Research Papers

International Journals:

J1. Juncal Alonso, Leire Orue-Echevarria, Maider Huarte. ACSmI: A solution to address the challenges of Cloud services federation and monitoring towards the Cloud Continuum.  Special issue on “Smart Cloud Applications, Services and Technologies”, International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering.  Inderscience. 2021. [H-21, Q3], relates to WP5.

Available online: https://www.inderscience.com/info/ingeneral/forthcoming.php?jcode=ijcse

This paper presents a solution for Cloud Brokerage and monitoring. ACSmI serves as baseline for the implementation of the IEC (Infrastructural Elements Catalogue) and the performance monitoring Key results in PIACERE.

J2. Alonso, J., Orue-Echevarria, L., Osaba, E., López Lobo, J., Martinez, I., Diaz de Arcaya, J., & Etxaniz, I. (2021). Optimization and Prediction Techniques for Self-Healing and Self-Learning Applications in a Trustworthy Cloud Continuum. Information, 12(8), 308. [Q2], Relates to WP5 & WP6.

Open access: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/12/8/308

In this work, authors describe some of the most important aspects that compose the PIACERE project, in which it is proposed the use of AI-based techniques to assist DevOps teams in the whole lifecycle of infrastructure management.

J3. Bin Xiang, Jocelyne Elias, Fabio Martignon, Elisabetta Di Nitto. Resource calendaring for mobile edge computing: Centralized and decentralized optimization approaches. Computer Networks (ELSEVIER), 2021. [H-135, Q1], Relates to WP5.

Zenodo link: https://zenodo.org/record/5495557#.Yqh-dBNByko

Resource calendaring permits to exploit the intrinsic flexibility in the services demanded by different users, whose starting time can be shifted without penalizing the utility perceived by the user while, at the same time, permitting a better resource utilization in the network. Both the centralized and decentralized optimization approaches for resource calendaring studied in this paper can be used in PIACERE IOP in the edge computing scenarios.

J4. Bin Xiang, Jocelyne Elias, Fabio Martignon, Elisabetta Di Nitto. Joint planning of network slicing and mobile edge computing: Models and algorithms. IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, 2021. [H-49, Q1], Relates to WP5.

Zenodo link: https://zenodo.org/record/5495727#.Yqh_ERNByko  

Jointly planning the availability of computational resources at the edge, the slicing of mobile network and edge computation resources allows the network operator to fine tune the network operation cost and the total latency experienced by users. The optimization approach for resource planning studied in this paper can be used in PIACERE IOP in the edge computing scenarios.

J5. Bin Xiang, Jocelyne Elias, Fabio Martignon, Elisabetta Di Nitto. A dataset for mobile edge computing network topologies, Data in Brief, Volume 39, 2021, 107557, ISSN 2352-3409, [H-37, Q4], Relates to WP5.

Zenodo link: https://zenodo.org/record/6471276#.Yqh_NhNByko    

In the present paper we provide data related to 3 randomly generated topologies, with increasing network size (from 25 to 100 nodes). Moreover, we propose a MEC topology generated from OpenCellID real data and concerning the Base Stations’ location of 234 LTE cells owned by a mobile operator (Vodafone) in the center of Milan. We also provide realistic reference parameters (link bandwidth computation and storage capacity, offered traffic), derived from real services provided by MEC in the deployment of 5G networks.

J6. Juncal Alonso, Leire Orue-Echevarria, Maider Huarte. CloudOps: Towards the Operationalization of the Cloud Continuum. MDPI Applied Sciences. Basel 2022, 12(9), [Q2], relates to WP2. ​

Zenodo link: https://zenodo.org/record/6874682#.YvS1A3ZBxPY

Available online:​ https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/9/4347/pdf

This paper presents a solution for Cloud Brokerage and monitoring. ACSmI serves as baseline for the implementation of the IEC (Infrastructural Elements Catalogue) and the performance monitoring Key results in PIACERE.

J7. Juncal Alonso, Leire Orue-Echevarria, Ana Isabel Torre, Maider Huarte, Ana Juan, Valentina Casola. Understanding the challenges and opportunities of Multi-Cloud native applications – A systematic literature review. Journal of Cloud Computing. Relates to WP2.

The goal of this study is manifold. Firstly, it aims to characterize the multi-cloud concept from the application development perspective by reviewing existing defnitions of multi-cloud native applications in the literature. Secondly, we set up the basis for the architectural characterization of these kind of applications. Finally, we highlight several open research issues drawn up from the analysis carried out.

