Quality critical distributed computing

We research the performance and service quality required by applications that have very high business value or social impact on advanced IT infrastructures. We focus on novel programming and control models for quality critical systems on programmable infrastructures such as Clouds, Edges, and SDNs using blockchain and AI.

Programmable networks

We focus on the delivery of secure and sustainable ICT services across multiple domains. Device programmability and virtualization will play in this field an ever-increasing role in designing networks and ICT infrastructures. Our research tackles the new questions that emerge from studying the interplay of these novel capabilities.

Learn more

Quantum networks and quantum computing

Secure multiparty quantum computation, quantum position verification, and near-term applications of quantum algorithms.

Data centric processing

Our research investigates an alternative to the current approach to model complex scientific experiments as workflow of dependent tasks, in this approach scientific data is interlinked though data processing transformations which can be discovered and used to create the data processing workflow and not the way around.

News

Newly accepted paper the ACM Computing Surveys journal

Trustworthy AI-based Performance Diagnosis Systems for Cloud Applications: A Review, ACM Computing Survey, 2025. This article systematically reviews trustworthiness requirements in AI-based performance diagnosis systems. We introduce trustworthiness requirements and extract six key requirements from a technical perspective, including data privacy, fairness, robustness, explainability, efficiency, and human intervention.

January 2025

Newly accepted paper in INFOCOM: Enhancing Position Verification in Multi-Node Quantum Networks

Our work evaluates and analyzes the performance and security of the quantum position verification task under real-world constraints, bringing this quantum network application one step closer to practical deployment. This work was supported by the Dutch National Growth Fund (NGF), as part of the Quantum Delta NL program.

January 2025

Operating ZKPs on Blockchain: A Performance Analysis Based on Hyperledger Fabric. Wins best paper in the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Decentralized Applications and Infrastructures (DAPPS)

abstract: Preserving privacy in blockchain-based systems is crucial for ensuring anonymity and confidentiality during transactions. While cryptographic solutions can address on-chain privacy concerns, their implementation on blockchains may introduce performance overhead, which remains unclear to researchers and practitioners.

January 2025

Newly Accepted paper in the Journal of Data and Information Quality

Data quality plays a vital role in scientific research and decision-making across industries. Thus it is crucial to incorporate the data quality control (DQC) process, which comprises various actions and operations to detect and correct data errors.

January 2025

See all

Projects

Current and past projects that the MNS group has contributed to over the years.

ARTICONF

ARTICONF (smART socIal media eCOsytstem in a blockchaiN Federated environment) ARTICONF provides personalized recommendations to social media users and enables them to collectively recommend and generate content, flag misinformation and earn rewards in return while ensuring no ownership violation.

Blue Cloud 2026

Blue-Cloud 2026 is a collaborative project that leverages Europe’s expertise in aquatic environmental observation and data handling. Building on existing infrastructures like Copernicus and EMODnet, Blue-Cloud aims to create a federated ecosystem for FAIR and open data in marine research.

Blue Cloud H2020

Blue-Cloud delivered a collaborative virtual environment to enhance FAIR and Open Science. Between October 2019 and March 2023, Blue-Cloud deployed a cyber platform with smart federation of an unprecedented wealth of multidisciplinary data repositories, analytical tools, and computing facilities to explore and demonstrate the potential of cloud-based Open Science and address ocean sustainability, UN Ocean Decade, and G7 Future of the Oceans objectives.

CATRIN

CATRIN (Controllable, Accountable, Transparent, and Reliable Internet) is a national project funded by NWO. It is aiming to propose and prototype a novel security-by-design concept and extension to the Internet that enhances digital sovereignty; that is the ability for end users to have control over their own digital destiny - the data, hardware, and software that they rely upon.

CLARIFY

CLARIFY (CLoud ARtificial Intelligence For pathologY) is an innovative, multinational, multi-sectorial, and multidisciplinary research and training programme that links two highly differentiated specialities: engineering and medicine, to produce 12 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and clinical pathology with the focus on digital pathology.

ENVRI-FAIR

ENVRI-FAIR (ENVironmental Research Infrastructures building Fair services Accessible for society, Innovation and Research). The overarching goal of EU-funded ENVRI-FAIR is to advance the findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIRness) of these digital assets and connect them to the emerging European Open Science Cloud.

