A Generic Network and System Management Framework

Networks and distributed systems have formed the basis of an ongoing communications revolution that has led to the genesis of a wide variety of services. The constantly increasing size and complexity of these systems does not come without problems. In some organisations, the deployment of Information Technology has reached a state where the benefits from downsizing and rightsizing by adding new services are undermined by the effort required to keep the system running. Management of networks and distributed systems in general has a straightforward goal: to provide a productive environment in which work can be performed effectively. The work required for management should be a small fraction of the total effort. Most IT systems are still managed in an ad hoc style without any carefully elaborated plan. In such an environment the success of management decisions depends totally on the qualification and knowledge of the administrator. The thesis provides an analysis of the state of the art in the area of Network and System Management and identifies the key requirements that must be addressed for the provisioning of Integrated Management Services. These include the integration of the different management related aspects (i.e. integration of heterogeneous Network, System and Service Management). The thesis then proposes a new framework, INSMware, for the provision of Management Services. It provides a fundamental basis for the realisation of a new approach to Network and System Management. It is argued that Management Systems can be derived from a set of pre-fabricated and reusable Building Blocks that break up the required functionality into a number of separate entities rather than being developed from scratch. It proposes a high-level logical model in order to accommodate the range of requirements and environments applicable to Integrated Network and System Management that can be used as a reference model. A development methodology is introduced that reflects principles of the proposed approach, and provides guidelines to structure the analysis, design and implementation phases of a management system. The INSMware approach can further be combined with the componentware paradigm for the implementation of the management system. Based on these principles, a prototype for the management of SNMP systems has been implemented using industry standard middleware technologies. It is argued that development of a management system based on Componentware principles can offer a number of benefits. INSMware Components may be re-used and system solutions will become more modular and thereby easier to construct and maintain

A mid-level framework for independent network services configuration management

Tese doutoramento do Programa Doutoral em TelecomunicaçõesDecades of evolution in communication network’s resulted in a high diversity of solutions, not only in terms of network elements but also in terms of the way they are managed. From a management perspective, having heterogeneous elements was a feasible scenario over the last decades, where management activities were mostly considered as additional features. However, with the most recent advances on network technology, that includes proposals for future Internet as well as requirements for automation, scale and efficiency, new management methods are required and integrated network management became an essential issue. Most recent solutions aiming to integrate the management of heterogeneous network elements, rely on the application of semantic data translations to obtain a common representation between heterogeneous managed elements, thus enabling their management integration. However, the realization of semantic translations is very complex to be effectively achieved, requiring extensive processing of data to find equivalent representation, besides requiring the administrator’s intervention to create and validate conversions, since contemporary data models lack a formal semantic representation. From these constrains a research question arose: Is it possible to integrate the con g- uration management of heterogeneous network elements overcoming the use of manage- ment translations? In this thesis the author uses a network service abstraction to propose a framework for network service management, which comprehends the two essential management operations: monitoring and configuring. This thesis focus on describing and experimenting the subsystem responsible for the network services configurations management, named Mid-level Network Service Configuration (MiNSC), being the thesis most important contribution. The MiNSC subsystem proposes a new configuration management interface for integrated network service management based on standard technologies that includes an universal information model implemented on unique data models. This overcomes the use of management translations while providing advanced management functionalities, only available in more advanced research projects, that includes scalability and resilience improvement methods. Such functionalities are provided by using a two-layer distributed architecture, as well as over-provisioning of network elements. To demonstrate MiNSC’s management capabilities, a group of experiments was conducted, that included, configuration deployment, instance migration and expansion using a DNS management system as test bed. Since MiNSC represents a new architectural approach, with no direct reference for a quantitative evaluation, a theoretical analysis was conducted in order to evaluate it against important integrated network management perspectives. It was concluded that there is a tendency to apply management translations, being the most straightforward solution when integrating the management of heterogeneous management interfaces and/or data models. However, management translations are very complex to be realized, being its effectiveness questionable for highly heterogeneous environments. The implementation of MiNSC’s standard configuration management interface provides a simplified perspective that, by using universal configurations, removes translations from the management system. Its distributed architecture uses independent/universal configurations and over-provisioning of network elements to improve the service’s resilience and scalability, enabling as well a more efficient resource management by dynamically allocating resources as needed

