1. About Me

1.1 Identity Information

• Name: David Lin
• Email: [email protected]
• Country: Canada
• Institution: University of Toronto
• Advisor: Yashar Ganjali

1.2 Patch Requirement

https://github.com/aqm-eval-suite/ns-3-dev-git/pull/8

1.3 Background

I am a student researcher at university with a strong background and research experience in data centre load balancing, congestion control, and network simulation. My experience includes developing C/C++ applications (e.g. a custom Mininet router controller and a custom discrete event simulation that visualizes link utilization and buffer occupancy under Poisson arrivals) and investigating flow-size aware load balancing schemes. This project perfectly aligns with my interests and expertise.

I have spent the past year working in the industry and gained significant industry experience through several competitive internships:

• Shopify: Developed context-aware features for pod autoscaling that reduced pre-scaling costs by 60%, resulting in annual savings of $1.5M.
• Squarepoint Capital: Optimized timeseries queries, cutting computing resource usage by 96.6% and enhancing backend performance.
• UNICEF: Designed and implemented a RESTful API with Django, automating processes and managing Azure Kubernetes Service deployments.
• Temerity Analytics: Scaled a data processing pipeline to handle over 100,000 records every 10 seconds, while reducing service response times dramatically.
• Blue Guardian: Transformed a prototype into a production-ready iOS app, significantly boosting user engagement and retention.

While I am generally new to ns-3 and the open source community, I am currently setting it up for my research project on load balancing for some network level evaluations. However, prior to this I have developed a similar system for discrete event simulation at node level for simple evaluations and create visualizations for various metrics such as link utilization and flow completion time. I have already begun exploring the ns-3 codebase and familiarizing myself with its architecture. My background in systems programming, combined with experience in developing scalable distributed systems, has prepared me well to tackle ns-3’s challenges.

I am particularly excited about this project because it aligns directly with my research interests in network simulation, congestion control, and traffic management. My background in developing C/C++ applications, including a custom discrete event simulation for load balancing, has equipped me with the technical skills needed to understand and enhance the AQM Evaluation Suite. My industry experience at companies like Shopify (where I developed context-aware features for pod autoscaling) and Squarepoint Capital (where I optimized timeseries queries) has honed my ability to work on complex systems and ensure scalability and efficiency—skills that will be invaluable for upgrading the AQM Evaluation Suite. Additionally, my familiarity with AQM algorithms and C++ programming, as required by the project, makes me confident in my ability to contribute effectively. I am committed to leveraging my skills to support the ns-3 community and believe this project is an excellent opportunity to do so.

2. About The Project