About Us

Mission

Our mission is to advance the state-of-the-art in cloud and smart system services while fostering innovation that impacts both academia and industry. With a commitment to excellence, we aim to position NITK Surathkal as a global leader in cloud and smart systems research. Whether you're curious about distributed systems, AI-driven optimizations, or secure architectures, CS^3 Lab is where ideas become reality.

Vision

At CS^3 Lab, we strive to push the boundaries of distributed computing paradigms by addressing real-world challenges through innovative research. By combining theoretical insights with practical implementations, our lab contributes to developing robust, intelligent systems that empower industries and improve lives. Our interdisciplinary approach allows us to leverage synergies between our research domains, creating holistic solutions for the complex digital ecosystems of tomorrow.

What We Do @ CS^3

At the Cloud & Smart System Services (CS^3) Lab, we explore innovative solutions to advance modern computing systems. Our research spans diverse domains, focusing on cutting-edge technologies that drive efficiency, scalability, and intelligence in cloud services and distributed systems. Below are the key areas of our expertise:

Cloud Systems
Fog-IoT
Serverless Computing
Blockchain Technologies

Cloud Systems

Focus: Single and Multi-Cloud Architectures, Virtualization, and Containerization.

Cloud computing forms the foundation of today's digital infrastructure. Our research tackles the challenges of designing and optimizing both single-cloud environments and complex multi-cloud architectures. We investigate novel approaches to resource allocation, workload management, and inter-cloud communication protocols that enhance performance while reducing operational costs. By leveraging technologies like virtual machines (VMs), containers, and virtualization strategies, we enable scalable and isolated service deployments. Our frameworks support container orchestration tools such as Kubernetes, allowing robust and dynamic cross-cloud integration so organizations can harness diverse provider capabilities without compromising reliability or security.

Fog-IoT

Focus: Middleware Development for IoT in Cloud Platforms, Edge Virtualization.

The explosive growth of IoT devices demands intelligent middleware solutions to bridge the gap between edge devices and cloud resources. Our research explores adaptive middleware frameworks that optimize data flow across the IoT-fog-cloud continuum. We utilize lightweight containerized services and edge virtualization techniques to minimize latency for time-sensitive applications while ensuring efficient resource usage. Our solutions address real-world challenges in smart environments, industrial automation, and connected healthcare, ensuring seamless integration between IoT devices and cloud-native services.

Serverless Computing

Focus: Function-as-a-Service (FaaS), Lightweight Containers.

Serverless computing represents a paradigm shift in application deployment and scaling. Our research explores the frontiers of FaaS architectures, examining techniques to overcome cold-start latency, optimize resource utilization, and enhance function orchestration. By embedding container-based execution environments within serverless platforms, we support rapid scaling and secure multi-tenant execution. Our frameworks enable complex workflows in serverless environments while minimizing execution costs. We also investigate hybrid models that integrate serverless with containerized edge services, unlocking new possibilities for latency-sensitive and resource-constrained applications.

Blockchain Technologies

Focus: Distributed Ledger Applications, Smart Contracts, Blockchain-Cloud Integration.

Blockchain technology offers revolutionary approaches to trust, transparency, and decentralization. Our research explores innovative applications of distributed ledger technologies across domains like supply chain, digital identity, and decentralized finance. We study scalable consensus mechanisms, energy-efficient protocols, and virtualized blockchain nodes to address performance bottlenecks. Our smart contract research emphasizes formal verification and secure execution, often deployed in containerized cloud-native environments for portability and efficiency. We are particularly interested in integrating blockchain with cloud systems, creating hybrid architectures that combine centralized performance with decentralized trust.

Focus: Single and Multi-Cloud Architectures, Virtualization, and Containerization.

Cloud computing forms the foundation of today's digital infrastructure. Our research tackles the challenges of designing and optimizing both single-cloud environments and complex multi-cloud architectures. We investigate novel approaches to resource allocation, workload management, and inter-cloud communication protocols that enhance performance while reducing operational costs. By leveraging technologies like virtual machines (VMs), containers, and virtualization strategies, we enable scalable and isolated service deployments. Our frameworks support container orchestration tools such as Kubernetes, allowing robust and dynamic cross-cloud integration so organizations can harness diverse provider capabilities without compromising reliability or security.

Focus: Middleware Development for IoT in Cloud Platforms, Edge Virtualization.

The explosive growth of IoT devices demands intelligent middleware solutions to bridge the gap between edge devices and cloud resources. Our research explores adaptive middleware frameworks that optimize data flow across the IoT-fog-cloud continuum. We utilize lightweight containerized services and edge virtualization techniques to minimize latency for time-sensitive applications while ensuring efficient resource usage. Our solutions address real-world challenges in smart environments, industrial automation, and connected healthcare, ensuring seamless integration between IoT devices and cloud-native services.

Focus: Function-as-a-Service (FaaS), Lightweight Containers.

Serverless computing represents a paradigm shift in application deployment and scaling. Our research explores the frontiers of FaaS architectures, examining techniques to overcome cold-start latency, optimize resource utilization, and enhance function orchestration. By embedding container-based execution environments within serverless platforms, we support rapid scaling and secure multi-tenant execution. Our frameworks enable complex workflows in serverless environments while minimizing execution costs. We also investigate hybrid models that integrate serverless with containerized edge services, unlocking new possibilities for latency-sensitive and resource-constrained applications.

Focus: Distributed Ledger Applications, Smart Contracts, Blockchain-Cloud Integration.

Blockchain technology offers revolutionary approaches to trust, transparency, and decentralization. Our research explores innovative applications of distributed ledger technologies across domains like supply chain, digital identity, and decentralized finance. We study scalable consensus mechanisms, energy-efficient protocols, and virtualized blockchain nodes to address performance bottlenecks. Our smart contract research emphasizes formal verification and secure execution, often deployed in containerized cloud-native environments for portability and efficiency. We are particularly interested in integrating blockchain with cloud systems, creating hybrid architectures that combine centralized performance with decentralized trust.

Infrastructure @ CS^3

Server
Dedicated high end server

This dedicated high-performance server supports cloud-based research, simulation, and data-intensive workloads. It provides robust compute and storage infrastructure for running complex applications and virtual environments.

FoG
3 layers FoG setup

A scalable 3-layer Fog Computing testbed with 12 compute nodes and 2 controller nodes. Designed for edge-to-cloud experimentation, enabling real-time data processing, orchestration, and latency-sensitive IoT applications.