ENVRI-hub Next

Researchers face challenges in accessing and analysing the wealth of environmental data scattered across numerous sources. ENVRI-Hub NEXT bridges this gap, offering a user-friendly platform for seamless access to data from environmental Research Infrastructures, fostering interdisciplinary research and driving breakthroughs in environmental science.

ENVRIplus

ENVRIplus (Support Environmental research with integrated solutions) ENVRIplus is a Horizon 2020 project bringing together Environmental and Earth System Research Infrastructures, projects and networks together with technical specialist partners to create a more coherent, interdisciplinary and interoperable cluster of Environmental Research Infrastructures across Europe.

EVERSE

The EVERSE project aims to create a framework for research software and code excellence, collaboratively designed and championed by the research communities, in pursuit of building a European network of Research Software Quality and setting the foundations of a future Virtual Institute for Research Software Excellence.

FNS-6G

The Future Network Services consortium consists of 60 companies, knowledge institutes and governments and focuses on developing the latest generation of mobile networks: 6G. The Netherlands has world-class expertise in network innovation, semiconductors and mobile applications essential for the development of this new network technology.

LifeWatch ERIC

LifeWatch ERIC tackles the constraints affecting biodiversity and ecosystem research, such as the pressing need for increasingly diverse data, larger and more advanced models, open data and open science clouds, making it possible to explore new frontiers in ecological science and support society in addressing planetary challenges.

LTER-life

The LTER-LIFE research project is developing a virtual lab to link long-term data and models about plants, animals and the environment. We want to share methods for data analysis, modeling and simulation.

Oscars

OSCARS brings together world-class European Research Infrastructures (RIs) in the ESFRI roadmap and beyond to foster the uptake of Open Science in Europe. The thematically oriented RIs are part of the five Science Clusters (Humanities and Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Photon and Neutron Science, Astronomy, Nuclear and Particle Physics), which have strived to enable Open Science by providing FAIR data management policies and practices, and by contributing to a model of federation for thematic services that support both disciplinary communities, multidisciplinary initiatives and the wider public with harmonised models for access to data, tools, workflows and training.

QDNL

Quantum Delta NL (QDNL) is a national program aimed at seizing opportunities in quantum technology, with well-defined goals, aspirations, and strategies. Our group is part of the QDNL project, exploring the hardware and software aspects of quantum networks, driving a robust approach toward developing nationwide quantum networks.

SWITCH

SWITCH (Software Workbench for Interactive, Time Critical and Highly self-adaptive Cloud applications). The SWITCH project addresses the urgent industrial need for developing and executing time critical applications in Clouds.Time critical applications such as disaster early warning, collaborative communication and live event broadcasting can only realise their expected business value when they meet critical requirements for performance and user experience.

VRE4EIC

VRE4EIC (A Europe-wide Interoperable Virtual Research Environment to Empower Multidisciplinary Research Communities) The VRE4EIC project addresses key data and software challenges in supporting multidisciplinary data driven sciences. link: https://vre4eic.ercim.eu/

Publications

Top Keywords: (scored with bm25)

(48) Cloud Computing

(36) Blockchain

(19) Performance Analysis

(19) Reinforcement Learning

(15) Quantum Networking

(15) Decentralized Applications

(15) Federated Learning

(15) Network Function Virtualization

Software

Software tools, infrastructures, and demonstrations are, just as scientific publications, considered to be important research output of the MNS group. Over the years, the researchers and PhD-students of the MNS group developed several research tools and infrastructures.

Knowledge base search engine

The knowledge base search engine is a tool that facilitates the discovery of research assets across communities. It allows for the indexing of heterogeneous assets (such as datasets, computational notebooks or API services), the enrichment of metadata using contextual information, and the retrieval of assets most relevant to a search query

NaaVRE

NaaVRE is a platform that supports data-centric research activities. Through a set of Jupyter Lab extensions and dedicated services, it allows users to containerize notebook cells, compose workflows based on these cells and run workflows on the cloud.

OpenLab

Introduction

The OpenLab facility is managed by the MNS group and available to all researchers within the SNE cluster and the associated educational programs, e.g. Software Engineering (SE) and Security and Network Engineering (SNE) masters.

It is designed to support research and experimentation in software defined networking, embedded systems, distributed systems, Future Internet architectures and protocols, and secure data sharing platforms, and evaluate the applicability of Machine Learning in those research domains.

Learn more about the OpenLab here.