Showing papers on "Differentiated service published in 2000"

Service level management

Abstract: Method and apparatus for service level management, wherein business processes are composed of services. A state of the service is defined by one or more service parameters, and the service parameters depend upon performance of network components that support the service, e.g., component parameters. The state of the service may depend, for example, on a collection of service parameter values for availability, reliability, security, integrity and response time. A service level agreement is a contract between a supplier and a customer that identifies services supported by a network, service parameters for the services, and service levels (e.g., acceptable levels) for each service parameter.

Price and Service Discrimination in Queuing Systems: Incentive Compatibility of Gcµ Scheduling

Abstract: This article studies the optimal prices and service quality grades that a queuing system--the "firm"--provides to heterogeneous, utility-maximizing customers who measure quality by their experienced delay distributions. Results are threefold: First, delay costcurves are introduced that allow for a flexible description of a customer's quality sensitivity. Second, a comprehensiveexecutable approach is proposed that analytically specifies scheduling, delay distributions and prices for arbitrary delay sensitivity curves. The tractability of this approach derives from porting heavy-traffic Brownian results into the economic analysis. The generalizedcµ (G cµ) scheduling rule that emerges is dynamic so that, in general, service grades need not correspond to a static priority ranking. A benchmarking example investigates the value of differentiated service. Third, the notions ofgrade andrate incentive compatibility (IC) are introduced to study this system under asymmetric information and are established for G cµ scheduling when service times are homogeneous and customers atomistic. Grade IC induces correct grade choice resulting in perfect service discrimination; rate IC additionally induces centralized-optimal rates. Dynamic G cµ scheduling exhibits negative feedback that, together with time-dependent pricing, can also yield rate incentive compatibility with heterogeneous service times. Finally,multiplan pricing, which offers all customers amenu with a choice of multiple rate plans, is analyzed.

Differentiated multimedia Web services using quality aware transcoding

Abstract: The ability of a Web service to provide low-latency access to its contents is constrained by available network bandwidth. It is important for the service to manage available bandwidth wisely. While providing differentiated quality of service (QoS) is typically enforced through network mechanisms, in this paper we introduce a robust mechanism for managing network resources at the application level. We use transcoding to allow Web servers to customize the size of objects constituting a Web page, and hence the bandwidth consumed by that page, by dynamically varying the size of multimedia objects on a per-client basis. We leverage earlier work on characterizing quality versus size tradeoffs in transcoding JPEG images to dynamically determine the quality and size of the object to transmit. We evaluate the performance benefits of incorporating this information in a series of bandwidth management policies. We develop metrics to measure the performance of our system. We use realistic workloads and access scenarios to drive our system. The principal contribution of this work is the demonstration that it is possible to use informed transcoding techniques to provide differentiated service and to dynamically allocate available bandwidth among different client classes, while delivering a high degree of information content (quality factor) for all clients.

Service framework supporting remote service discovery and connection

Abstract: In an information appliance system 100 , a user device 108 comprises a client platform ( 200 , FIG. 5 ) that includes a service framework ( 235 , FIG. 5 ) to discover and connect with a variety of services, both remote and local, transient and persistent, and to disconnect from them when they are no longer of interest or become unavailable. The service framework 235 provides a standard, consistent, simplified way for services to make themselves available and for service-using entities to locate and connect with the services of interest to them. When a service is requested from a remote server, a service frontend ( 281 , FIG. 9 ) on the client platform attempts to find its corresponding service backend ( 282 , FIG. 9 ) on a server providing the requested service and, if it finds it, the frontend and backend coalesce in a fully formed service that is made available to a requesting service-using entity. As a result, platform resources and security are maintained. Various methods of operating a service framework are also described.

The History of Communications and Its Implications for the Internet

Abstract: The Internet is the latest in a long succession of communication technologies. The goal of this work is to draw lessons from the evolution of all these services. Little attention is paid to technology as such, since that has changed radically many times. Instead, the stress is on the steady growth in volume of communication, the evolution in the type of traffic sent, the qualitative change this growth produces in how people treat communication, and the evolution of pricing. The focus is on the user, and in particular on how quality and price differentiation have been used by service providers to influence consumer behavior, and how consumers have reacted. There are repeating patterns in the histories of communication technologies, including ordinary mail, the telegraph, the telephone, and the Internet. In particular, the typical story for each service is that quality rises, prices decrease, and usage increases to produce increased total revenues. At the same time, prices become simpler. The historical analogies of this paper suggest that the Internet will evolve in a similar way, towards simplicity. The schemes that aim to provide differentiated service levels and sophisticated pricing schemes are unlikely to be widely adopted.

