Besmir Tola

Besmir Tola serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Information Security and Communication Technology at the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). His academic trajectory progressed from Researcher (2019-2020) to Assistant Professor (2020-2022) and current Associate Professor role since 2022, following a Marie Curie Research Fellowship (2015-2019). He maintains active industry connections through visiting positions at Nokia Bell Labs (2016) and SIKT (2018).

His educational background includes:

• Master of Science in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Siena, Italy
• PhD in Information Security and Communication Technology, NTNU

Dr. Tola's research program centers on critical challenges in network virtualization and security, with four pillars: dependability modeling of softwareized networks, performance analysis of virtualized services, wireless security, and orchestration of softwarized networks. His work bridges theoretical modeling and practical implementation, particularly addressing carrier-grade requirements for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) in telecom infrastructure. Key contributions include novel approaches to software rejuvenation for NFV-MANO systems and redundancy allocation mechanisms for high-availability services.

Analysis of his 15+ publications (2015-2023) reveals an evolving research trajectory: early work established foundational models for cloud service failures (2017), followed by comprehensive NFV availability frameworks (2019-2021), and recent innovations in offline communication security (2022-2023). The publications consistently address resilience engineering across journals like IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management and conferences including IEEE INFOCOM.

His primary recognition is the prestigious Marie S. Curie Research Fellowship under the CleanSky ITN project, enabling international collaboration on critical network virtualization challenges. This fellowship represents significant competitive research funding in the European research landscape.

Dr. Tola actively contributes to pedagogy as instructor for core networking courses including Interconnected Networks and Network Security (DCST2001) and Data Communication and Networks (DCST1006), implementing innovative flipped classroom approaches as documented in his 2022 UNIPED Program presentation. He advises bachelor students in the Digital Infrastructure and Cyber Security program through DCST2900 thesis supervision.

He leads research within NTNU's Networking Research Group and extends impact through Cisco Networking Academy accreditation for CCNA, DevNet, CyberOps, and Cloud Security training. His IEEE leadership includes Chairing the NTNU Student Branch (2018-2021) and serving on the Norway Section Executive Committee (2018-2019).