Disaggregated heterogeneous data centers promise higher efficiency, lower total cost of ownership, and more flexibility for data center operators. However, current software stacks can levy a high tax on application performance. Applications and OSes are designed for systems where local PCIe-connected devices are centrally managed by CPUs, but this centralization introduces unnecessary messages through the shared data center network in a disaggregated system.

Blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum execute payment transactions securely, but their performance is limited by the need for global consensus. Payment networks overcome this limitation through off-chain transactions. Instead of writing to the blockchain for each transaction, they only settle the final payment balances with the underlying blockchain. When executing off-chain transactions in current payment networks, parties must access the blockchain within bounded time to detect misbehaving parties that deviate from the protocol.

SGX-LKL is a library OS designed to run unmodified Linux binaries inside SGX enclaves. It uses the Linux Kernel Library (LKL) (https://github.com/lkl/linux) to provide mature system support for complex applications within the enclave. SGX-LKL has support for in-enclave user-level threading, signal handling, and paging.

In cloud environments, security is a major concern to organisations that
must comply with strict confidentiality and integrity policies. Security has
emerged as a commercial imperative for cloud computing across a wide range of
applications domains. The lack of principled security guarantees therefore
becomes the primary barrier to the broad adoption of cloud computing.

Develops practical efficient techniques for data flow tracking in distributed systems

Explores how to monitor the information flow through cloud systems to reduce the likelihood of data disclosure.