Julio Berrocal

Applying the Web ontology language to management information definitions

The extended markup language (XML) has emerged in the Internet world as a standard representation format, which can be useful to describe and transmit management information. However, XML formats alone do not give formal semantics to it. To solve this question, ontology languages based on the resource description framework can be used to improve the expressiveness of management information specifications. This article presents an approach that uses an XML-based ontology language to define network and system management information. For this, the structures of the Web ontology language known as OWL are analyzed and compared to those used in management definitions, also studying the advantages ontology languages can provide in this area.

Ontology-Based Network Management: Study Cases and Lessons Learned

Ontology based network management has recently evolved from a theoretical proposal to a more mature technology. As such, it is now being applied in many research projects in a number of different network management and security scenarios. This application has enabled the validation of the main ideas of the proposals and to learn some of the problems that it brings. This paper describes several research projects where ontology based network management proposals were applied, detailing the most important facets of the initial proposals that were used and explaining the main advantages and drawbacks that were found after prototyping these proposals.

Ontology-based policy refinement using SWRL rules for management information definitions in OWL

The goal of ontology-based management is to improve the manageability of network resources through the application of formal ontologies. Prior research work has studied their application to represent the management information definitions, the mapping and merging processes to obtain a semantic integration of those definitions, and the representation of behaviour and policy definitions. Using ontologies allows the additional advantage of integrating, in the same semantic manager, business and service level ontologies with the network management ontology, in a framework for automated management. This integration allows for policy refinement and interoperation between high level policies and low level policies.

Ontology-Based integration of management behaviour and information definitions using SWRL and OWL

Current network management architectures are using different models to define management information objects. These definitions actually also include, in a non-formal way, the definition of some behaviour information that a manager should accomplish related to the managed objects. So, a manager is not able to make an automatic processing of this behaviour information. Prior research work proposed the use of formal ontology languages, such as OWL, as a way to make a semantic integration of different management information definitions. This paper goes further proposing a formal definition of the different management behaviour specifications integrated with the management information definitions. Thus, usual behaviour definitions included implicitly in the management information definitions and explicitly in policy definitions can be expressed formally, and included with the information definitions. This paper focuses on the definition of behaviour rules in management information with SWRL, a rule language defined to complement OWL functionality.

Semantic management: application of ontologies for the integration of management information models

The multiplicity of network management models (SNMP, CMIP, DMI, WBEM, etc.) has raised the need of defining multiple mechanisms to allow the interoperability among all involved management domains. One basic component of such interoperability is the mapping between the information models that each domain specifies. These mappings, usually carried out with syntactical translations, can reach the semantic level by using ontologies. This article shows the advantages of using formal ontology techniques to improve the integration of current network management models.

IP/ATM integrated services over broadband access copper technologies

A rich set of broadband access copper technologies is available in the market today, and more are coming out of the laboratories, rapidly moving to standardization. The most likely future scenario will be one where many different technologies coexist. This multi-access-technology paradigm poses an interesting internetworking problem where interoperability and capability to support todays and future user services play a major role in the design of a network architecture. This article begins with an overview of current and new xDSL access technologies to continue describing an access network design that harmonizes the interconnection between PON, xDSL, and native ATM transport technologies. The use of ATM technology for the interface to the broadband access and transport networks is then presented and justified. The article continues studying the protocol architectures proposed for access to network service providers, considered a driver application for broadband access deployment. Finally, different protocol architectures that can provide integrated services support at the user equipment are analyzed.

Application of OWL-S to define management interfaces based on web services

Some network management trends are currently analysing the application of several generic technologies that include Web Services and Ontologies. Web Services can provide an interface to access to managed resources. On the other hand, ontologies provide a way to represent management information. Web Services interfaces can be defined using OWL-S, an ontology of services that semantically describes the set of operations a Web Service provides. This can be useful in configuration management, where each network resource defines the way it can be configured. This paper presents a proposal to describe with the OWL Service ontology the management interfaces based on Web Services. To illustrate this approach, an example is provided in which OWL-S is used to specify the processes needed to configure a resource.

Definition of response metrics for an ontology-based Automated Intrusion Response Systems

The main purpose of an AIRS (Automated Intrusion Response System) is to choose and execute the optimum response when the different security-event network detection sources detect security intrusions. The inference of the most suitable response should be made according to a set of response metrics that specify different rules for selecting a specific response according to some context and input parameters and the weight associated with each of them. Furthermore, the Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) can be used to specify these response metrics, providing an open and extensible framework for the behavior description of an AIRS, able to be integrated with the increasing number of Semantic Web tools. The aim of this paper is to study and characterize these metrics, as well as defining a set of response metrics for an AIRS, specifying these metrics with SWRL rules and testing their execution with Semantic Web current technologies. Finally, some results are shown concerning the inferred responses and performance of this SWRL-based reasoning.

Benefits of Using Ontologies in the Management of High Speed Networks

Network management is an area where many different technologies coexist. Several languages are used to define the information to be managed, which are specific of each management model. As a result, many specifications that describe similar resources are expressed separately. To solve this question, this paper takes advantage of the knowledge representation technique known as ontology to unify current heterogeneous information definitions from a semantic viewpoint. With this approach, management information is specified using ontology languages, including behavior constraints, and methods used to combine ontologies are applied to merge and map the concepts contained in existing management models.

A Simulation Tool for Dimensioning and Performance Evaluation of the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network

The efficient support of multiple traffic classes with different quality of service requirements (end-to-end delay, jitter, loss) poses an extraordinary complexity in the design of third-generation mobile networks. This task becomes especially critical for the access network, where radio and transmission resources are usually scarce. In this paper we present a simulation model of the ATM-based UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) terrestrial radio access network. The simulator aims to provide a test bed for conducting further research studies on several topics of potential interest. In particular, we intend to use the tool for dimensioning ATM links, for evaluating performance under different mixes of traffic classes, and for investigating quality of service mechanisms. This wide range of applications has led us to develop a very flexible simulation model that captures many low level details. Some preliminary results obtained with the simulator are presented in order to illustrate its capabilities.