Acesso banda larga sem fios em ambientes heterogéneos de próxima geração

Doutoramento em Engenharia InformáticaO acesso ubíquo à Internet é um dos principais desafios para os operadores de telecomunicações na próxima década. O número de utilizadores da Internet está a crescer exponencialmente e o paradigma de acesso "always connected, anytime, anywhere" é um requisito fundamental para as redes móveis de próxima geração. A tecnologia WiMAX, juntamente com o LTE, foi recentemente reconhecida pelo ITU como uma das tecnologias de acesso compatíveis com os requisitos do 4G. Ainda assim, esta tecnologia de acesso não está completamente preparada para ambientes de próxima geração, principalmente devido à falta de mecanismos de cross-layer para integração de QoS e mobilidade. Adicionalmente, para além das tecnologias WiMAX e LTE, as tecnologias de acesso rádio UMTS/HSPA e Wi-Fi continuarão a ter um impacto significativo nas comunicações móveis durante os próximos anos. Deste modo, é fundamental garantir a coexistência das várias tecnologias de acesso rádio em termos de QoS e mobilidade, permitindo assim a entrega de serviços multimédia de tempo real em redes móveis. Para garantir a entrega de serviços multimédia a utilizadores WiMAX, esta Tese propõe um gestor cross-layer WiMAX integrado com uma arquitectura de QoS fim-a-fim. A arquitectura apresentada permite o controlo de QoS e a comunicação bidireccional entre o sistema WiMAX e as entidades das camadas superiores. Para além disso, o gestor de cross-layer proposto é estendido com eventos e comandos genéricos e independentes da tecnologia para optimizar os procedimentos de mobilidade em ambientes WiMAX. Foram realizados testes para avaliar o desempenho dos procedimentos de QoS e mobilidade da arquitectura WiMAX definida, demonstrando que esta é perfeitamente capaz de entregar serviços de tempo real sem introduzir custos excessivos na rede. No seguimento das extensões de QoS e mobilidade apresentadas para a tecnologia WiMAX, o âmbito desta Tese foi alargado para ambientes de acesso sem-fios heterogéneos. Neste sentido, é proposta uma arquitectura de mobilidade transparente com suporte de QoS para redes de acesso multitecnologia. A arquitectura apresentada integra uma versão estendida do IEEE 802.21 com suporte de QoS, bem como um gestor de mobilidade avançado integrado com os protocolos de gestão de mobilidade do nível IP. Finalmente, para completar o trabalho desenvolvido no âmbito desta Tese, é proposta uma extensão aos procedimentos de decisão de mobilidade em ambientes heterogéneos para incorporar a informação de contexto da rede e do terminal. Para validar e avaliar as optimizações propostas, foram desenvolvidos testes de desempenho num demonstrador inter-tecnologia, composta pelas redes de acesso WiMAX, Wi-Fi e UMTS/HSPA.Ubiquitous Internet access is one of the main challenges for the telecommunications industry in the next decade. The number of users accessing the Internet is growing exponentially and the network access paradigm of “always connected, anytime, anywhere” is a central requirement for the so-called Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN). WiMAX, together with LTE, was recently recognized by ITU as one of the compliant access technologies for 4G. Nevertheless, WiMAX is not yet fully prepared for next generation environments, mainly due to the lack of QoS and mobility crosslayer procedures to support real-time multimedia services delivery. Furthermore, besides the 4G compliant WiMAX and LTE radio access technologies, UMTS/HSPA and Wi-Fi will also have a significant impact in the mobile communications during the next years. Therefore, it is fundamental to ensure the coexistence of multiple radio access technologies in what QoS and mobility procedures are concerned, thereby allowing the delivery of real-time services in mobile networks. In order to provide the WiMAX mobile users with the demanded multimedia services, it is proposed in this Thesis a WiMAX cross-layer manager integrated in an end-to-end all-IP QoS enabled architecture. The presented framework enables the QoS control and bidirectional communication between WiMAX and the upper layer network entities. Furthermore, the proposed cross-layer framework is extended with media independent events and commands to optimize the mobility procedures in WiMAX environments. Tests were made to evaluate the QoS and mobility performance of the defined architecture, demonstrating that it is perfectly capable of handling and supporting real time services without introducing an excessive cost in the network. Following the QoS and mobility extensions provided for WiMAX, the scope of this Thesis is broaden and a seamless mobility architecture with QoS support in heterogeneous wireless access environments is proposed. The presented architecture integrates an extended version of the IEEE 802.21 framework with QoS support, as well as an advanced mobility manager integrated with the IP level mobility management protocols. Finally, to complete the work within the framework of this Thesis, it is proposed an extension to the handover decisionmaking processes in heterogeneous access environments through the integration of context information from both the network entities and the enduser. Performance tests were developed in a real testbed to validate the proposed optimizations in an inter-technology handover scenario involving WiMAX, Wi-Fi and UMTS/HSPA

