Communication Network Management Research Articles

An Iterative Method for Resource Leasing in Cognitive Radio Networks

Solutions for better spectrum utilization have widely been investigated in the past years. Recently, spectrum leasing has been proposed as a powerful technique for spectrum management in communication networks. In this paper, we propose a new leasing scheme in both time and frequency domains joint with cooperative communication for cognitive orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in a network composed of a primary transmitter and some secondary users forming a cooperative relay network. In the proposed scheme, the primary user decides to lease a part of its available resources (time and frequency) to a group of relays, with the aim of increasing its link reliability. Two schemes, simple and intelligent, are studied for resource allocation. We show that the simple scheme which is more applicable has same result as the intelligent scheme in most of situations. An iterative negotiation between the primary and secondary networks is assumed in this process to find the optimal amount of available OFDM symbols as well as subcarriers that should be involved in the cooperation process. Simulation results show that the primary network can achieve a higher data rate using our proposed iterative cooperation process compared to the case where no cooperation is exploited. Besides, our simulation results show that the secondary users also may increase their quality of service in terms of their link achievable data rate, via this cooperation process.

Analysis of Distance-Based Location Management in Wireless Communication Networks

The performance of dynamic distance-based location management schemes (DBLMS) in wireless communication networks is analyzed. A Markov chain is developed as a mobility model to describe the movement of a mobile terminal in 2D cellular structures. The paging area residence time is characterized for arbitrary cell residence time by using the Markov chain. The expected number of paging area boundary crossings and the cost of the distance-based location update method are analyzed by using the classical renewal theory for two different call handling models. For the call plus location update model, two cases are considered. In the first case, the intercall time has an arbitrary distribution and the cell residence time has an exponential distribution. In the second case, the intercall time has a hyper-Erlang distribution and the cell residence time has an arbitrary distribution. For the call without location update model, both intercall time and cell residence time can have arbitrary distributions. Our analysis makes it possible to find the optimal distance threshold that minimizes the total cost of location management in a DBLMS.

A semantic approach for QoS specification of communication services using QoE parameters

Abstract Various operations related to Quality of Service (QoS) management in communication networks require the clients/users to specify the quality level of the network service. The current QoS proposals adopt a fixed set of performance parameters at the network level to specify quality levels, avoiding dealing with the problem of heterogeneity among QoS parameters and metrics during the service management. However, in several situations where humans are the end-users of the service, the quality level should be specified using Quality of Experience (QoE) parameters, more natural for humans than network performance parameters. On the other hand, the QoS specification using QoE parameters is not sufficient to the service providers; they must translate QoE parameters into network parameters. This paper proposes a semantic approach to the automatic QoE/QoS mapping using the Network QoS Ontology (NetQoSOnt), offering automatic and extensible translation between QoE and QoS parameters. The use of our proposal is illustrated by supporting a voice over IP service negotiation.

Advances on intelligent network management

A traditional paradox in the management of communications networks is the centralisation or distribution of control. A network is said to have centralized control when one node takes all the decisions. Problems arise when the network is geographically distributed, and the central node has to make decisions with an incomplete and possibly outdated knowledge. Also, a link failure could cause the isolation of part of the network, or if the central node itself fails then the whole network could become inoperable. Moreover, there have been a number of emerging technologies (e.g., cloud and grid computing) for supporting various information communication. The needs on autonomous and intelligent management of computer networks is ever-increasing. Thus, there should be intelligent methodologies and frameworks to control them efficiently and effectively. Particularly, in a large-scale distributed system, agents and multi-agent systems are related to a modern software paradigm which has long been recognized as a promising technology for constructing and managing complex, autonomous and intelligent systems. Furthermore, in the context of economic perspective, it is necessary to take into account the cost of communication and managements.

An Evaluation of Parameterized Gradient Based Routing With QoE Monitoring for Multiple IPTV Providers

Future communication networks will be faced with increasing and variable traffic demand, due largely to various services introduced on the Internet. One particular service that will greatly impact resource management of future communication networks is IPTV, which aims to provide users with a multitude of multimedia services (e.g. HD and SD) for both live and on demand streaming. The impact of this will be higher, when we consider multiple IPTV services overlaid on the same network. In this paper we propose a resource management scheme for a network provider that supports multiple IPTV providers. The proposed solution incorporates a new distributed routing mechanism in the underlying network that incorporates QoE monitoring. Through this monitoring process, network providers are able to provide timely updates of quality of flows for each IPTV provider. Simulation work has been conducted to validate the efficiency of the proposed solution in comparison to standard approaches.

