Telma Mota

Service and Network Management Middleware for Cooperative Information Systems through Policies and Mobile Agents

As cooperative information systems (CIS) grow to cover large-scaled CIS that involves many cooperative sub-systems distributed geographically, management technologies that support them gain in importance. This paper focuses on the underlying technologies that are key to the success of cooperative information system, i.e., service management and network management, which are in the form of middleware, to assure inter-domain cooperation within a big CIS in a flexible, automated and secure way. This flexibility and automation is guaranteed by the use of Policy-based Network Management integrated with Mobile Agent Technology. Extending the mobile agent supporting environment, Grasshopper, to support more secure facilities, largely enhances the security. As a case study, IP Virtual Private Network tunnel between two geographically separated domains within a large-scaled CIS is set up and configured automatically and securely using the service and network management middleware, which shows that service and network management enhanced CIS can operate with more flexibility, automation, security and in a larger information system.

Context-Aware Self-optimization in Multiparty Converged Mobile Environments

The increase of networking complexity requires the design of new performance optimization schemes for delivering different types of sessions to users under different conditions. In this scope, special attention is given to multi-homed environments, where mobile devices cross areas with overlapping access technologies (Wi-Fi, 3G, WiMax). In such scenario, efficient multiparty delivery depends upon the grouping operation (creation of a set of users to receive a given session), which must be done based on several parameters. We propose sub-grouping of content-based service groups, so that the same service session can be delivered using different codings of the same content, to adapt to the current network, users, session and environment context. The context-aware information is used to improve the sub-grouping process. This paper aims to describe these sub-grouping techniques, in particular how they improve network performance and user experience in the future Internet, in the scope of cognitive autonomic networks.

Supporting Ubiquitous IMS-based Teleconferencing Through Discovery and Composition of IMS and Web Components

Natural communication among people happens in flexible ways and is strongly affected by the users’ situation (such as communication tools available, user’s location, and user’s preferences). This situation or context information is seldom used to initiate communication sessions among users. Current communication systems are indifferent about users’ context, often require time consuming manual configurations and often result in conferencing tools not being easily accessible when needed. This leads to lower adoption of innovative communications services. IMS SIP (IP Multimedia Subsystem, Session Initiation Protocol) sessions allow users to access the session from different points of contact (home, office, etc.), however, IMS still requires a prior knowledge of all SIP components that might be used in a SIP session. Furthermore, IMS makes limited use of context information (mainly user-defined availability). To address these issues our research approach combines techniques from pervasive computing with IMS networking principles to facilitate compositions of communication sessions based on users’ context. We propose a platform and APIs for pervasive application development support to allow greater intelligence in IMS applications. We additionally provide mechanisms for IMS applications to apply their intelligence to the configuration of physical devices and web resources used to set up a conference. The innovations proposed in this paper are: (1) A new standard for intelligent IMS-based conferencing applications. (2) Application Development Interfaces (APIs) for a platform for pervasive computing. (3) An architecture for a pervasive IMS platform.

Session and Network Support for Autonomous Context-Aware Multiparty Communications in Heterogeneous Mobile Systems

The increase of networking complexity requires the design of new performance optimization schemes for delivering different types of sessions to users under different conditions. In this regard, special attention is given to multi-homed environments, where mobile devices cross areas with overlapping access technologies Wi-Fi, 3G, WiMax. In such a scenario, efficient multiparty delivery depends upon the grouping operation, which must be done based on several parameters. In this paper, the authors propose context-aware sub-grouping of content-based service groups so that the same service session can be delivered using different codings of the same content, adapting to current network, users, session, and environment context. The context-aware information is used to improve the sub-grouping process. This paper aims to describe these sub-grouping techniques, and in particular how they improve network performance and user experience in the future Internet by focusing on the improved network-level and session-level mechanisms.

Quality of Service Management in IP Networks Using Mobile Agent Technology

Telecommunication network infrastructures become more and more distributed and heterogeneous, with various network technologies integrated (e.g. ATM, IP, ADSL), and several types of equipment coexisting, typically from different vendors. At the same time, services are becoming more and more demanding in terms of quality of service. In this context, efficient network management is of paramount importance for network operators. The telecommunication business does not any more depend on the type and cost of the services but mostly on their quality and how quickly they can be introduced. In this context, management platforms should be flexible and intelligent enough to dynamically configure, monitor and eventually reconfigure the network. On one hand, these platforms should be able to inform the clients about the quality of the requested services and on the other hand, network administrators must be able to manage their network resources in order to efficiently provide quality of service. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between network operators / service providers and clients should be honored in a manner absolutely transparent to the users. This paper describes the network management architecture followed by the European IST (Information Society Technology) Project MANTRIP (MANagement, Testing and Reconfiguration of IP based networks using Mobile Software Agents) [1]. This architecture is based on both standard and tailored APIs. The prototype developed during the MANTRIP project is described in detail. Its main objective is to manage the Quality of service in IP Networks, with Mobile Agent Technology (MAT) being used to implement the specified APIs in the QoS management system and IP Differentiated Services (DiffServ) being used as a test case.