An ontology-based approach toward the configuration of heterogeneous network devices

Despite the numerous efforts of standardization, semantic issues remain in effect in many subfields of networking. The inability to exchange data unambiguously between information systems and human resources is an issue that hinders technology implementation, semantic interoperability, service deployment, network management, technology migration, among many others. In this thesis, we will approach the semantic issues in two critical subfields of networking, namely, network configuration management and network addressing architectures. The fact that makes the study in these areas rather appealing is that in both scenarios semantic issues have been around from the very early days of networking. However, as networks continue to grow in size and complexity current practices are becoming neither scalable nor practical. One of the most complex and essential tasks in network management is the configuration of network devices. The lack of comprehensive and standard means for modifying and controlling the configuration of network elements has led to the continuous and extended use of proprietary Command Line Interfaces (CLIs). Unfortunately, CLIs are generally both, device and vendor-specific. In the context of heterogeneous network infrastructures---i.e., networks typically composed of multiple devices from different vendors---the use of several CLIs raises serious Operation, Administration and Management (OAM) issues. Accordingly, network administrators are forced to gain specialized expertise and to continuously keep knowledge and skills up to date as new features, system upgrades or technologies appear. Overall, the utilization of proprietary mechanisms allows neither sharing knowledge consistently between vendors' domains nor reusing configurations to achieve full automation of network configuration tasks---which are typically required in autonomic management. Due to this heterogeneity, CLIs typically provide a help feature which is in turn an useful source of knowledge to enable semantic interpretation of a vendor's configuration space. The large amount of information a network administrator must learn and manage makes Information Extraction (IE) and other forms of natural language analysis of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) field key enablers for the network device configuration space. This thesis presents the design and implementation specification of the first Ontology-Based Information Extraction (OBIE) System from the CLI of network devices for the automation and abstraction of device configurations. Moreover, the so-called semantic overload of IP addresses---wherein addresses are both identifiers and locators of a node at the same time---is one of the main constraints over mobility of network hosts, multi-homing and scalability of the routing system. In light of this, numerous approaches have emerged in an effort to decouple the semantics of the network addressing scheme. In this thesis, we approach this issue from two perspectives, namely, a non-disruptive (i.e., evolutionary) solution to the current Internet and a clean-slate approach for Future Internet. In the first scenario, we analyze the Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP) as it is currently one of the strongest solutions to the semantic overload issue. However, its adoption is hindered by existing problems in the proposed mapping systems. Herein, we propose the LISP Redundancy Protocol (LRP) aimed to complement the LISP framework and strengthen feasibility of deployment, while at the same time, minimize mapping table size, latency time and maximize reachability in the network. In the second scenario, we explore TARIFA a Next Generation Internet architecture and introduce a novel service-centric addressing scheme which aims to overcome the issues related to routing and semantic overload of IP addresses.A pesar de los numerosos esfuerzos de estandarización, los problemas de semántica continúan en efecto en muchas subáreas de networking. La inabilidad