Parallel computing systems are capable of performing many calculations simultaneously, while distributed computing systems take advantage of a network of autonomous computers to complete tasks in a similar simultaneous fashion. In the past these systems were expensive and difficult to maintain, but ubiquitous networking and smaller computer sizes have made parallel and distributed systems much more common. Parallel systems can be a common as current multicore chip architectures, while a classic example of a distributed system are some arrangements of web servers as used by large companies like Amazon.

The PANDA group is current focused on various aspects of distributed systems and networks with particular attention paid to Quality of Service issues raised by multimedia delivery over the Internet. This include research problems related to points of view provided by networks, operating systems, systems architecture, and programming language. Current work includes projects such topics as:

• QoS guarantees in Multimedia delivery systems
• Security aspects and stateless detection
• SLA optimization
• Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
• Network support for multi-player games
• Network reliability
• Wireless Sensor Networks
• Distributed Trust and Digital Rights Management systems
• Operating Systems support for Multimedia Applications
• ISP IP network reconfiguration
• Interactive and Scalable Multimedia Streaming over the Internet/CDN

Current projects include:

• Traffic Engineering of VPLS Networks using Hose models
• High-Speed Switch Architectures
• Stateless Detection of Traffic Anomalies
• Botnets
• Multi-Constraint Routing