Design and Implementation of a Reusable Knowledge Model for Supporting the Network Management Functions

The focus of our work is the elicitation of communication network systems’ knowledge resources in a generic and reusable manner for providing the automated support to network management tasks. Key features of the proposed knowledge model are: ontological representation of static domain-content and management-expertise encoded as the core knowledge of distributed multi-agent architecture. Our emphasis has primarily been on the modularization of resource knowledge to facilitate its reuse in a flexible manner. To demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed scheme, we have implemented an experimental network in our laboratory, and the devised knowledge model has been deployed through multi-agent based middleware layer in the prototype system. A couple of application scenarios have been designed for testing with the prototype system. Experimental results confirm a marked reduction in the workloads of the network operator with our system providing the automated support to network management functions. Validation of the reusability/modifiability aspects of our system illustrates the flexible manipulation of knowledge fragments within diverse application contexts. We envisage our knowledge modeling approach as the first step towards the comprehensive knowledge acquisition, representation, and dissemination in the communication network management domain.

Message from the New Editor-in-Chief

It is my great honor to be the new Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Network and Systems Management. My association with JNSM began before it was published for the first time in 1993. While working as a tenure track assistant professor, I received a flyer in my mail about a new journal in the planning stages of being launched that focused on the network management area and featured Manu Malek as the founding Editor-inChief. This initial announcement listed the journal’s original name, which was a long title that reflected operations, administration, maintenance, and network control—all critical components of network management. However, when the first issue came out, the journal actually bore the much more compact title: Journal of Network and Systems Management. Since then, the journal has been commonly known in the research community by its initials, JNSM. I immediately felt that my research was a good fit for this newly launched journal, so, I submitted a manuscript for possible consideration. To my delight, my manuscript was accepted, and it was published in the second issue of the first volume in June 1993. Around the same time, I started serving as a reviewer for JNSM, but by 1995, Manu had already asked me to serve on the editorial board of JNSM, which I gladly accepted. In 1997, I co-guest edited a special issue on ‘Fault Management in Communication Networks’, and in 2002, Manu asked me to be a Senior Technical Editor for JNSM—a role I’ve continued to serve in until now. With the emergence of the web, I felt that it was important for JNSM to have an online presence. Thus, in 1995, I suggested to Manu that I start and maintain a webpage for the journal, and from this discussion, the JNSM on-line page (http://www. cstp.umkc.edu/jnsm/) was born as a leaf page on my department’s web-site. Here, I added information on issues along with abstracts of each paper. With the plan to publish special issues, Manu forwarded me the call for papers, which I announced

A Knowledge-Based Strategy for the Automated Support to Network Management Tasks

This paper presents a domain-ontology driven multi-agent based scheme for representing the knowledge of the communication network management system. In the proposed knowledge-intensive framework, the static domain-related concepts are articulated as the domain knowledge ontology. The experiential knowledge for managing the network is represented as the fault-case reasoning models, and it is explicitly encoded as the core knowledge of multi-agent middleware layer as heuristic production-type rules. These task-oriented management expertise manipulates the domain content and structure during the diagnostic sessions. The agents' rules along with the embedded generic java-based problem-solving algorithms and run-time log information, perform the automated management tasks. For the proof of concept, an experimental network system has been implemented in our laboratory, and the deployment of some test-bed scenarios is performed. Experimental results confirm a marked reduction in the management-overhead of the network administrator, as compared to the manual network management techniques, in terms of the time-taken and effort-done during a particular fault-diagnosis session. Validation of the reusability/modifiability aspects of our system, illustrates the flexible manipulation of the knowledge fragments within diverse application contexts. The proposed approach can be regarded as one of the pioneered steps towards representing the network knowledge via reusable domain ontology and intelligent agents for the automated network management support systems.

