Machine Learning for the Communication Optimization in Distributed Systems

The objective of the work that is presented in this paper was the problem of the communication optimization and detection of the issues of computing resources performance degradation [1, 2] with the usage of machine learning techniques. Computer networks transmit payload data and the meta-data from numerous sources towards vast number of destinations, especially in multi-tenant environments [3, 4]. Meta data describes the payload data and could be analyzed for anomalies detection in the communication patterns. Communication patterns depend on the payload itself and technical protocol used. The technical patterns are the research target as their analysis could spotlight the vulnerable behavior, for example: unusual traffic, extra load transported and etc.

There was a big data used to train model with a supervised machine learning. Dataset was collected from the network interfaces of the distributed application infrastructure. Machine Learning tools had been retained from the cloud services provider – Amazon Web Services. The stochastic gradient descent technique was utilized for the model training, so that it could represent the communication patterns in the system. The learning target parameter was a packet length, the regression was performed to understand the relationship between packet meta-data (timestamp, protocol, the source server) and its length. The root mean square error calculation was applied to evaluate the learning efficiency. After model was prepared using training dataset, the model was tested with the test dataset and then applied on the target dataset (dataset for prediction) to check whether it was capable to detect anomalies.

The experimental part showed the applicability of machine learning for the communication optimization in the distributed application environment. By means of the trained artificial intelligence model, it was possible to predict target parameters of traffic and computing resources usage with purpose to avoid service degradation. Additionally, one could reveal anomalies in the transferred traffic between application components. The application of techniques is envisioned in information security field and in the field of efficient network resources planning.

Further research could be in application machine learning techniques for more complicated distributed environments and enlarging the number of protocols to prepare communication patterns.