Empowering System Software with Machine Learning Methods: Challenges, Practice, and Prospects

Machine learning methods have brought new opportunities for building system software that fully utilizes hardware resources to support emerging applications. However, in order to adapt to the demands of various application scenarios, system software design and implementation need continuous improvement and evolution. Meanwhile, machine learning methods have the potential to extract patterns from data and automatically optimize system performance. Despite this potential, applying machine learning methods to empower system software faces several challenges, such as customizing models for system software, obtaining training data with sufficient quality and quantity, reducing the impact of model execution costs on system performance, and avoiding the hindrance of model errors on system correctness. We present the practical experience of the Institute of Parallel and Distributed Systems (IPADS) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in applying machine learning methods to optimize system software for index structures, key-value storage systems, and concurrency control protocols. The lessons learned from the practice in model design, system integration, and practitioner knowledge are summarized. Additionally, we briefly review relevant research at home and abroad, and propose prospects and suggestions for this line of research, including collaboration between systems and machine learning experts, building modular, reusable system prototypes, and exploring model optimization techniques dedicated to systems context. The aim is to offer references and help for future work.