Solution strategies of service fulfilment Operation Support Systems for Next Generation Networks

Suomalainen operatiivisten tukijärjestelmien toimittaja tarjoaa ratkaisuja palvelujen aktivointiin, verkkoresurssien hallintaan ja laskutustietojen keruuseen. Nämä ratkaisut ovat pääosin käytössä langattomissa verkoissa. Tässä tutkimuksessa arvioidaan kyseisten ratkaisujen soveltuvuutta palvelutoimitusprosessien automatisointiin tulevaisuuden verkkoympäristöissä. Tarkastelun kohteena ovat runko- ja pääsyverkkojen kiinteät teknologiat, joiden suosio saavuttaa huippunsa seuraavan 5-10 vuoden aikana. Näissä verkoissa palvelujen, kuten yritys-VPN:n tai kuluttajan laajakaistan, aktivointi vaatii monimutkaisen toimitusprosessin, jonka tueksi tarvitaan ensiluokkaista tukijärjestelmää. Teknologiakatsauksen jälkeen tutkimuksessa verrataan viitteellistä tuoteportfoliota saatavilla oleviin operatiivisten tukijärjestelmien arkkitehtuurisiin viitekehyksiin, ja analysoidaan sen soveltuvuus tulevaisuuden verkkoympäristöjen palvelutoimitusprosessin automatisointiin. Myös palvelutoimitusprosessien automatisointiin soveltuvien tukijärjestelmien markkinatilanne arvioidaan, ja tämän perusteella tutkitaan optimaalisinta sovellusstrategiaa. Lopulta voidaan päätellä, että tuoteportfoliolle parhaiten soveltuvin sovellusalue on kuluttajan laajakaistan, ja siihen liittyvien kehittyneempien IP-palveluiden palvelutoimitusprosessien automatisointi.A Finnish Operation Support Systems (OSS) vendor provides solutions for service activation, network inventory and event mediation. These solutions have mostly been deployed in mobile environments. In this thesis it will be studied how feasible it is to use similar solutions for service fulfilment in Next Generation Networks (NGN). NGN is a broad term that describes some key architectural evolutions in telecommunication core and access networks that will be deployed over the next 5 to 10 years. In these networks service, e.g. Triple Play or Virtual Private Network (VPN), activations require an extensive service fulfilment process that must be supported by first-class OSS. After introducing the NGN technologies, the research compares a reference product portfolio to available service fulfilment frameworks and evaluates the applicability. The study analyses the current state of service fulfilment OSS markets and evaluates various solution strategies. Eventually it will be concluded that the most interesting and adequate solution scenario is residential broadband, including value-added IP services

A MAS-Based Cloud Service Brokering System to Respond Security Needs of Cloud Customers

Cloud computing is becoming a key factor in computer science and an important technology for many organizations to deliver different types of services. The companies which provide services to customers are called as cloud service providers. The cloud users (CUs) increase and require secure, reliable and trustworthy cloud service providers (CSPs) from the market. So, it’s a challenge for a new customer to choose the highly secure provider. This paper presents a cloud service brokering system in order to analyze and rank the secured cloud service provider among the available providers list. This model uses an autonomous and flexible agent in multi-agent system (MASs) that have an intelligent behavior and suitable tools for helping the brokering system to assess the security risks for the group of cloud providers which make decision of the more secured provider and justify the business needs of users in terms of security and reliability

A service-oriented approach for dynamic chaining of virtual network functions over multi-provider software-defined networks

Emerging technologies such as Software-Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) promise to address cost reduction and flexibility in network operation while enabling innovative network service delivery models. However, operational network service delivery solutions still need to be developed that actually exploit these technologies, especially at the multi-provider level. Indeed, the implementation of network functions as software running over a virtualized infrastructure and provisioned on a service basis let one envisage an ecosystem of network services that are dynamically and flexibly assembled by orchestrating Virtual Network Functions even across different provider domains, thereby coping with changeable user and service requirements and context conditions. In this paper we propose an approach that adopts Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) technology-agnostic architectural guidelines in the design of a solution for orchestrating and dynamically chaining Virtual Network Functions. We discuss how SOA, NFV, and SDN may complement each other in realizing dynamic network function chaining through service composition specification, service selection, service delivery, and placement tasks. Then, we describe the architecture of a SOA-inspired NFV orchestrator, which leverages SDN-based network control capabilities to address an effective delivery of elastic chains of Virtual Network Functions. Preliminary results of prototype implementation and testing activities are also presented. The benefits for Network Service Providers are also described that derive from the adaptive network service provisioning in a multi-provider environment through the orchestration of computing and networking services to provide end users with an enhanced service experience