2022-05468 - Research Engineer in Operating Systems
Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
Fonction : Temporary scientific engineer
AssignmentEfficient lock algorithms are key to ensuring application scalability on multi-core architectures 1, 2, 3. While many lock algorithms have been proposed in the past decades to improve lock handover times under high contention as well as cache and NUMA locality, even the best lock algorithms can perform poorly due to unfortunate decisions from the OS scheduler.
The Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) makes it possible to inject verified code inside the Linux kernel. While BPF was historically used for packet filtering, it is now commonly used for profiling, and it has recently been used in more exotic use cases (e.g., 4).
We would like to use BPF to design a new family of lock algorithms that communicate and cooperate with the OS scheduler to overcome the limitations of the current state of the art.
As an engineer at Inria, you will help implement and evaluate this idea, with the objective of publishing the results in a top systems conference such as USENIX ATC or EuroSys.
1 Jean-Pierre Lozi, Florian David, Gaël Thomas, Julia Lawall, Gilles Muller. Remote Core Locking: migrating critical-section execution to improve the performance of multithreaded applications. USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC) 2012. https: // www. usenix.org/conference/atc12/technical-sessions/presentation/lozi
2 Tudor David, Rachid Guerraoui, Vasileios Trigonakis. Everything you always wanted to know about synchronization but were afraid to ask. Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) 2013. https: // dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2517349.2522714
3 Hugo Guiroux, Renaud Lachaize, Vivien Quéma. Multicore locks: the case is not closed yet. USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC) 2016. https: // www. usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical- sessions/presentation/guiroux
4 Yoann Ghigoff, Julien Sopena, Kahina Lazri, Antoine Blin, Gilles Muller. BMC: accelerating Memcached using safe in-kernel caching and pre-stack processing. Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI) 2021. https: // www. usenix.org/conference/nsdi21/presentation/ghigoff
Main activitiesMain activities (5 maximum) :
Additional activities (3 maximum) :
Required Skills:
Preferred Skills:
For applicants who don't already hold a PhD: there are opportunities for pursuing a PhD at Inria at the end of the contract.
Benefits packageTheme/Domain : Distributed Systems and middleware System & Networks (BAP E)
Town/city : Paris
Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.
Instruction to applyDefence Security : This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment.
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