Service providers such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other communications service providers are faced with increasing management problems as use of their services becomes more popular. Service level agreements (SLAs) are typically drawn up between a customer such as an enterprise, and a service provider and these SLAs set out the definitions of the service that the provider agrees to give. Different classes of service such as premium rate and best effort services may be provided by service providers and this adds to management complexity. A formalised model or representation system is described for representing information about services such as information from service level agreements and definitions of classes of service. This formalised model is then mapped onto a model of a communications network in order to determine a relationship between the services and the communications network. The determined relationship is then used to assist negotiation of service level agreements; to automatically generate configuration details to enable services provided on the network to meet SLA commitments; and to automatically configure operations support systems, such as fault and performance monitoring systems.

A method of managing one or more services over a communications network

The subject of the invention is a method for controlling the quality of a service ( 85 ) that includes at least one technical component ( 86 ) defined according to one of several possible technologies, the quality of service being defined by a technical contract ( 100 ) between the provider of the service and a customer and the contract ( 100 ) including quality criteria ( 101 ) associated with thresholds ( 102 ) and related to said technology. The method comprises producing: a description (S 1 , S 2 , S 3 ), in a modeling language in object-oriented technology (UML, XML) and independent of said technologies, of the structure of a service model ( 80 ), the structure of a contract model ( 90 ) and the structure of collection tool model ( 110 ); constructing (S 4, S 5, S 6 ) a service model ( 80 ), a contract model ( 90 ) and at least one collection tool model ( 110 ) from the respective descriptions of said structures; constructing (S 7 -S 9 ) the service ( 85 ), the contract ( 100 ) and at least one collection tool ( 120 ) from the respective models ( 80, 90, 110 ); collecting (S 10 ) quality of service indicators ( 103 ) using at least said collection tool ( 120 ); and comparing (S 11 ) the quality indicators ( 103 ) with the thresholds ( 102 ) defined in the contract ( 100 ).

Quality of service control, particularly for telecommunication

Purpose – Effective service logistics can lower the cost and increase service value by improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, the conventional ways of the service logistics are information driven instead of knowledge‐driven which are insufficient to meet the current needs. The purpose of this paper is to present a knowledge‐based service automation system (KBSAS) to enhance the competitiveness for manufacturing enterprises in service logistics.Design/methodology/approach – The KBSAS incorporates various artificial intelligence technologies such as case‐based reasoning which is used for achieving four perspectives of knowledge acquisition, service logistics, service automation and performance measurement, respectively.Findings – A prototype customer service portal has been built based on the KBSAS and implemented successfully in a semi‐conductor equipment manufacturing company. It is verified that the KBSAS provides high quality customer services with fast and efficient customer responses. I...

A knowledge‐based service automation system for service logistics

Genetic algorithms (GAs) are perhaps the oldest and most frequently used search techniques for dealing with complex and intricate real-life problems that are otherwise difficult to solve by the traditional methods. The present article provides an extensive literature review of the application of GA on supply chain management (SCM). SCM consists of several intricate processes and each process is equally important for maintaining a successful supply chain. In this paper, eight processes (where each process has a set of sub-processes) as given by Council of SCM Professionals (CSCMF) are considered. The idea is to review the application of GA on these aspects and to provide the readers a detailed study in this area. The authors have considered more than 220 papers covering a span of nearly two decades for this study. The analysis is shown in detail with the help of graphs and tables. It is expected that such an extensive study will encourage and motivate the fellow researchers working in related area; to identify the gaps and to come up with innovative ideas.

/pdf/genetic-algorithms-in-supply-chain-management-a-critical-wxwj91265h.pdf

Genetic algorithms in supply chain management: A critical analysis of the literature

The use of genetic algorithm for supply chain management with its ability to evolve solutions, handle uncertainty, and perform optimization remains to be a leading field of study. The growing body of publications over the last two decades means that it can be difficult to keep track of what has been done previously, what has worked, and what really needs to be addressed. Hence, this paper presents a review of existing research activities inspired by the genetic algorithm application in supply chain management (SCM) aimed at presenting key research themes, trends, and directions of future research.

Genetic Algorithms, a Nature-Inspired Tool: Review of Applications in Supply Chain Management

Customer service management (CSM) offers a management interface between customer and service provider which enables customers to individually monitor and control their subscribed service. This paper presents an approach towards the definition, implementation and instantiation of a CSM management information base for an IP connectivity service (CSM-IP-MIB). The approach uses object-oriented techniques to model the CSM-IP-MIB in order to facilitate reusability and specialization in real-life scenarios. The CSM-IP-MIB consists of four packages that reflect the relevant details of the IP connectivity service, including contracts, SLA, topology, current and historical state of the IP connectivity, QoS parameters, QoS violations and problem management as well as authentication and access control to provide customer-specific views. The CSM-IP-MIB is implemented using the CORBA technology, resulting in a distributed client/server application, which is being instantiated for the IP connectivity service of the German Research Network Organization.

M. Langer

Papers

Customer service management: towards a management information base for an IP connectivity service