Management Plane Research Articles

Companies turn detectives

We expose and explore technical and trust issues that arise in acquiring forensic evidence from infrastructure-as-a-service cloud computing and analyze some strategies for addressing these challenges. First, we create a model to show the layers of trust required in the cloud. Second, we present the overarching context for a cloud forensic exam and analyze choices available to an examiner. Third, we provide for the first time an evaluation of popular forensic acquisition tools including Guidance EnCase and AccesData Forensic Toolkit, and show that they can successfully return volatile and non-volatile data from the cloud. We explain, however, that with those techniques judge and jury must accept a great deal of trust in the authenticity and integrity of the data from many layers of the cloud model. In addition, we explore four other solutions for acquisition—Trusted Platform Modules, the management plane, forensics-as-a-service, and legal solutions, which assume less trust but require more cooperation from the cloud service provider. Our work lays a foundation for future development of new acquisition methods for the cloud that will be trustworthy and forensically sound. Our work also helps forensic examiners, law enforcement, and the court evaluate confidence in evidence from the cloud.

A management and control architecture for providing IP differentiated services in MPLS-based networks

As the Internet evolves toward the global multiservice network of the future, a key consideration is support for services with guaranteed quality of service. The proposed differentiated services framework is seen as the key technology to achieve this. DiffServ currently concentrates on control/data plane mechanisms to support QoS, but also recognizes the need for management plane aspects through the bandwidth broker. In this article we propose a model and architectural framework for supporting DiffServ-based end-to-end QoS in the Internet, assuming underlying MPLS-based explicit routed paths. The proposed integrated management and control architecture will allow providers to offer both quantitative and qualitative services while optimizing the use of underlying network resources.

Application of control plane technology to dynamic configuration management

The distinction between switched and leased line services is beginning to disappear. Many network operators and suppliers are developing control plane technology for application in transport networks. This will allow faster service provisioning, particularly between network operators, and the creation of new network services. However, such systems will still require comprehensive management systems, and successful operators and vendors of the future will be those that are capable of developing operational support systems that complement the control plane with service management capabilities, automated plan and build processes, inventory management, and capacity planning. This article examines the distribution of functionality between the management and central planes for support of soft permanent and switched connections.

Transporting QoS adaptive flows

Distributed audio and video applications need to adapt to fluctuations in delivered quality of service (QoS). By trading off temporal and spatial quality to available bandwidth, or manipulating the playout time of continuous media in response to variation in delay, audio and video flows can be made to adapt to fluctuating QoS with minimal perceptual distortion. In this paper, we extend our previous work on a QoS Architecture (QoS-A) by populating the QoS management planes of our architecture with a framework for the control and management of multilayer coded flows operating in heterogeneous multimedia networking environments. Two key techniques are proposed: i) an end-to-end rate-shaping scheme which adapts the rate of MPEG-coded flows to the available network resources while minimizing the distortion observed at the receiver; and ii) an adaptive network service, which offers “hard” guarantees to the base layer of multilayer coded flows and “fairness” guarantees to the enhancement layers based on a bandwidth allocation technique called Weighted Fair Sharing.

Application of the stratification concept to radio networks and their gateways

Evolving telecommunication networks and services will require new, more complex modelling tools to adequately describe their architectures. The high degree of mobility in future networks requires that models of their architecture be able to capture in a unambiguous way the underlying radio media infrastructure and its relationship to the fixed transmission media. The introduction of the stratification concept in the modelling of ISDN has stimulated an attempt at modelling radio networks in a similar fashion. Examples of modelling a military distributed packet radio network, B-ISDN over a satellite network, and the GSM system have shown the suitability of the concept for the modelling of radio networks as well as the need for some extensions. The modelling of gateways and exchanges within this environment has also been investigated, and some proposals for modelling techniques have been presented. These new techniques include the stratification of the management plane, inclusion of a Management Information Base, and grouping of protocols within strata and non-continuous subnetwork interfaces.

Quality of service in telecommunications. I. Proposition of a QoS framework and its application to B-ISDN

The the quality of service (QoS) concept is becoming an ever more important issue in telecommunication and computer communication. The article focuses on the QoS notion and concept. The definition of QoS in the International Telecommunications Union-Telecommunications Sector (ITU-T) recommendations and the International Standards Organization (ISO) standards is analysed. Little is known about the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) performance requirements of the broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) services, especially for multimedia applications. This is because the ATM performance requirements of multimedia applications depend not only on the diverse QoS requirements from application and user, but also on the protocol stacks and scheduling in end systems. Therefore, in order to guarantee QoS to the user, it is necessary to introduce a set of QoS parameters whose properties indicate the nature and requirements of the layered protocol stack. We describe how a proposed QoS framework can be applied to B-ISDN as a specific network. The QoS aspects related to B-ISDN signaling (the control plane) and the QoS aspects related to layer and plane management (the management plane) are described. We also describe how the QoS framework resides in a protocol stack and works together with the B-ISDN network management and signaling.

High-performance networks for broadband multimedia services

Abstract Research and development in Advanced Communications technologies for Europe (RACE) played a key role in developing the crucial technology of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), which can provide a high-performance networking platform for broadband multimedia communications while allowing access to the existing worlds of voice, data, and broadcasting. The functionalities of high-performance networks in the user plane, control plane, and management planes to provide integral performance for the satisfaction of the users have been tested in accompanying measures such as the TEN-IBC projects of the European Commission. The European Union (EU) is now starting Advanced Communications Technologies and Services (ACTS)—the follow-up to RACE—as one of the major specific programs in the fourth research framework, involving 630 million ECUs of European Union contribution over four years. High-performance networking is a key development area within ACTS. It has a clear objective of enabling the deployment of a ...

Specification of the broadband user-network interface

Broadband ISDN requires a clear and unambiguous specification of the interface between customers' equipment and the public network - the user-network interface-so that equipment and networks can be developed that will work together. A project was carried out under the RACE collaborative programme to develop a specification for this interface. This paper examines the background to the user-network interface specification and describes in broad terms its contents. A description of the control plane, user plane, management plane, the ATM bearer, and signalling protocols are presented along with the key issues that were considered.

Conservation, decision‐making and management

When Museum invited Ian Christie Clark, Secretary‐General of the National Museums of Canada, to provide a dialogue between a conservator and a decision‐maker, little did we expect to reap so rich a harvest. Not only did Mr Clark expose himself to the sallies of a determined conservator but he also lifted the problem out of the individual museum and to the plane of national policy and management concerning the Canadian heritage as a whole, movable and immoovable, cultural and natural. Firmly rooted in Canadian realities, this frank ‘dialogue’ contains examples that probably could come from museums or national museum directorates anywhere. Of course, many of the solutions proposed are dependent on a level of resources that conservators in most other countries can hardly hope to obtain. Yet many of the lessons and insights described below will, we hope, prove to be universally relevant.