de intercambiar data sin ambiguedad entre sistemas es un problema que limita la interoperabilidad semántica. En esta tesis, abordamos los problemas de semántica en dos áreas: (i) la gestión de configuración y (ii) arquitecturas de direccionamiento. El hecho que hace el estudio en estas áreas de interés, es que los problemas de semántica datan desde los inicios del Internet. Sin embargo, mientras las redes continúan creciendo en tamaño y complejidad, los mecanismos desplegados dejan de ser escalabales y prácticos. Una de las tareas más complejas y esenciales en la gestión de redes es la configuración de equipos. La falta de mecanismos estándar para la modificación y control de la configuración de equipos ha llevado al uso continuado y extendido de interfaces por líneas de comando (CLI). Desafortunadamente, las CLIs son generalmente, específicos por fabricante y dispositivo. En el contexto de redes heterogéneas--es decir, redes típicamente compuestas por múltiples dispositivos de distintos fabricantes--el uso de varias CLIs trae consigo serios problemas de operación, administración y gestión. En consecuencia, los administradores de red se ven forzados a adquirir experiencia en el manejo específico de múltiples tecnologías y además, a mantenerse continuamente actualizados en la medida en que nuevas funcionalidades o tecnologías emergen, o bien con actualizaciones de sistemas operativos. En general, la utilización de mecanismos propietarios no permite compartir conocimientos de forma consistente a lo largo de plataformas heterogéneas, ni reutilizar configuraciones con el objetivo de alcanzar la completa automatización de tareas de configuración--que son típicamente requeridas en el área de gestión autonómica. Debido a esta heterogeneidad, las CLIs suelen proporcionar una función de ayuda que fundamentalmente aporta información para la interpretación semántica del entorno de configuración de un fabricante. La gran cantidad de información que un administrador debe aprender y manejar, hace de la extracción de información y otras formas de análisis de lenguaje natural del campo de Inteligencia Artificial, potenciales herramientas para la configuración de equipos en entornos heterogéneos. Esta tesis presenta el diseño y especificaciones de implementación del primer sistema de extracción de información basada en ontologías desde el CLI de dispositivos de red, para la automatización y abstracción de configuraciones. Por otra parte, la denominada sobrecarga semántica de direcciones IP--en donde, las direcciones son identificadores y localizadores al mismo tiempo--es una de las principales limitaciones sobre mobilidad, multi-homing y escalabilidad del sistema de enrutamiento. Por esta razón, numerosas propuestas han emergido en un esfuerzo por desacoplar la semántica del esquema de direccionamiento de las redes actuales. En esta tesis, abordamos este problema desde dos perspectivas, la primera de ellas una aproximación no-disruptiva (es decir, evolucionaria) al problema del Internet actual y la segunda, una nueva propuesta en torno a futuras arquitecturas del Internet. En el primer escenario, analizamos el protocolo LISP (del inglés, Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol) ya que es en efecto, una de las soluciones con mayor potencial para la resolucion del problema de semántica. Sin embargo, su adopción está limitada por problemas en los sistemas de mapeo propuestos. En esta tesis, proponemos LRP (del inglés, LISP Redundancy Protocol) un protocolo destinado a complementar LISP e incrementar la factibilidad de despliegue, a la vez que, reduce el tamaño de las tablas de mapeo, tiempo de latencia y maximiza accesibilidad. En el segundo escenario, exploramos TARIFA una arquitectura de red de nueva generación e introducimos un novedoso esquema de direccionamiento orientado a servicios

Network management using active networks

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Towards a cloud enabler : from an optical network resource provisioning system to a generalized architecture for dynamic infrastructure services provisioning

This work was developed during a period where most of the optical management and provisioning system where manual and proprietary. This work contributed to the evolution of the state of the art of optical networks with new architectures and advanced virtual infrastructure services. The evolution of optical networks, and internet globally, have been very promising during the last decade. The impact of mobile technology, grid, cloud computing, HDTV, augmented reality and big data, among many others, have driven the evolution of optical networks towards current service technologies, mostly based on SDN (Software Defined Networking) architectures and NFV(Network Functions Virtualisation). Moreover, the convergence of IP/Optical networks and IT services, and the evolution of the internet and optical infrastructures, have generated novel service orchestrators and open source frameworks. In fact, technology has evolved that fast that none could foresee how important Internet is for our current lives. Said in other words, technology was forced to evolve in a way that network architectures became much more transparent, dynamic and flexible to the end users (applications, user interfaces or simple APIs). This Thesis exposes the work done on defining new architectures for Service Oriented Networks and the contribution to the state of the art. The research work is divided into three topics. It describes the evolution from a Network Resource Provisioning System to an advanced Service Plane, and ends with a new architecture that virtualized the optical infrastructure in order to provide coordinated, on-demand and dynamic services between the application and the network infrastructure layer, becoming an enabler for the new generation of cloud network infrastructures. The work done on defining a Network Resource Provisioning System established the first bases for future work on network infrastructure virtualization. The UCLP (User Light Path Provisioning) technology was the first attempt for Customer Empowered Networks and Articulated Private Networks. It empowered the users and brought virtualization and partitioning functionalities into the optical data plane, with new interfaces for dynamic service provisioning. The work done within the development of a new Service Plane allowed the provisioning of on-demand connectivity services from the application, and in a multi-domain and multi-technology scenario based on a virtual network infrastructure composed of resources from different infrastructure providers. This Service Plane facilitated the deployment of applications consuming large amounts of data under deterministic conditions, so allowing the networks behave as a Grid-class resource. It became the first on-demand provisioning system that at lower levels allowed the creation of one virtual domain composed from resources of different providers. The last research topic presents an architecture that consolidated the work done in virtualisation while enhancing the capabilities to upper layers, so fully integrating the optical network infrastructure into the cloud environment, and so providing an architecture that enabled cloud services by integrating the request of optical network and IT infrastructure services together at the same level. It set up a new trend into the research community and evolved towards the technology we use today based on SDN and NFV. Summing up, the work presented is focused on the provisioning of virtual infrastructures from the architectural point of view of optical networks and IT infrastructures, together with the design and definition of novel service layers. It means, architectures that enabled the creation of virtual infrastructures composed of optical networks and IT resources, isolated and provisioned on-demand and in advance with infrastructure re-planning functionalities, and a new set of interfaces to open up those services to applications or third parties.Aquesta tesi es va desenvolupar durant un període on la majoria de sistemes de gestió de xarxa òptica eren manuals i basats en sistemes propietaris. En aquest sentit, la feina presentada va contribuir a l'evolució de l'estat de l'art de les xarxes òptiques tant a nivell d’arquitectures com de provisió d’infraestructures virtuals. L'evolució de les xarxes òptiques, i d'Internet a nivell mundial, han estat molt prometedores durant l'última dècada. L'impacte de la tecnologia mòbil, la computació al núvol, la televisió d'alta definició, la realitat augmentada i el big data, entre molts altres, han impulsat l'evolució cap a xarxes d’altes prestacions amb nous serveis basats en SDN (Software Defined Networking) i NFV (Funcions de xarxa La virtualització). D'altra banda, la convergència de xarxes òptiques i els serveis IT, junt amb l'evolució d'Internet i de les infraestructures òptiques, han generat nous orquestradors de serveis i frameworks basats en codi obert. La tecnologia ha evolucionat a una velocitat on ningú podria haver predit la importància que Internet està tenint en el nostre dia a dia. Dit en altres paraules, la tecnologia es va veure obligada a evolucionar d'una manera on les arquitectures de xarxa es fessin més transparent, dinàmiques i flexibles vers als usuaris finals (aplicacions, interfícies d'usuari o APIs simples). Aquesta Tesi presenta noves arquitectures de xarxa òptica orientades a serveis. El treball de recerca es divideix en tres temes. Es presenta un sistema de virtualització i aprovisionament de recursos de xarxa i la seva evolució a un pla de servei avançat, per acabar presentant el disseny d’una nova arquitectura capaç de virtualitzar la infraestructura òptica i IT i proporcionar serveis de forma coordinada, i sota demanda, entre l'aplicació i la capa d'infraestructura de xarxa òptica. Tot esdevenint un facilitador per a la nova generació d'infraestructures de xarxa en el núvol. El treball realitzat en la definició del sistema de virtualització de recursos va establir les primeres bases sobre la virtualització de la infraestructura de xarxa òptica en el marc de les “Customer Empowered Networks” i “Articulated Private Networks”. Amb l’objectiu de virtualitzar el pla de dades òptic, i oferir noves interfícies per a la provisió de serveis dinàmics de xarxa. En quant al pla de serveis presentat, aquest va facilitat la provisió de serveis de connectivitat sota demanda per part de l'aplicació, tant en entorns multi-domini, com en entorns amb múltiples tecnologies. Aquest pla de servei, anomenat Harmony, va facilitar el desplegament de noves aplicacions que consumien grans quantitats de dades en condicions deterministes. En aquest sentit, va permetre que les xarxes es comportessin com un recurs Grid, i per tant, va esdevenir el primer sistema d'aprovisionament sota demanda que permetia la creació de dominis virtuals de xarxa composts a partir de recursos de diferents proveïdors. Finalment, es presenta l’evolució d’un pla de servei cap una arquitectura global que consolida el treball realitzat a nivell de convergència d’infraestructures (òptica + IT) i millora les capacitats de les capes superiors. Aquesta arquitectura va facilitar la plena integració de la infraestructura de xarxa òptica a l'entorn del núvol. En aquest sentit, aquest resultats van evolucionar cap a les tendències actuals de SDN i NFV. En resum, el treball presentat es centra en la provisió d'infraestructures virtuals des del punt de vista d’arquitectures de xarxa òptiques i les infraestructures IT, juntament amb el disseny i definició de nous serveis de xarxa avançats, tal i com ho va ser el servei de re-planificació dinàmicaPostprint (published version

