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Master’s Thesis: Performance Testing of Streaming Data in Modern Communications Platforms

Build the Next Generation of Distributed Test Platforms for Real-Time Media

How do you test a system in which thousands of concurrent data streams must be delivered with millisecond-level precision—without the test tool itself becoming the bottleneck? In this master’s thesis project, you will work on the same fundamental challenges found in large-scale streaming platforms (such as Netflix and Spotify), online gaming, and interactive cloud services: distributed load generation, event-driven processing, observability, and real-time quality analysis. The application domain is VoIP and voice communications, but the core of the project is advanced software engineering for streaming data and distributed systems.

The Technical Challenge

  • Generate and coordinate large numbers of concurrent real-time streams across multiple nodes
  • Measure actual media quality—not merely whether signalling succeeds
  • Correlate telemetry from multiple components and distinguish symptoms from root causes
  • Create reproducible scenarios for failures that occur only under high load

What You Can Explore and Build

  • A distributed architecture for load generation and test execution, for example using containers and Kubernetes
  • A declarative domain-specific language (DSL) for describing complex, time-controlled communications flows
  • Real-time analysis of RTP streams: jitter, packet loss, codec behaviour, and perceived quality
  • A metrics, tracing, and correlation pipeline that supports automated diagnostics and root-cause analysis
  • Methods for evaluating scalability, accuracy, resource consumption, and reproducibility

Why This Is an Exciting Master’s Thesis Project

You will combine systems design, networking, programming, and data analysis in an open-ended engineering problem with no predetermined solution. The outcome could be a tool used against a real distributed communications platform, providing clear insight into how modern real-time systems behave under pressure.

Who Are We Looking For?

  • A master’s-level engineering student in computer engineering, software engineering, engineering physics, information technology, or a related field
  • A curiosity about distributed systems, streaming, networking, cloud-native technologies, or performance engineering
  • Experience with languages such as Go, Python, or Java is valuable
  • Knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, or observability is an advantage
  • You do not need prior knowledge of SIP or RTP—we will help you get up to speed with the domain

Your assignment: Design, implement, and evaluate a scalable test platform capable of identifying quality issues in streaming real-time media before they reach production. You will use VoIP, SIP, and RTP as a technically rich testbed for solving real-world problems in distributed systems.

 

Apply here: