Knowledge Representation Concepts for Automated SLA Management

Outsourcing of complex IT infrastructure to IT service providers has increased substantially during the past years. IT service providers must be able to fulfil their service-quality commitments based upon predefined Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the service customer. They need to manage, execute and maintain thousands of SLAs for different customers and different types of services, which needs new levels of flexibility and automation not available with the current technology. The complexity of contractual logic in SLAs requires new forms of knowledge representation to automatically draw inferences and execute contractual agreements. A logic-based approach provides several advantages including automated rule chaining allowing for compact knowledge representation as well as flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing business requirements. We suggest adequate logical formalisms for representation and enforcement of SLA rules and describe a proof-of-concept implementation. The article describes selected formalisms of the ContractLog KR and their adequacy for automated SLA management and presents results of experiments to demonstrate flexibility and scalability of the approach.Comment: Paschke, A. and Bichler, M.: Knowledge Representation Concepts for Automated SLA Management, Int. Journal of Decision Support Systems (DSS), submitted 19th March 200

Fatias de rede fim-a-fim : da extração de perfis de funções de rede a SLAs granulares

Orientador: Christian Rodolfo Esteve RothenbergTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de ComputaçãoResumo: Nos últimos dez anos, processos de softwarização de redes vêm sendo continuamente diversi- ficados e gradativamente incorporados em produção, principalmente através dos paradigmas de Redes Definidas por Software (ex.: regras de fluxos de rede programáveis) e Virtualização de Funções de Rede (ex.: orquestração de funções virtualizadas de rede). Embasado neste processo o conceito de network slice surge como forma de definição de caminhos de rede fim- a-fim programáveis, possivelmente sobre infrastruturas compartilhadas, contendo requisitos estritos de desempenho e dedicado a um modelo particular de negócios. Esta tese investiga a hipótese de que a desagregação de métricas de desempenho de funções virtualizadas de rede impactam e compõe critérios de alocação de network slices (i.e., diversas opções de utiliza- ção de recursos), os quais quando realizados devem ter seu gerenciamento de ciclo de vida implementado de forma transparente em correspondência ao seu caso de negócios de comu- nicação fim-a-fim. A verificação de tal assertiva se dá em três aspectos: entender os graus de liberdade nos quais métricas de desempenho de funções virtualizadas de rede podem ser expressas; métodos de racionalização da alocação de recursos por network slices e seus re- spectivos critérios; e formas transparentes de rastrear e gerenciar recursos de rede fim-a-fim entre múltiplos domínios administrativos. Para atingir estes objetivos, diversas contribuições são realizadas por esta tese, dentre elas: a construção de uma plataforma para automatização de metodologias de testes de desempenho de funções virtualizadas de redes; a elaboração de uma metodologia para análises de alocações de recursos de network slices baseada em um algoritmo classificador de aprendizado de máquinas e outro algoritmo de análise multi- critério; e a construção de um protótipo utilizando blockchain para a realização de contratos inteligentes envolvendo acordos de serviços entre domínios administrativos de rede. Por meio de experimentos e análises sugerimos que: métricas de desempenho de funções virtualizadas de rede dependem da alocação de recursos, configurações internas e estímulo de tráfego de testes; network slices podem ter suas alocações de recursos coerentemente classificadas por diferentes critérios; e acordos entre domínios administrativos podem ser realizados de forma transparente e em variadas formas de granularidade por meio de contratos inteligentes uti- lizando blockchain. Ao final deste trabalho, com base em uma ampla discussão as perguntas de pesquisa associadas à hipótese são respondidas, de forma que a avaliação da hipótese proposta seja realizada perante uma ampla visão das contribuições e trabalhos futuros desta teseAbstract: In the last ten years, network softwarisation processes have been continuously diversified and gradually incorporated into production, mainly through the paradigms of Software Defined Networks (e.g., programmable network flow rules) and Network Functions Virtualization (e.g., orchestration of virtualized network functions). Based on this process, the concept of network slice emerges as a way of defining end-to-end network programmable paths, possibly over shared network infrastructures, requiring strict performance metrics associated to a par- ticular business case. This thesis investigate the hypothesis that the disaggregation of network function performance metrics impacts and composes a network slice footprint incurring in di- verse slicing feature options, which when realized should have their Service Level Agreement (SLA) life cycle management transparently implemented in correspondence to their fulfilling end-to-end communication business case. The validation of such assertive takes place in three aspects: the degrees of freedom by which performance of virtualized network functions can be expressed; the methods of rationalizing the footprint of network slices; and transparent ways to track and manage network assets among multiple administrative domains. In order to achieve such goals, a series of contributions were achieved by this thesis, among them: the construction of a platform for automating methodologies for performance testing of virtual- ized network functions; an elaboration of a methodology for the analysis of footprint features of network slices based on a machine learning classifier algorithm and a multi-criteria analysis algorithm; and the construction of a prototype using blockchain to carry out smart contracts involving service level agreements between administrative systems. Through experiments and analysis we suggest that: performance metrics of virtualized network functions depend on the allocation of resources, internal configurations and test traffic stimulus; network slices can have their resource allocations consistently analyzed/classified by different criteria; and agree- ments between administrative domains can be performed transparently and in various forms of granularity through blockchain smart contracts. At the end of his thesis, through a wide discussion we answer all the research questions associated to the investigated hypothesis in such way its evaluation is performed in face of wide view of the contributions and future work of this thesisDoutoradoEngenharia de ComputaçãoDoutor em Engenharia ElétricaFUNCAM

Individual Tariffs for Mobile Services: Theoretical Framework and a Computational Case in Mobile Music

This paper introduces individual tariffs at service and content bundle level in mobile communications. It gives a theoretical framework (economic, sociological) as well as a computational game solution method. The user can be an individual or a community. Individual tariffs are decided through interactions between the user and the supplier. A numerical example from mobile music illustrates the concepts.risks;mobile communication services;Individual tariffs;computational games

Railway Communication Network Digital Reporting System: A Case Study

The digital transformation of the railway communication network operations is contributing to an increase in data volumes across various functional areas, collecting and processing information from equipment, customers, and the company\u27s various business process management systems. The implementation of a specialized solution for analysis and operational monitoring was a logical extension of the development of data handling, opening up opportunities for building both operational reporting and predictive analytics, distribution and unification of reporting forms, which the reporting in production systems and manual analytics generation tools used before did not allow to achieve. In this paper, we propose to use a digital framework based on open-source big data technologies with different distributed services to process and store KPIs data from Railway Communication Network. We also review literature about challenges and solutions of Data Lake in KPI\u27s Railway Communications Network domain. To assess the applicability of the framework proposed, incidents and event data relating to the production business processes have been tested on the actual railway communication network. The suggested framework effectively processed the data and the implementation setup settings were presented, as well as the results of experiments