Service framework for evaluating remote services based upon transport characteristics

Abstract: In an information appliance system 100 , a user device 108 comprises a client platform ( 200 , FIG. 5) that includes a service framework ( 235 , FIG. 5) to discover and connect with a variety of services, both remote and local, transient and persistent, and to disconnect from them when they are no longer of interest or become unavailable. The service framework 235 provides a standard, consistent, simplified way for services to make themselves available and for service-using entities to locate and connect with the services of interest to them. The service framework 235 comprises service event notification registries ( 254, 256 , FIG. 7) in which service-requesting entities register templates defining the types of services they want to locate and connect with. However, the service framework 235 , rather than connecting with any service that matches a desired service type, can further control a remote service lookup operation in accordance with various transport characteristics in the template, such as signal strength, quantity of data to be transferred, range, available bandwidth, communications cost, service location, time of day, vehicular velocity, and so forth. This conserves the platform's memory and bandwidth resources by not connecting with services that would not satisfy a user's request or that would be unduly transitory. Various methods of operating a service framework are also described.

Method and apparatus to discover services and negotiate capabilities

Abstract: A service discovery protocol may allow clients in a distributed computing environment to search for services. Service providers (or a listener agent) may respond to search requests by publishing or providing corresponding service advertisements or URIs to corresponding service advertisements. When a service provider responds to a discovery search request (either directly or through a listener agent), the provider may choose to publish a protected or an un-protected (complete) advertisement. A protected advertisement may include the set of information necessary to obtain a complete advertisement. Publishing a protected advertisement may force the client to obtain a valid credential from an authentication service before receiving the complete un-protected advertisement from the service provider. A complete un-protected advertisement is needed to create a message endpoint for accessing the service. Forcing clients to obtain a valid credential before receiving an advertisement may provide an additional level of security for the service provider. The security credential that may need to be obtained to receive the complete advertisement may also be used to construct a message gate to communicate with the service where the gate embeds the security credential in each message to the service.

System use internal service level language including formula to compute service level value for analyzing and coordinating service level agreements for application service providers

Abstract: The present invention describes a system for automatically monitoring and managing Service Level Agreements on behalf of Service Providers (such as Application Service providers). The system is based on a specialized SLA language that can translate complex or simple Service Level Agreements into measurable and controllable criterion. The system enables Application Service providers to set up customized Service Level Agreements with customers, and monitor, modify and control all aspects of these agreements, including billing, sales, Customer Relation Management, customer support and Quality of Service. The technology on which the present invention is based is a formula driven language that translates Service Level Agreement details into commands. As such these details can be tracked and processed to produce detailed reports and summaries.

Application-level differentiated multimedia Web services using quality aware transcoding

Abstract: The ability of a Web service to provide low-latency access to its content is constrained by available network bandwidth. While providing differentiated quality of service (QoS) is typically enforced through network mechanisms, in this paper we introduce a robust mechanism for managing network resources using application-specific characteristics of Web services. We use transcoding to allow Web servers to customize the size of objects constituting a Web page, and hence the bandwidth consumed by that page, by dynamically varying the size of multimedia objects on a per-client basis. We leverage our earlier work on characterizing quality versus size tradeoffs in transcoding JPEG images to supply more information for determining the quality and size of the object to transmit. We evaluate the performance benefits of incorporating this information in a series of bandwidth management policies using realistic workloads and access scenarios to drive our system. The principal contribution of this paper is the demonstration that it is possible to use informed transcoding techniques to provide differentiated service and to dynamically allocate available bandwidth among different client classes, while delivering good quality of information content for all clients. We also show that it is possible to customize multimedia objects to the highly variable network conditions experienced by mobile clients in order to provide acceptable quality and latency depending on the networks used in accessing the service. We show that policies that aggressively transcode the larger images can produce images with quality factor values that closely follow the untranscoded base case while still saving as much as 150 kB. A transcoding policy that has knowledge of the characteristics of the link to the client can avoid as many as 40% of (unnecessary) transcodings.

System and method for providing differentiated services on the web

Abstract: A data communications network includes network servers, clusters of network servers, as well as content providers and service providers, such as ISPs and ASPs, and further includes at least one data processor that operates under control of a stored program resident on a memory media. The stored program directs operation of the data processor to provide users with differentiated services by defining, for individual ones of the plurality of content providers, a plurality of levels of services for users, and for responding to service level tables received from individual ones of the plurality of content providers, where individual ones of users are assigned to one of the plurality of levels of service. There is also at least one resource requirement table for defining at least a minimum set of resources required for realizing individual ones of said plurality of service levels. The program further directs operation of the at least one data processor to merge the plurality of resource requirement tables into a merged resource requirement table for use by a particular one of the network servers. The particular one of the network servers assigns differentiated service levels to incoming user requests in accordance with the service level tables, and in accordance with the merged resource requirement tables and currently available resources. The resources can include one of numbers of available servers, available memory capacity, and available bandwidth. The program further controls operation of the at least one data processor to redirect an incoming user request to a network server having sufficient available resources to provide a specified level of service for the user request.

Order entry system for changing communication service

Abstract: A system for processing an order to change communication service includes a client that receives order data and an authorization image associated with a customer that desires to change communication service. The system also includes a server coupled to the client using a communication network. The server receives the order data and the authorization image from the client, generates a service request using the order data, and initiates communication of the service request to a communication service provider of the customer to change communication service.

Method and apparatus for event correlation in service level management (SLM)

Abstract: Method and apparatus for service level management, wherein business processes are composed of services. A state of the service is defined by one or more service parameters, and the service parameters depend upon performance of network components that support the service, e.g., component parameters. The state of the service may depend, for example, on a collection of service parameter values for availability, reliability, security, integrity and response time. A service level agreement is a contract between a supplier and a customer that identifies services supported by a network, service parameters for the services, and service levels (e.g., acceptable levels) for each service parameter.

Proportional delay differentiation service based on weighted fair queuing

Abstract: Differentiation service (Diffserv) is regarded as one of the practical architectures to realize quality of service (QoS) on the Internet Relative differentiated service, which achieves relative QoS differentiation between traffic classes, is a simple and easily-deployed service model Based on the concept of relative differentiated service, Dovrolis et al (ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review vol27, no1, pp204-5, 1999; IEEE Network, September 1999; ACM SIGCOMM-99, September 1999) proposed a proportional differentiation service model which guarantees the ratios of service differences between classes They claimed that weighted fair queuing (WFQ) is not suitable for implementing relative differentiation service and employed priority-based scheduling algorithms in their model In this paper, we extend WFQ and apply it to proportional delay differentiation service The extended WFQ algorithm adjusts the weighting of each class dynamically so that the delay differences between classes can be well controlled Simulations show that the proposed methods can realize proportional delay differentiation service effectively and efficiently

Format of the RSVP DCLASS Object

Abstract: Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) signaling may be used to request Quality of Service (QoS) services and enhance the manageability of application traffic's QoS in a differentiated service (diff-serv or DS) network. When using RSVP with DS networks it is useful to be able to carry carry Differentiated Services Code Points (DSCPs) in RSVP message objects. One example of this is the use of RSVP to arrange for the marking of packets with a particular DSCP upstream from the DS network's ingress point, at the sender or at a previous network's egress router.

A quantitative study of differentiated services for the Internet

Abstract: The Differentiated Services architecture provides router mechanisms for aggregate traffic, and edge mechanisms for individual flows, that together can be used to build services with varying delay and loss behaviors. In this paper, we compare the loss and delay behaviors that can be provided using the services based on combinations of two router mechanisms, threshold dropping and priority scheduling and two packet marking mechanisms, edge-discarding and edge-marking. In the first part of our work, we compare the delay and loss behaviors of the two router mechanisms coupled with edge-discarding for a wide range of traffic arrivals. We observe that priority scheduling provides lower expected delays to preferred traffic than threshold dropping. In addition, we find that a considerable additional link bandwidth is needed with threshold dropping to provide same delay behavior as priority scheduling. We further observe little difference in the loss incurred by preferred traffic under both router mechanisms, except when sources are extremely bursty, in which case threshold dropping performs better. In the second part of our work, we examine the throughput of a TCP connection that uses a service built upon threshold dropping and edge-marking. Our analysis shows that a significant improvement in throughput can be achieved. However, we find that in order to fully achieve the benefit of such a packet marking, the TCP window must take the edge-marking mechanism into consideration.

Peering and provisioning of differentiated Internet services

Abstract: A key consideration in building differentiated network services is the feasibility of maintaining stable and consistent service level agreements across multiple networks where allocations are made only on the edges. To investigate this, we consider a game theoretic model of capacity provisioning in a differentiated services Internet. The players are one raw-capacity seller per network, one broker per service per network, and users, to play the roles of wholesellers, retailers and end users respectively in a two-tier wholeseller/retailer market. Based on this model, we are able to construct an explicit necessary and sufficient condition for the stability of the game, which determines the sustainability of a given set of SLA configurations among peering ISP. The analytical results are validated with simulations of user and broker dynamics, using distributed progressive second price auctions as the spot market mechanism in a scenario with three interconnected networks, and two services.