Overhead reduction in a distributed path management system

CEAS (cross entropy ant system) is a distributed, robust and adaptive swarm intelligence system for path management in communication networks. This paper focuses on strategies for handling the overhead in terms of processing cycles, memory storage, and number of management packets (ants) generated by CEAS when the state of the network changes. Pheromone sharing is introduced such that virtual connections with common sub-paths are sharing information and cooperate in the path finding when the paths have the same destination and the same objective function. The sharing of information reduces the required memory in each node significantly on the expense of an increase in the size of the management packets. However, the packets are still rather small. The cooperation also leads to an improvement in convergence rates which again results in reduced transmission overhead. A rate adjustment scheme is also proposed. The scheme is self-tuned and detects state changes implicitly and sets packet rates accordingly by monitoring parameter values in the management system. Rate adaptation can be done both in the network nodes and at the end-points of a virtual path. Compared to a fixed rate strategy the self-tuned strategies show a significant reduction in the number of packets generated, while maintaining the same data packet delay and service availability level. The self-tuned rate adjustment in the network nodes provides fast restoration with short path detection times, which ensures high service availability. The self-tuned ant rate in the end-points avoids flooding the network with management packets when these are not required. The performance and overhead of CEAS are compared to those of the link state routing currently in use in today's networks. The results show that CEAS outperforms link state routing both with respect to performance and overhead when the network experiences transient link failures, while the opposite is the case with long lived failures.

Computational intelligence tools for next generation quality of service management

In this paper we explore the interest of computational intelligence tools in the management of heterogeneous communication networks, specifically to predict congestion, failures and other anomalies in the network that may eventually lead to degradation of the quality of offered services. We show two different applications based on neural and neuro-fuzzy systems for quality of service (QoS) management in next generation networks for voice and video service over heterogeneous Internet protocol (V2oIP) services. The two examples explained in this paper attempt to predict the communication network resources for new incoming calls, and visualizing the QoS of a communication network by means of self-organizing maps.

Open Source Tool For Network Monitoring

Even though monitoring tools are essential to the management of communications networks, Open Source applications still confront their potential users with considerable problems. This work analyses the limitations of the currently existing tools and presents the development of a new tool that solves most of those problems. The tool is based on a new architecture of objects and remote method invocation and allows both centralized and distributed monitoring. Its configuration through web interface, its support to monitoring templates, and its flexibility make it particularly interesting for a large number of users in search of a strong but easily configurable system. The proposed extension system is based on plug-ins and it is highly innovative because of its power and simplicity. Finally, the configuration simplicity and other essential improvements of the proposed system are successfully tested in a real environment.

Secure log management for privacy assurance in electronic communications

In this paper we examine logging security in the environment of electronic communication providers. We review existing security threat models for system logging and we extend these to a new security model especially suited for communication network providers, which also considers internal modification attacks. We also propose a framework for secure log management in public communication networks as well as an implementation design, in order to provide traceability under the extended security model. A key role to the proposed framework is given to an independent Regulatory Authority, which is responsible to maintain log integrity proofs in a remote environment and verify the integrity of the provider's log files during security audits.

Adaptive Two-Loop Power Tracking Control in CDMA Systems with the Utility Optimization

An adaptive two-loop power tracking control scheme is proposed for direct sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) cellular systems in a wireless network. The scheme includes an outer-loop controller and an inner-loop controller. An adaptive searching algorithm is designed for determining an optimal target signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) for each user in the outer loop. The utility optimization can be achieved by using the adaptive algorithm through the net utility function based on the quality of service (QoS) for the purpose of resource management of wireless communication networks. A prediction control is designed to compensate for the effect of round-trip time-delay, channel fading, multiple access interference (MAI), and noise in the inner loop. The optimal target SINR tracking can be achieved by using the prediction control through a robust pole placement. Combining these two controllers in the outer loop and inner loop, utility optimization and target SINR tracking can be achieved at the same time. The stability and convergence of the proposed scheme are discussed. Several simulation results are given to confirm the performance of the proposed method.

Towards autonomic management of communications networks

As communications networks become increasingly dynamic, heterogeneous, less reliable, and larger in scale, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to effectively manage these networks using traditional approaches that rely on human monitoring and intervention to ensure they operate within desired bounds. Researchers and practitioners are pursuing the vision of autonomic network management, which we view as the capability of network entities to self-govern their behavior within the constraints of business goals that the network as a whole seeks to achieve. However, applying autonomic principles to network management is challenging for a number of reasons, including: (1) A means is required to enable business rules to determine the set of resources and/or services to be provided. (2) Contextual changes in the network must be sensed and interpreted, because new management policies may be required when context changes. (3) As context changes, it may be necessary to adapt the management control loops that are used to ensure that system functionality adapts to meet changing user requirements, business goals, and environmental conditions. (4) A means is required to verify modeled data and to add new data dynamically so that the system can learn and reason about itself and its environment. This article provides an introduction to the FOCALE autonomic network management architecture, which is designed to address these challenges.

