of service offered, as well as to optimize the usage of the infrastructure where the services run. This management is even more critical and complex when the infrastructure is composed by thousand of nodes running several virtual machines and sharing the same storage. The elimination of redundant data at these services' storage can be used to simplify and enhance this management.
This dissertation presents a solution to detect and eliminate duplicated data between virtual machines that run on the same physical host and write their virtual disks' data to a shared storage. A prototype that implements this solution is introduced and evaluated. Finally, a study that compares the efficiency of two different approaches used to eliminate redundant data in a personal data set is described.

Silva P.  2009.   Abstractthesis.pdf

The increased complexity of software systems together with the lack of tools and technique to support their development led to the so-called "software crisis". Different views about the problem originated diverse approaches to a possible solution, although it is now generally accepted that a "silver bullet" does not exist.
The formal methods view considers mathematical reasoning as fundamental to fulfill the most important property of software systems: correctness. However, since correctness proofs are generally difficult and expensive, only critical applications are regarded as potential targets for their use. Developments in tool support such as proof assistants, model checkers and abstract interpreters allows for reducing this cost and making proofs affordable to a wider range of applications. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of a tool is highly dependent of the underlying theory.
This dissertation follows a calculational proof style in which equality plays the fundamental role. Instead of the traditional logical approach, fork algebras, an extension of relation algebras, are used. In this setting, Galois connections are important because they reinforce the calculational nature of the algebraic approach, bringing additional structure to the calculus. Moreover, Galois connections enjoy several valuable proper- ties and allow for transformation in the domain of problems. In this dissertation, it is shown how fork algebras and Galois connections can be integrated together with the indirect equality principle. This combination offers a very powerful, generic device to tackle the complexity of proofs in program verification. This power is enhanced with the design of an innovative proof assistant prototype, the Galculator.

Matos M.  2009.   Abstractmasterthesis.pdf

Epidemic multicast is an emerging resilient and scalable approach to the reliable dissemination of application data in the context of very large scale distributed systems. Unfortunately, the resilience and scalability come at the cost of considerable redundancy which led to high resource consumption on both links and nodes. In environments with resource constrained links, such as in Cloud Computing infrastructure composed by data centers organized in a federation around the globe, the high resource consumption precludes the use of this class of protocols. The goal of this dissertation is therefore to cope with the constraints of these scenarios, by reducing the network load imposed on the constrained long distance links. This is achieved by constructing an overlay that reflects the characteristics of the links, and by using a dissemination protocol that takes into account locality when transmitting the message payloads. We conducted an extensive experimental evaluation that presents an improvement over an order of magnitude in the number of messages that traverse the costlier links, without endangering the resilience and scalability properties that make epidemic based protocols so attractive.

Nunes A.  2009.   AbstractP2P_content-push_in_the_Internet

Syndicated content-push in the Internet is a huge success, and web feeds are being used to convey various types of content: from news headlines, to podcasts and video podcasts, to being a feature in Web 2.0 websites. This diversity lead to the appearance of several frameworks, each tailored to a specific content type. At the same time, interest in social networking exploded, as more and more websites of this purpose were launched. Syndicated content and social networking websites are now intimately connected.
In this work, a generic, modular, p2p content-push architecture is proposed. It provides an evolutionary upgrade path based on the technologies already in use in the Internet for interoperability, thus without disrupting current infrastructure or changing participants’ habits. It also leverages social networks for content discovery and aggregation, using peer-to-peer protocols for distribution. A partial implementation of this architecture, dubbed SEEDS, is also presented.

Abreu R.  2009.   Abstractthesis_rui_abreu.pdf

Modern daily devices such as televisions rely increasingly on (embedded) software. Features implemented in software are often cheaper, easier, flexible to future modifications, and more portable than when implemented in hardware. Such properties are extremely important as, nowadays, many devices serve no single purpose but, instead, have several functionalities which need to be easily modified or upgraded to adhere to the high expectations of the consumers. As an example, a mobile phone is used not only to make phone calls but also, e.g., as a navigation system which has to contain the most upto-date navigation engine and maps.

Oliveira N.  2009.   Abstract

Since the dawn of times, curiosity and necessity to improve the quality of their life, led humans to find means to understand everything surrounding them, aiming at improving it. Whereas the creating abilities of some was growing, the capacity to comprehend of others follow their steps. Disassembling physical objects to comprehend the connections between the pieces in order to understand how they work together is a common human behavior. With the computers arrival, humans felt the necessity of applying the same techniques (disassemble to comprehend) to their programs.
Traditionally, these programs are written resorting to general-purpose programming languages. Hence, techniques and artifacts, used to aid on program comprehension, were built to facilitate the work of software programmers on maintaining and improving programs that were developed by others. Generally, these generic languages deal with concepts at a level that the human brain can hardly understand.
So understanding programs written in this languages is an hard task, because the distance between the concepts at the program level and the concepts at the problem level is too big.
Thus, as in politics, justice, medicine, etc. groups of words are regularly used facilitating the comprehension between people, also in programming, languages that address a specific domain were created. These programming languages raise the abstraction of the program domain, shortening the gap to the concepts of the problem domain.
Tools and techniques for program comprehension commonly address the program domain and they took little advantage of the problem domain. In this master’s thesis, the hypothesis that it is easier to comprehend a program when the underlying problem and program domains are known and a bridge between them is established, is assumed. Then, a program comprehension technique for domain specific languages,
is conceived, proposed and discussed. The main objective is to take advantage from the large knowledge about the problem domain inherent to the domain specific language, and to improve traditional program comprehension tools that only dealt, until then, with the program domain. This will create connections between both program and problem domains. The final result will show, visually, what happens internally
at the program domain level, synchronized with what happens externally, at problem level.