Method and apparatus for component to service mapping in service level management (SLM)

Abstract: Method and apparatus for service level management, wherein business processes are composed of services. A state of the service is defined by one or more service parameters, and the service parameters depend upon performance of network components that support the service, e.g., component parameters. The state of the service may depend, for example, on a collection of service parameter values for availability, reliability, security, integrity and response time. A service level agreement is a contract between a supplier and a customer that identifies services supported by a network, service parameters for the services, and service levels (e.g., acceptable levels) for each service parameter.

Method and apparatus to obtain negotiated service advertisement

Abstract: A service discovery mechanism may allow clients in a distributed computing environment to search for services. The service discovery mechanism may allow a client to request a capability credential from a service. The distributed computing environment may include a mechanism for a client to negotiate service access rights and to then obtain a capability credential that may be used to obtain the service's access interface to the set or subset of the service's capabilities that were requested or negotiated by the client. In one embodiment, the client may present to the service a set of desired capabilities. The service may then respond with a capability credential that may convey to the client the rights to use the requested capabilities. A complete service advertisement may be needed to create a message endpoint for accessing the service. In an embodiment, the capability credential may be used by a client to obtain a complete advertisement for only the requested or negotiated capabilities. The capability credential may provide an additional level of security for the service provider. The capability credential that may be used to receive the complete advertisement may also be used to construct a message gate to communicate with the service where the gate embeds the capability credential in each message to the service.

Using service models for management of Internet services

Abstract: As Internet services grow in complexity, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are finding out that the ad hoc methods that they have employed thus far to monitor and diagnose their services are not sufficient to provide acceptable service quality to their subscribers. In this paper, we demonstrate how service models can he used by ISPs to effectively manage their service offerings. A service model encapsulates a human expert's knowledge of a service, its components, and its interdependencies with other services. In addition, using ongoing measurements, a service model tracks the health of the different services and their components. By traversing a service model top-down, an operator can not only assess the overall health of a service, but also easily correlate the health of all the services and service components to determine the root cause of any problems that may occur. By minimizing the time and effort needed to diagnose problems, service models enable ISP operators to efficiently resolve problems that occur in an ISP environment. Since each ISP system is unique in many respects, unique service models have to be crafted for each of the services in every ISP system. Handcrafting customized service models requires enormous effort and time on the part of a human expert, a luxury that few ISPs can afford. In this paper, we describe a methodology for constructing customized service models for a target ISP system with minimal human intervention. This methodology relies on a service model creation engine that composes a custom service model for an ISP system using a predefined service model template specification and automatically discovered information about the target ISP system. We describe a prototype implementation of this methodology and present an example of a service model obtained from a real-world ISP system. The concepts described are applicable for the management of networks and services in enterprise systems as well.

Quotation mechanism for service environments

Abstract: The present invention provides a quotation mechanism for service environments where the service level is negotiated. A client makes a request for a type, quality or volume of service. The service provider provides a response in the form of a quote. A quote binds the service provider to providing a service at a specified price. The quote also contains parameters of type, quality, or volume of service that the service provider can provide at that price. The client, after evaluating the quote, can either accept or reject a quote. The client can also obtain quotes from multiple service providers and enter a service contract with the service provider of its choice. This choice will not be based solely on price, but also on the levels of service quoted, since the service provider might not be able to supply the service at the requested level.

Method and system for guaranteeing quality of service for voice-over-IP services

Abstract: A method and system are disclosed for providing voice communication over a packetized network in which quality of service is guaranteed for voice communications. The method involves identifying reserved paths within the network, such as multi-protocol label switching paths. When a call is made, the identified reserved paths are evaluated to determine whether each contains sufficient bandwidth for the requested voice communication. The effective bandwidth for the call is estimated based on the codec used for the call, the service class parameter set from the caller's user profile, the time of day, and other parameters. A priority parameter is set for the requested voice communication, which may be based on the service class parameter, and is mapped to a specific Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) and 802.1p service class parameter. If the reserved path is determined to contain sufficient bandwidth, the requested voice communication is transmitted over the reserved path at the set priority. If the path does not contain sufficient bandwidth, an error message is sent to inform the caller that QoS can not be guaranteed for the call, and a decision is made whether the call should proceed nevertheless.

