The Systems Research Group (SRG) at Microsoft Research Asia conducts research in the theory and practice of building large-scale distributed systems. The group measures its success on how it advances system research frontiers and Microsoft’s product lines through technology transfer. Group members also reach out to collaborate with system researchers in Asia and the rest of the world.
 

Key Technologies for Ultra Large-Scale Distributed Systems

Distributed systems, where the power of many computing resources is aggregated, is the engine that powers the connected world we live in today. These systems enable data centers, machine rooms, and even Peer-to-Peer applications. The SRG seeks to advance the state-of-the-art by building secure, semantic-rich, energy-efficient, self-organizing, self-healing, and self-tuning distributed systems.

Fundamental and Applied Research in Distributed Computing

The SRG conducts basic systems research on fundamental distributed algorithms and protocols for large-scale and fault-tolerant distributed systems, formal specifications of distributed protocols, performance analysis, and comparison of distributed protocols. This research allows the SRG to create more robust distributed systems and advance the state-of-the-art in computer science.

Cutting-Edge Toolkit Suitable for the Development of Large-Scale Distributed Systems

This toolkit encompasses all important aspects of building a distributed system: development, debugging, simulations, verification, testing, and deployment. Additionally, it establishes a completely self-contained ecosystem for large-scale systems research and development.

Primary Contact: Zheng Zhang
Photo Not Available Chen, Ming	Photo Not Available Guo, Zhenyu	Photo Not Available kannan, Ravi	Lin, Wei
Photo Not Available Liu, Xuezheng	TANG, Jian	Yang, Mao	Zhang, Zheng
Affiliate Members
Akeley, Kurt	Hon, Hsiao-Wuen	Shen, Jacky	Zill, Brian

1. Towards Cinematic Internet Video-on-Demand
   "Towards Cinematic Internet Video-on-Demand", Bin Cheng, Lex Stein, Hai Jin, and Zheng Zhang, In Proceedings of ACM EuroSys 2008, Glasgow, Scotland, April 2008.
2. D3S: Debugging Deployed Distributed Systems
   @inproceedings{ D3S_NSDI'08, author = { Xuezheng Liu and Zhenyu Guo and Xi Wang and Feibo Chen and Xiaochen Lian and Jian Tang and Ming Wu and M. Frans Kaashoek and Zheng Zhang}, title = {D3S: Debugging Deployed Distributed Systems}, booktitle = {NSDI}, year = {2008}, }
3. Decentralized, Connectivity-Preserving, and Cost-Effective Structured Overlay Maintenance
   Yu Chen, Wei Chen, "Decentralized, Connectivity-Preserving, and Cost-Effective Structured Overlay Maintenance", SSS 2007
4. An Analytical Framework and Its Applications for Studying Brick Storage Reliability
   Ming Chen, Wei Chen, Likun Liu, and Zheng Zhang. "An analytical Framework and Its Applications for Studying Brick Storage Reliability". SRDS, 2007
5. Dependability, Access Diversity, Low Cost: Pick Two
   Ming Chen, Lex Stein, Zheng Zhang, Dependability, Access Diversity, Low Cost: Pick Two", In Proceedings of 3rd USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in System Dependability (HotDep'07), Edinburg, Scotland, UK, June 2007.
6. An Empirical Study of Collusion Behavior in the Maze P2P File-Sharing System
   Qiao Lian, Zheng Zhang, Mao Yang, Ben Y. Zhao, Yafei Dai, Xiaoming Li, "An Empirical Study of Collusion Behavior in the Maze P2P File-Sharing System", International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS 2007), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 2007.
7. A Multi-dimensional Reputation System Combined with Trust and Incentive Mechanisms in P2P File Sharing Systems
   Mao Yang, Qinyuan Feng, Yafei Dai, Zheng Zhang, "A Multi-dimensional Reputation System Combined with Trust and Incentive Mechanisms in P2P File Sharing Systems", 1st Int. Workshop on Trust and Reputation Management in Massively Distributed Computing Systems (TRAM 2007, Conjunction with ICDCS 2007), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 2007.
8. WiDS Checker: Combating Bugs in Distributed Systems
   Xuezheng Liu, Wei Lin, Aimin Pan, Zheng Zhang. "WiDS Checker: Combating Bugs in Distributed System". NSDI 2007
9. BitVault: a Highly Reliable Distributed Data Retention Platform
   Zheng Zhang, Qiao Lian, Shiding Lin, Wei Chen, Yu Chen, Chao Jin, BitVault: a Highly Reliable Distributed Data Retention Platform, ACM SIGOPS OSR Sepcial Topics 2007-04
10. Machine Bank: Own Your Virtual Personal Computer
    Shuo Tang, Yu Chen, Zheng Zhang, "Machine Bank: Own Your Virtual Personal Computer", IPDPS 2007
11. Can a File System Virtualize Processors?
    2007 ACM EuroSys Workshop on Virtualization for HPC
12. A Measurement Study of a Peer-to-Peer Video-on-Demand System
    IPTPS 2007
13. Automated Known Problem Diagnosis with Event Traces
    Chun Yuan (Microsoft), Ni Lao (Tsinghua), Ji-Rong Wen (Microsoft), Jiwei Li (USTC), Zheng Zhang (Microsoft), Yi-Min Wang (Microsoft) and Wei-Ying Ma (Microsoft), "Automated Known Problem Diagnosis with Event Traces", Eurosys 2006
14. Robust Incentives via Multi-level Tit-for-tat
    Qiao Lian (Microsoft Research Asia), Yu Peng (Peking University), Mao Yang, Zheng Zhang (Microsoft Research Asia), Yafei Dai, Xiaoming Li (Peking University) IPTPS’06
15. Enforcing Routing Consistency in Structured Peer-to-Peer Overlays: Should We and Could We?
    Wei Chen (Microsoft Research Asia), XueZheng Liu (Microsoft Research Asia) IPTPS’06
16. Sigma: A Fault-Tolerant Mutual Exclusion Algorithm in Dynamic Distributed Systems Subject to Process Crashes and Memory Losses
    PRDC11(2005)
17. BitVault: a Highly Reliable Distributed Data Retention Platform
    Zheng Zhang; Qiao Lian; Shiding Lin; Wei Chen; Yu Chen; Chao Jin, "BitVault: a Highly Reliable Distributed Data Retention Platform"
18. Simulating Large-Scale P2P Systems with the WiDS Toolkit
    MASCOTS'05
19. Z-Ring: Fast Prefix Routing via a Low Maintenance Membership Protocol
    Qiao Lian, Wei Chen, Zheng Zhang, Shaomei Wu, Ben Y. Zhao, Z-Ring: Fast Prefix Routing via a Low Maintenance Membership Protocol, ICNP'05
20. On the Impact of Replica Placement to the Reliability of Distributed Brick Storage System
    Qiao Lian, Wei Chen, Zheng Zhang, ICDCS'05

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