Modelling of reliable service based operations support system (MORSBOSS)

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThe underlying theme of this thesis is identification, classification, detection and prediction of cellular network faults using state of the art technologies, methods and algorithms

Proposta 3GPP de indicadores de desempenho de rede - R4 CS Core Network

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesO mercado de telecomunicações tem vindo a tornar-se cada vez mais competitivo e agressivo devido à diminuição das margens dos operadores de telecomunicações. Este facto é igualmente relevante no mercado das redes móveis em que este trabalho se foca. A maior parte dos actuais mercados de redes móveis pauta-se por uma consolidação da sua base instalada e por uma optimização dos recursos existentes. Por uma questão de estratégia comercial e técnica (não dependência de um único fornecedor) é frequente os operadores de redes móveis terem mais do que um fornecedor de equipamentos de telecomunicações para a sua rede. Devido a este facto, os problemas das redes com multi-fabricantes agudizou-se o que levou à premente necessidade de se arranjar uma linguagem comum através da qual se consiga ter uma ideia do nível global de desempenho alcançado e dos pontos críticos em que a rede pode melhorar o seu desempenho. É nesta problemática que o presente trabalho se foca. Neste momento, o 3GPP tem definidos uma quantidade vasta de indicadores de desempenho de rede para a área Circuit Switch (CS) Core Network (CN) mas ainda não tem definidos os seus Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Tendo como base os indicadores de desempenho 3GPP existentes, esta Dissertação propõe um conjunto de KPIs que possibilitam a análise do desempenho da rede Core Network ao nível da sua parte CS. Esta Dissertação apresenta as propostas de KPIs para a rede CS, as quais estão divididas em três partes. Numa primeira parte são apresentados os KPIs relativos ao MSC Server (MSS) ao nível da análise de acessibilidade, utilização e mobilidade. Na segunda secção são apresentados os KPIs relativos ao Media Gateway (MGW) ao nível da análise de acessibilidade, integridade e utilização. Finalmente na terceira e última secção apresentam-se os KPIs associados ao HLR.The telecommunications market has become increasingly competitive and aggressive due to the decreasing margins of telecom operators. This fact is also relevant in the mobile networks market in which this Thesis is focused. Most of today's mobile networks is guided by a consolidation of its installed base and by optimizing existing resources. As a matter of business strategy and technique (not dependent on one supplier) it is common for the mobile network operators to have more than one telecommunications equipment supplier. Due to this, the problems of multi-vendor networks has worsened leading to the urgent need to find a common language that everyone speaks and, through which, can get an idea of overall performance level achieved and critical points where the network can improve its performance. This paper is focused on this issue. Currently, 3GPP has defined a wide range of network performance indicators for the Core Network (CN) Circuit Switch (CS) area but, nothing is yet set in what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is concerned. The purpose of this Thesis is, based on already existent 3GPP performance indicators, recommend a set of KPIs to enable the CS CN performance analysis. This Thesis present the CS KPI proposals which are divided in three main parts. In the first part, are presented the MSC Server (MSS) KPIs at accessibility analysis, usage and mobility levels. In the second part are presented the Media Gateway (MGW) related KPIs at accessibility analysis, integrity and usage levels. Finally we have the third and last part where the HLR related KPIs are presented

Internet of Things From Hype to Reality

The Internet of Things (IoT) has gained significant mindshare, let alone attention, in academia and the industry especially over the past few years. The reasons behind this interest are the potential capabilities that IoT promises to offer. On the personal level, it paints a picture of a future world where all the things in our ambient environment are connected to the Internet and seamlessly communicate with each other to operate intelligently. The ultimate goal is to enable objects around us to efficiently sense our surroundings, inexpensively communicate, and ultimately create a better environment for us: one where everyday objects act based on what we need and like without explicit instructions

Automated IT Service Fault Diagnosis Based on Event Correlation Techniques

In the previous years a paradigm shift in the area of IT service management could be witnessed. IT management does not only deal with the network, end systems, or applications anymore, but is more and more concerned with IT services. This is caused by the need of organizations to monitor the efficiency of internal IT departments and to have the possibility to subscribe IT services from external providers. This trend has raised new challenges in the area of IT service management, especially with respect to service level agreements laying down the quality of service to be guaranteed by a service provider. Fault management is also facing new challenges which are related to ensuring the compliance to these service level agreements. For example, a high utilization of network links in the infrastructure can imply a delay increase in the delivery of services with respect to agreed time constraints. Such relationships have to be detected and treated in a service-oriented fault diagnosis which therefore does not deal with faults in a narrow sense, but with service quality degradations. This thesis aims at providing a concept for service fault diagnosis which is an important part of IT service fault management. At first, a motivation of the need of further examinations regarding this issue is given which is based on the analysis of services offered by a large IT service provider. A generalization of the scenario forms the basis for the specification of requirements which are used for a review of related research work and commercial products. Even though some solutions for particular challenges have already been provided, a general approach for service fault diagnosis is still missing. For addressing this issue, a framework is presented in the main part of this thesis using an event correlation component as its central part. Event correlation techniques which have been successfully applied to fault management in the area of network and systems management are adapted and extended accordingly. Guidelines for the application of the framework to a given scenario are provided afterwards. For showing their feasibility in a real world scenario, they are used for both example services referenced earlier