Keara Barrett

Policy-based architecture to enable autonomic communications - a position paper

The increase in complexity of network management systems and a consequent lack of association to business requirements has driven the need for autonomic communications. By integrating context information, autonomic computing can provide more efficient means to counter technical problems found in complex network systems and at the same time address associated business requirements. In this paper, we propose an autonomic communications architecture that manages complexity through policy-based management where we incorporate a shared information model integrated with knowledge-based reasoning mechanisms to provide self- governaning behavior.

The Design of a New Policy Model to Support Ontology-Driven Reasoning for Autonomic Networking

The purpose of autonomic networking is to manage the business and technical complexity of networked components and systems. However, the lack of a common lingua franca makes it impossible to use vendor-specific network management data to ascertain the state of the network at any given time. Furthermore, the tools used to analyze management data, which include information and data models, ontologies, machine learning algorithms, and policy languages, are all different, and hence require different data in different formats. This paper describes a new version of the Directory Enabled Networks next generation (DEN-ng) policy model, which is part of the FOCALE autonomic network architecture. This new policy model has been built using three guiding principles: (1) the policy model is rooted in information models, so that it can govern managed entities, (2) the model is expressly constructed to facilitate the generation of ontologies, so that reasoning about policies constructed from the model may be done, and (3) the model is expressly constructed so that a policy language can be developed from it.

A Model Based Approach for Policy Tool Generation and Policy Analysis

We outline an approach to policy specification and analysis in which an information model is used as the starting point for semi-automated generation of an integrated suite of languages, tools and an ontology. The suite includes separate domain-specific languages for the specification of systems structure and policies respectively, editors and checkers for these languages, and a baseline ontology that can be augmented with semantic information to support policy analyses processes. We describe a prototypical realisation of the approach, showing how the languages, tools and ontology are used to support policy transformation and conflict detection processes.

The design of a novel context-aware policy model to support machine-based learning and reasoning

The purpose of autonomic networking is to manage the business and technical complexity of networked components and systems. However, the lack of a common lingua franca makes it impossible to use vendor-specific network management data to ascertain the state of the network at any given time. Furthermore, the tools used to analyze management data are all different, and hence require different data in different formats. This complicates the construction of context from diverse information sources. This paper describes a new version of the DEN-ng context-aware policy model, which is part of the FOCALE autonomic network architecture. This model has been built using three guiding principles: (1) both the context model and the policy model are rooted in information models, so that they can govern managed entities, (2) each model is expressly constructed to facilitate the generation of ontologies, so that reasoning about policies constructed from the model may be done, and (3) the model is expressly constructed so that a policy language that supports machine-based reasoning and learning can be developed from it.

Policy Interactions and Management of Traffic Engineering Services Based on Ontologies

Trends such as converged networks and services require multiple and diverse networks and technologies to interoperate. Autonomic technologies are emerging as an important way to manage next generation services. This paper outlines an approach for lifecycle management of services and applications that require specific levels of quality of service. Our approach uses ontologies to create interoperability across different management domains using semantic reasoning, leveraging policy based management techniques to achieve autonomic behaviour. We define an architecture named PRIMO (policy relations and interaction for management using ontologies), which provides a platform for our research. The main concern is to deliver to end users context-aware and QoS-dependant services while complying with business objectives of the service providers and network operators. We use ontologies to represent both the data and relationships between the data for all stakeholder views; this enables the interaction of various management views, especially those of the service provider and the network operator. We outline our approach for policy transformation and interaction between different management systems and show how context information, represented via ontologies, is a critical facilitator for this approach.

Bio-inspired Policy Based Management (bioPBM) for Autonomic Bio-inspired Policy Based Management (bioPBM) for Autonomic

The tremendous development of Internet infrastructures as well as communication technologies has led to an increase in network management complexity. Autonomic control is one way to manage complexity. Policy based management systems (PBMS) provide a consistent model for decision making using a set of abstractions (i.e., to manage the system in a manner that is independent from the complexities of low level network technologies). In this paper, we develop a hierarchical bio-inspired PBMS based on mechanisms for organism regulation that supports self-organisation and self-management at different levels of the hierarchy. We employ this mechanism towards network management of autonomic communications systems