TINA - TMN Interworking: Case Study of an Integration between the VITAL TINA Platform and an Existing TMN Platform

For the management of public telecommunication networks TMN (Telecommunications Management Network) receives a wide acceptance from network operators and suppliers. Although TMN defines different layers going from the service oriented Business layer towards the Element layer, it is currently very much focused on network and element management. On the other hand TINA (Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture) integrates the service management layers with the network management layers in a coherent way relying on a distributed software execution platform (DPE). This paper focuses on possible interworking schemes between both architectures where the strong elements of each are combined: TINA for the service management and TMN for the network management. Several candidate interworking/ migration schemes between CORBA/IDL and CMISE/GDMO are investigated in the context of a concrete implementation, namely the interworking between a TMN platform based on HP OpenView and the TINA compliant platform developed in the context of the ACTS VITAL project.

Development and Deployment of a Heterogeneous Set of Services Challenging a TINA-Based Telecommunication Architecture

The objective of the ACTS VITAL project is to demonstrate and validate the development, deployment, management, and use of complex heterogeneous service features on an Open Distributed Telecommunication Architecture (ODTA) defined in terms of reusable components. The project refines, extends and implements the Telecommunication Information Networking Architecture (TINA). The focal point of the paper is reporting on the services provided by the second release of the VITAL demonstrator, how they are supported by the ODTA and the conclusions from the trial at the end of the 2nd project phase. The paper also presents an overview of the plans for the final phase of the VITAL project. The reader is assumed to be familiar with the TINA business model [1] and to have at least a high-level overview of the TINA service [2] and network resource architecture [3] concepts.

Exploring WebRTC Technology for Enhanced Real-Time Services

WebRTC is a standard technology which allows real-time communications between browsers, without installing additional plugins. In this way, for each device (computers, smart phones, etc.) with an installed browser, it is possible to perform peer-to-peer real-time communications natively, for instance, video and voice calls, chatting or instant messaging, file sharing and screen sharing. This recent technology has grown exponentially both in implemented solutions and in browsers compatibility. WebRTC is therefore an evolutionary technology with a strong growth, where more solutions Over-The-Top (OTT) could appear and where the telecommunications operators could invest creating their own service solutions. Facing the lack of standards regarding the communication between WebRTC endpoints, this paper studies in depth the WebRTC technology in order to identify its potential and to assess in which way it could impact on the telecommunications world. This paper also presents a framework that helps developing WebRTC applications and services at a higher level. As proof-of-concept a WebRTC client is developed to allow testing the services implemented in the framework.

Management of User Generated Multicast Sessions in IMS-Based Networks

Factors such as the growing number of multimedia terminals, the constant increase of bandwidth available per user, and the large number of existing data sharing applications, are compelling users to generate and distribute their own content to restricted groups of other users. In order to support such scenario, we present an IMS-based solution that enables content distribution, in multicast, to groups of users, where the source of the content is also an end-user. The proposed solution allows the source of content to configure the service, indicating a list of authorized receivers and both the transmission date and duration. Moreover, the proposed solution also allows the operator to manage the registered user profiles, to impose access control and to validate the configurations Passed QA by the users.

CATS: Context-Aware Triggering System for Next Generation Networks

Considering context information, namely location, in order to create new services has become a commercial trend. The innovative approaches that context-aware mechanisms make possible are being targeted by service providers of diverse areas. On the other hand, Service Oriented Architectures play a central role in allowing component reuse and low cost service creation. Together with IP Multimedia Subsystem enable the convergence of telecommunications and web services, allowing the network transport technologies to be abstracted from the services above. By integrating these three technologies, a number of synergies can be explored. Existing services can be easily enriched with context information, made available on a variety of networks and new services can be composed using previously existing building blocks. This paper explains how this integration can be achieved, and demonstrates the potentialities of this architectural paradigm with a prototype service.