Available online: Understanding the challenges and novel architectural models of multi-cloud native applications – a systematic literature review.pdf

J8. Juncal Alonso, Radoslaw Piliszek, Matija Cankar. Embracing IaC through the DevSecOps philosophy: Concepts, challenges, and a reference framework. IEEE Software, Special issue: Special Issue on Infrastructure-as-Code Unleashed. Relates to WP2.

We introduce the challenges of DevSecOps philosophy and its applicability to the development and operation of trustworthy infrastructure-ascode, and we combine the solutions into a single framework covering all crucial steps. Finally, we discuss how the proposed framework addresses the challenges and introduce an initial design for it.

Available online: Embracing IaC Through the DevSecOps Philosophy: Concepts, Challenges, and a Reference Framework | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore

International Conferences:

C1. Juncal Alonso, Christophe Joubert, Leire Orue-Echevarria, Matteo Pradella, Daniel Vladusic. Programming trustworthy Infrastructure As Code in a Secure Framework. First SWForum workshop on trustworthy software and open source (SWForum.eu). CEUR-WS.org, ISSN 1613-0073 Vol 2878. 2021, pp. 16-23. Relates to WP2.

Zenodo link: https://zenodo.org/record/6881894#.YvS0lnZBxPY

Available online: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2878/paper2.pdf

This paper presents PIACERE as a whole at conceptual level. The presentation in the workshop has been used to gather feedback on the PIACERE solution and approach.

C2. Galia Nedeltcheva, Alfonso De La Fuente Ruiz, Leire Orue-Echevarria Arrieta, Nejc Bat, Lorenzo Blasi. Towards Supporting the Generation of Infrastructure as Code Through Modelling Approaches – Systematic Literature Review. 2022 IEEE 19th International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C). First International Workshop on the Foundations of Infrastructure Specification and Testing (FIST 2022). IEEE, Hawaii. 12-14 March 2022. eCF Paper Id: 1643378438288, Relates to WP3.

Available online: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9779836

The paper presents a structured literature review (SLR) for what concerns the aspects: Infrastructure as a Code (IaC) languages, modelling approaches supporting the generation of IaC, categories of languages, and their characteristics, and security analysis techniques. An extensive study has been performed on the generation of the Infrastructure as Code modelling approaches that are relevant to PIACERE DOML (DevSecOps modelling language) specifically, in order to study which DOML requirements could be satisfied by each approach.

C3. Michele Chiari, Michele De Pascalis, Matteo Pradella. Static Analysis of Infrastructure as Code: a Survey. 2022 IEEE 19th International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C). First International Workshop on the Foundations of Infrastructure Specification and Testing (FIST 2022). IEEE, Hawaii. 12-14 March 2022. Relates to WP4.

ArXive link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.10344

Available online: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9779848

This is a literature review on static analysis approaches for IaC, which covers methods based on code smell detection, data mining, and model checking. Its purpose within the project was to analyse the state of the art on static verification tools upon which to build the DOML Model Checker (WP4).

C4. Michele Chiari, Elisabetta Di Nitto, Adrián Noguero Mucientes, Bin Xiang. Developing a New DevOps Modelling Language to Support the Creation of Infrastructure as Code. European Conference on Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing (ESOCC 2022). 22-24 March 2022. Relates to WP3.

Zenodo link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6697369

Repository link:  https://www.piacere-doml.deib.polimi.it/publications/ESOCCProjectTrack.pdf

This is a short paper giving an overview of the motivations for building the DOML, the principles behind it, and its current structure. In this paper we have not introduced new developments, but its purpose is pure dissemination, to receive feedback on the DOML ideas from an expert external audience.

C5. Osaba, E., Diaz-de-Arcaya, J., Orue-Echavarria, L., Alonso, J., López Lobo, J., Benguría G., & Etxaniz, I. (2022) PIACERE Project: Description and Prototype for Optimizing Infrastructure as Code Deployment Configurations. The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conferenc (GECCO 2022). 9-13 July 2022. Relates to WP5.

Available online: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3520304.3533938

The goal of this technical paper is to describe the preliminary approach followed in PIACERE for carrying out this optimization, and how the IOP fits into the whole PIACERE ecosystem. Additionally, results obtained in a preliminary experimentation are detailed in this study.

C6. N. Petrović, M. Cankar and A. Luzar, “Automated Approach to IaC Code Inspection Using Python-Based DevSecOps Tool,” 2022 30th Telecommunications Forum (TELFOR), 2022, pp. 1-4. Publisher IEEExplore, doi: 10.1109/TELFOR56187.2022.9983681. Relates to WP5, KR6.

Available online: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9983681

In this paper, we present an open-source Python-based tool with web-based graphical interface which enables automation of static code analysis and checks when it comes to Infrastructure as Code (IaC) scripts. The proposed tool is evaluated in several scenarios when it comes to terraform scripts.