Thesis Work for Robotics R&D – Manage service-level-agreement (SLA) for end-to-end IoT-solutions i Västerås

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Within ABB Robotics R&D System and Test department we are proposing several Master thesis next spring. The departments two focus areas are developing the software test infrastructure, tools and methodologies and also developing our ABB Ability cloud solutions. That latter is the responsibility of our Digital Services team working with the whole chain from e.g. diagnostics, connectivity and web app development.

Manage service-level-agreement (SLA) for end-to-end IoT-solutions.
SLA is a binding contract between the service provider and the service customer, which outlines responsibilities, describes the service to be provisioned, defines the service commitment guarantees, and penalties for non-compliance. For end-to-end IoT solutions that include embedded devices, edge devices, cloud components and applications, the final solutions delivered to the end-customers usually comprise of services supplied through a chain of service providers for e.g., sensors, server, gateway, communication, cloud components, etc. Often, SLAs offered by the immediate provider does not include guarantees for the part of the services that are provided by subcontractors (in the chain). In the meantime, service consumer often assume that the immediate provider is responsible for the complete service, regardless whether parts of the service come from third parties. So, the challenge is how to design, manage, monitor, and have control of an SLA to be used for customers, facing an organization’s digital end-to-end IoT offerings. The thesis can be conducted by a pair of students with individual sub-focuses and contributions i.e. focus on the technical SLA-modelling and the commercial business models involved respectively.

Details:
• Period: January-June 2020
• Number of credits: Master thesis 30p
• Number of students: 1-2 for each Master thesis
• Location: Robotics R&D office at Finnslätten, Västerås

• Identify ongoing challenges and work on management of service-level agreements to ensure quality of service in industrial IoT applications.
• Extensive literature study regarding SLA modelling, management and control for end-to-end IoT solutions.
• Prototype and evaluate an SLA modelling approach for end-to-end IoT context.
• Living ABB’s core values of safety and integrity, which means taking responsibility for your own actions while caring for your colleagues and the business.

• Engineering student within Computer Science, Industrial Engineering and Management, Information Technology, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Mechatronics, Robotics, System Engineering or other program with similar profile.
• Comfortable working with systems and programming in a hobby, university or professional context.
• Curious and eager to learn.