Power line communication network trial and management in Korea

AbstractPower line communication (PLC) has become an important network access technology to conveniently and effectively provide various useful services such as remote meter reading, broadband Internet access, and home networking services. As the deployment and use of PLC networks increase, it is essential that we need to be able to configure, monitor, and control the PLC network resources. In this paper, we present an overview of PLC network technology and describe a trial PLC network and its deployment in Korea. We then present the design and implementation of a network management system for PLC networks. The experience on the deployment and management of the trial PLC network is also presented. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Toward best maintenance practices in communications network management

AbstractBest maintenance practices in communications networks management are benchmarking standards that, if carefully implemented, will enhance the integrity, reliability and maintenance costs of communications networks. This paper defines best maintenance practices in communications network management within a concise framework encompassing measurable performance‐level goals as well as methods and procedures needed to achieve these goals. The best maintenance practice recommendations of this paper cover many segments of communications networks and services, including wireline and wireless networks as well as multiple network spaces and technologies. The paper also outlines certain recent trends in network maintenance and provides specific recommendations for action to be taken to ensure that best network maintenance practices are implemented and maintained. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Facilitating Mobility?

Geographic information systems (GIS), which store, manipulate, and analyse spatial data, have a pivotal role in facilitating (or controlling) mobility. By Interrogating spatial databases, GIS is able to answer simple questions such as: ‘Where is the nearest …?’ and ‘How do I get to …?’ The principles of this interrogation are explained and illustrated in this article. The exact nature of GIS's relationship with mobility will vary. In some applications, such as surveillance, the relationship can he characterised as passive; in other applicalions the relationship is active. We illustrate how GIS can support complex real-time operations, such as access to health care, transport logistics, and communications network design and management, and development of information sources. Estimates are made of the potential for further growth of GIS in the context of mobility, and examples are given from a wide range of applications in a variety of countries. Reference is made to current developments in GIS technology and to novel applications, including virtual mobility, that may help to overcome some mobility constraints and thus empower citizens. Finally, attention is given to issues of privacy, surveillance and control in our information-rich mobile world.

Infrastructure Management as Cooperative Work: Implications for Systems Design

This study looks at the data communications network management organization (NMO) within a large financial institution and applies concepts from Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and other domains to develop techniques for describing work within this and other similar organizations. Network management is one form of infrastructure management, which is comprised of two kinds of work: real-time supervisory control work and design work. While many studies of group work focus on the activities of small groups of people engaged in either real-time supervisory control or design work, examinations of organizations where both kinds of work occur are relatively rare. The focus is on the work patterns and data forms that are found within the NMO. Some of the implications of the analysis in regard to the design of CSCW systems are presented and discussed.

HLR Replication Protocols for Global Mobility Management in PCS Networks

The new trend for PCS networks is to provide mobile users with large-scale mobile capability across many service areas. In this scenario, global database management for PCS networks has become an increasingly important research issue. In this paper, we examined two replicated database strategies, single-replica (SR) and multiple-replica (MR), for large-scale mobility of per-user data management in personal communication networks. The SR strategy uses a single replica approach of HLR. The MR strategy replicates the per-user data of HLR in many regions. The two strategies are based a partial replication scheme, and a primary copy method is used to maintain replicas' consistency. Our numerical results show that the MR strategy outperforms the SR strategy in most situations; however, it may be worse when the probability of a mobile user visiting a foreign region is high and the query rates from other foreign regions are low. Additionally, the number of replicas should be compact in the MR strategy in order to achieve a reasonable query response time. Therefore, we propose an adaptive multiple replication protocol to choose a suitable replication strategy and to decide the optimized number of replicas.

DETECTION OF ABNORMAL CHANGE IN A TIME SERIES OF GRAPHS

In the management of large enterprise communication networks, it becomes difficult to detect and identify causes of abnormal change in traffic distributions when the underlying logical topology is dynamic. This paper describes a novel approach to abnormal network change detection by representing periodic observations of logical communications within a network as a time series of graphs. A number of graph distance measures are proposed to assess the difference between successive graphs and identify abnormal behaviour. Localisation techniques have also been described to show where in the network most change occurred.