LEVERAGING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY FOR SLA ENFORCEMENT IN HEALTH CARE CLOUD PARTNERSHIPS

The healthcare industry is rapidly adopting cloud-based solutions to improve operational efficiency and patient outcomes. However, healthcare cloud partnerships often face challenges related to the lack of scalability, trust, and Service Level Agreement (SLA) enforcement, and has a notable impact on consumer care quality. To address this issue, the study proposed leveraging blockchain technology to enhance SLA enforcement by using smart contracts in health care cloud partnerships for small and medium-sized facilities. The research questions were: Q.1 What are the current challenges facing small to medium sized healthcare facilities in enforcing SLAs in cloud partnerships? Q.2 How can BC-based smart contracts helps enhance scalability in cloud computing systems in healthcare SMEs by enforcing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in a safe and efficient manner? Q.3 What are the factors that affect the implementation of blockchain-based smart contracts for SLA enforcement in healthcare SMEs cloud partnerships? The project utilized case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of using BC technology based smart contracts to enhance SLA enforcement and improve patient outcomes. The findings and conclusions were as follows: 1. Current challenges facing healthcare SMEs in enforcing SLAs in cloud partnerships: SMEs may lack bargaining power, resources, and technical expertise to effectively negotiate, monitor, and enforce SLAs in cloud partnerships, leading to service disruptions, compliance issues, and financial losses. 2. BC-based smart contracts can enhance the scalability of cloud computing systems in healthcare SMEs by automating SLA execution, ensuring real-time data integrity, transparency, and accountability, reducing fraud, error, and transaction costs, and enabling decentralized trust among stakeholders. 3. Factors affecting the implementation of BC-based smart contracts to better SLA enforcement in healthcare SMEs cloud partnerships: regulatory uncertainty, interoperability, standardization, privacy, security, cost, complexity, governance, and user adoption, and 4. Unique Trends and challenges in the healthcare industry for its data analysis: increasing demand for real-time, patient-centered, personalized, and evidence-based care, generating and integrating large volumes of diverse and complex data from multiple sources, ensuring data quality, privacy, and security, complying with regulations and standards, and fostering collaboration and innovation across stakeholders. MedRec, SimplyVital Health, and Medical Chain demonstrate how BC provides secure data sharing, encryption and access control mechanisms, and promotes interoperability through standard data formats and protocols. Results showed improved scalability, trust, and SLA enforcement with the use of BC technology. Further research in the other domains of this area is recommended. It is required to address broader aspects related to the topic. The areas for further study that emerged from the findings and conclusions of this project include: 1. interoperability,2. trusted monitoring solutions, 3.user experience, 4. privacy and security,5. med tokens, cost and 6. integration with existing BSS and OSS. Keywords: Cloud computing, Blockchain technology, SLA enforcement, Smart Contracts, Healthcare cloud, Blockchain-based SLA enforcement, Smart Healthcare, e-healthcare, Scalability

Systemic Risk and Vulnerability Analysis of Multi-cloud Environments

With the increasing use of multi-cloud environments, security professionals face challenges in configuration, management, and integration due to uneven security capabilities and features among providers. As a result, a fragmented approach toward security has been observed, leading to new attack vectors and potential vulnerabilities. Other research has focused on single-cloud platforms or specific applications of multi-cloud environments. Therefore, there is a need for a holistic security and vulnerability assessment and defense strategy that applies to multi-cloud platforms. We perform a risk and vulnerability analysis to identify attack vectors from software, hardware, and the network, as well as interoperability security issues in multi-cloud environments. Applying the STRIDE and DREAD threat modeling methods, we present an analysis of the ecosystem across six attack vectors: cloud architecture, APIs, authentication, automation, management differences, and cybersecurity legislation. We quantitatively determine and rank the threats in multi-cloud environments and suggest mitigation strategies.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figure

Data Privacy and System Security for Banking and Financial Services Industry based on Cloud Computing Infrastructure

© 2018 IEEE. Cloud computing architecture and infrastructure has received an acceptance from corporations and governments across the globe. Cloud computing helped to reduce cost of management of physical and technical infrastructure at the same time has made information systems available for locally globally deployed work force. Cloud computing infrastructure provides access to data and applications from any location and this has made organizations to keep evaluating privacy and security framework. Banking and financial services have data and applications which are internally developed to remain ahead of competition. This data and applications becomes the Intellectual Property (IP) that serves specific business processes and goals. When this data and applications can be accessed from remote locations, there may be a potential risks of data leakages and erosion of IP over a period of time. With an adoption of cloud computing, banking and financial services industry continues to be under strict regulatory and compliance framework to maintain privacy of data and security of systems. Privacy and security of cloud architecture infrastructure continues to be the challenge across the globe. In this paper, various aspects of cloud computing related to data privacy and system security for banking and financial services industry have been introduced