P610 Management of multimedia services

Rationale
This Project is addressing two topics which are not addressed within standard bodies, namely management of multimedia services and TMN system development guidelines.

Concerning the first topic, it is needed to define a management framework, i.e. a set of principles on how to build a management architecture for multimedia services, in order to deal with the inefficiencies (like low level of data integration among the different management applications, low relevance of the subscribers management activities, more relevance of the network aspects than service aspects in the management activities) and high costs that appear when offering and managing these new and sophisticated services. Those inefficiencies and costs are caused by several factors that strongly influence the emerging environment of multimedia services like increase in the variety, globalisation and customisation of services in one hand, and multi-vendor, multi-suppliers scenarios in the other hand.

It is also considered that enough "critical mass" for the offering of multimedia services has been reached and, therefore, it is needed to provide more efficient and cost-effective solutions for the managing of these multimedia services (understanding management in a broad sense including the classical notions of operation, administration, maintenance and provisioning -OAM&P-). This will be considered for multi-domain environment.

As a reference, the TINA-C (Telecommunication Information Networking Architecture Consortium) is addressing these issues in order to overcome inefficiencies in the management of multimedia services. In addition, work done on Distributed Management (e.g. OMG, NMF, ISO, ACTS, RACE) should be taken into account. Valuable results in this area are now available (e.g. TINA-C Service Architecture) and they can be used as a basis for defining an advanced management of multimedia services.

Concerning the second topic, guidelines for TMN system development are not typically subject to standardisation (and should not be). However, they are still an important part of the means for realising a TMN solution. Developers are left to select from the existing methodologies for the realisation of their TMN systems. These methodologies are still not sufficient enough to cope with the management architecture of distributed multimedia services.

This Project will apply the work done in Project P414 (TMN Guidelines) to the management of multimedia services and, more specifically, the results obtained in P414 Task 3 (Case Study), whose main goal was to provide the basis for TMN system development guidelines which enhance the efficiency of developers performing both specification activity and design activity by minimising the conceptual and notational differences inherent in the two types of activities today. The application will be done by experimenting in a case study consisting in the management of two multimedia service examples.

Objectives
The main objectives of this Project can be classified in the following two groups:

1. To define a management framework for multimedia services. In the framework, a set of concepts and principles for specification, analysis, design, reuse and operation of service-oriented management components for multimedia services, as well as the identification of some re-usable management components, will be produced. Basic input for this framework should be results from relevant standards bodies, consortia like TINA-C, DAVIC, OMG. The framework should address the integration of different management techniques like the ones based on SNMP and CMIP.

2. To establish methodological guidelines for the design of distributed management systems. To evaluate, adopt and enhance results obtained in EURESCOM (P414), in TINA (OMT method and service design methodology) or from other initiatives (e.g. OMG, NMF, etc.) for methodological guidelines for TMN system development, in order to apply them to the case of management of multimedia services.

In order to assure useful results, the resulting management framework and guidelines will be applied to two services examples (to be selected). A set of appropriate management functions will be selected to provide a sufficient basis to evaluate the management framework. The results obtained by the examples will be used to refine both the management framework and the guidelines defined.

Participants DT IT OG PT RB ST TE TI

Duration- Project start: July 1996 - Project completion: June 1998

Results For Full Publication -

• Deliverable 1 - Report and analysis on the state-of-the-art on current activities on management framework, methodologies and case study service selection criteria for management of multimedia services
• Deliverable 2 - Management Framwork and Methodology (initial version)
• Deliverable 3 - Application of the management architecture to service: examples
• Deliverable 4 - Management Framework and Methodology (Final Version)

Contact Points