SUMMARY OF TALKS

SERVICES

Inter Domain Quality of Service

Tutor: Olivier Dugeon (Orange Labs, France)

Abstract: Inter Domain Quality of Service is not a novel study and numerous projects and initiatives try to find solution to that issue. Nevertheless, even if past studies have found some solutions, none of them have succeeded in terms of deployment on commercial networks. The purpose of this section of the PhD course is to browse the different studies and solutions that try to solve the QoS problem at inter-domain level. In a non exhaustive, but chronological order, we will present a survey of AQUILA, CADENUS and TEQUILA (first Premium IP cluster), MESCAL and EuQoS European funded project, but also what standardization bodies proposed (ITU-T RACF, IMS RACS / PCRF, IETF). In addition, the presentation will focus on pros and cons of each solutions as well as a critical analysis on why all these solutions have not succeeded with network operators.

Service Composition

Tutor: Oivier Dugeon (Orange Labs, France)

Abstract: Within inter-carrier relations, and in particular when operators want to guarantee the QoS, Carriers use Service Level Agreements to establish such a contract between parties. This course will deeply present the concept of Service Level Agreement and Service Level Specification (the technical part of the contract), how to compose, negotiate and manage them. First of all, the course will present a meta model to represent and model the network planning step and in particular its application to the QoS as standardized at 3GPP. The second part will be devoted to the service composition and the life cycle of an SLA as well as how to go from an SLA to an SLS up to the network provisioning and configuration.

Service Monitoring

Tutor: Geraldine Texier (Institut Telecom/Telecom Bretagne, France)

Abstract: One important issue in QoS is its evaluation. It is necessary both for the clients and the carriers to be able to estimate with a reasonable accuracy the QoS provided by the network. This course will first show a big picture on QoS monitoring in order to understand the monitoring issues and identify what we need to monitor. Then, it will present the measurement methodologies, the metrics and the standardization efforts. The last part of the course will be dedicated to several tools currently available to estimate the network performance.

 

 

TECHNOLOGIES

A MPLS/GMPLS Tutorial Course

Tutor: Gino Carrozzo (Nextworks, Italy)

Abstract: This course will introduce the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) with a focus on its generalization for multiple switching technologies (GMPLS). MPLS/GMPLS is currently considered the most efficient solution for managing the physical core tunnelling technologies of Internet and Telecom service providers. In particular, GMPLS represents the off-the-shelf solution for the automation of connection setup and recovery with many transport planes technologies. The course will introduce the core concepts, protocols and procedures behind the label switching, and will describe their application in the specific areas of connections signalling, connection routing with Traffic Engineering (TE), and service resilience. Moreover, the ITU-T Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) architecture components and interfaces (UNI, E-NNI) will be also described. ASON re-uses most of the GMPLS procedures and protocols and formalizes the GMPLS architectural framework for its applicability in legacy core backbone networks. The course contents include:

• MPLS and GMPLS architecture foundations
• GMPLS signalling: architecture and RSVP-TE extensions
• GMPLS routing: architecture and OSPF-TE extensions
• GMPLS recovery
• ASON architecture and OIF network interfaces (UNI and E-NNI)

MPLS/GMPLS Practicals

Tutor: Belkacem Daheb (Marben Products, France)

Abstract: These practicals will allow the students to use what they learned during the GMPLS tutorial. The Marben emulator is used to emulate a GMPLS-based control plane. It runs multiple instances of a real GMPLS protocol stack, one per emulated node, in order to get a behavior as close as possible to a real control plane network. Each emulated node hosts a transport plane simulation module to keep track of the allocation and release of transport plane resources, thus improving how realistic the emulation looks like (a node can run out of resources, resource contention can occur, explicit resource control requests can fail, etc.). After a detailed Marben emulator presentation, the students will define a network topology, run several LSP setup scenarios and analyze the control plane behavior using a network protocol analyzer.

A Path Computation Element Tutorial

Tutor: Richard Douville (Alcatel Lucent Bell Labs, France)

Abstract:

 

ECONOMICS

Business Models – A General View

Tutor: Antonio Ghezzi (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)

Abstract: After the seminal work from Timmers (1998), Business Model Design theory has been gaining growing interest within the broader Strategic Management literature stream. However, several issues regarding Business Model as a concept and construct remain under-investigated. What a business model actually is; how it is structured; and how it is related to overarching frameworks of strategic planning; these are only the major questions deserving attention from both researchers and practitioners. The lecture will aim at shedding light on the current state of the art in Business Model Design, also exploring and discussing the aforementioned key open issues; finally, a synthetic example will be provided on how to apply the Business Model framework within the context of Future Internet Services.

Business Models -- A Carrier View

Tutor: Isabelle Korthals (Deutsche Telekom, Germany)

Abstract: The huge growth of internet traffic delivered via both fixed and mobile networks in the coming years represents a serious challenge for the existing network infrastructure and the sustainability of the current internet business model. This situation will potentially lead to higher levels of congestion in the networks. Consequently significant investments are needed for the upgrade of the networks in the coming years. However the existing internet business models provide limited incentives for network providers to invest in higher capacity networks.This lecture will start with a description of the limits of the current internet business models from a carrier's point of view, before showing the possible implications on the internet value chain in the near future. In a next step we will present and discuss future possible alternatives that also allow the offering of quality-differentiated services, showing their benefits for the internet value chain. An overview will be finally given about the current EU initiatives involving the industry and addressing key issues in this context.

Game Theory:

Tutor: Johanne Cohen (Université de Versailles Saint Quentin, France)

Abstract:  With the development of the Internet, large-scale autonomous systems became more and more important. The systems consist of many independent and selfish agents who compete for the usage of shared resources. Game theory aims to model such systems: in the game, players  interact and they follow selfish strategies to optimize their payoff (or their cost). In this talk, we will introduce some basic concepts of game theory  and we will give some examples in the context of inter domain.

Economics of Quality of Experience

Tutor: Peter Reichl (Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien, Austria)

Abstract: Providing differentiated quality for communication services is naturally tied to certain economic concepts and consequences, e.g., with respect to charging and pricing issues. Whereas this fundamental link has been very well acknowledged in Quality of Service (QoS) research, it is still widely neglected within the recent turn towards the more user-oriented concept of Quality of Experience (QoE). This lecture starts with a survey on the transition from QoS to QoE, before focussing on related economic implications. We will discuss the importance of utility theory and its relation to fundamental logarithmic and exponential laws of QoE. In a next step, we will introduce and analyse the fix point problem of QoE charging, before we finally present and discuss some recent proposals for QoE charging schemes.