Multimedia service configuration and reservation in heterogeneous environments

Abstract: Widely deployed multimedia services are expected to accommodate clients in a highly heterogeneous environment. Clients of a multimedia service may vary greatly in processing and communication capabilities. In addition, due to workload, location, and service time differences, the availability of end-to-end resources between a client and a server may also vary. Current solutions tend to focus on either the qualitative heterogeneity (in client and resource types) or the quantitative heterogeneity (in resource availability) problem. We present a framework for dynamic end-to-end multimedia service configuration and reservation: an integrated solution to both aspects of the heterogeneity problem. Service configuration is responsible for choosing appropriate service components to compose a customized service deliver to each client; while service reservation is responsible for reserving the end-to-end resources in a coordinated manner and providing the best possible quality within the chosen configuration. We have implemented a prototype of this framework as part of the 2K operating system and tested it by building a proof-of-concept video streaming service on top of it. Our experiments show the soundness of this framework.

Policy-based billing architecture for Internet differentiated services

Abstract: The Differentiated Services architecture allows a service provider to configure new services dynamically using a policy protocol. This benefit, however, may not be fully realized if the service provider need a high effort to update its billing system to charge for the services. Thus, there is a real need for a flexible billing architecture. To meet this need, a policy-based billing architecture is proposed in this paper. This architecture allows a service provider to define policies for configuring various processes of a billing system based on the charging and pricing schemes used for individual services. Definitions of policies for various charging and pricing schemes are discussed and the potential complexity of each of them is analyzed. Based on the complexity analysis four classes of services, which utilize the least complex charging schemes and require the minimum traffic metering effort, are recommended for meeting different application requirements.

Online standardized contract configuration for service level agreement monitoring

Abstract: A service monitoring mechanism for providing on-line standardized contract configurations for monitoring Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Service Level Contracts (SLCs) is described. The service monitoring mechanism provides a method for monitoring a service level agreement that defines for a particular network, a level of service that has been offered to a customer by a service provider. In one aspect, to provide for the monitoring of a service level agreement, a Service Level Manger (SLM) is configured to manage, monitor, and verify the SLAs that have been established between a customer and a Service Provider. The SLM provides a standardized open interface that allows users, including third parties, to define SLCs and SLAs for monitoring and verifying the level of service that is being provided by a service provider. In one aspect, the standardized open interface is provided through the use of one or more schemas that include a set of rules that define the tags that can be included within a document and how the tags may be nested within the document. The one or more schemas specify the set of required and optional elements (and their attributes) and the ways in which they may be combined within a document. In response to receiving information that defines one or more tests for a particular service level agreement, the SLM verifies that the information conforms to the set of rules defined within the schema and distributes the one or more tests to one or more agents that are configured to perform the one or more tests.

Method and apparatus for reactive and deliberative service level management (SLM)

Abstract: Method and apparatus for service level management, wherein business processes are composed of services. A state of the service is defined by one or more service parameters, and the service parameters depend upon performance of network components that support the service, e.g., component parameters. The state of the service may depend, for example, on a collection of service parameter values for availability, reliability, security, integrity and response time. A service level agreement is a contract between a supplier and a customer that identifies services supported by a network, service parameters for the services, and service levels (e.g., acceptable levels) for each service parameter.

Method and apparatus auto-discovering components of distributed services

Abstract: An auto-discovery system discovers related components of a service operating on a distributed network. This auto-discovery system involves (1) selecting a model of the configuration of the service; (2) determining, from the model, “scope hints” that limit the possible locations of related components; (3) determining a root component of the service; (4) using scope hints to limit the search, to rapidly find related instances of components contained in the root service component; (5) determining whether a quorum of components comprising a distributed service has been discovered; (6) determining the parent service component of each discovered service component by instance matching; and (7) using the instance match information to determine the discovery tree of components that have the structure of the service map, share a common root component, and define a service group. This auto-discovery system efficiently discovers the components of a wide range of services within a distributed environment. The system limits the scope of searches for components related to previously discovered components. The system determines the relationships between the discovered service components, and matches them into groups of related services. This enables an operational manager of a distributed service to better determine service configurations, expand resource bottlenecks, and improve an end-users' experience.

A concept for RSVP over Diffserv

Abstract: Currently two approaches to provide quality of service in the Internet are being discussed. An early one is the Resource Reservation Protocol, RSVP, (IETF RFC 2205) based on an end to end approach. Recent and ongoing activities in the IETF's Differentiated Service Working Group are focused on methods for providing quality of service in backbones. This paper presents a concept for the integration of both integrated and differentiated services, describes a prototype implementation, and presents evaluation results. Additionally the paper discusses business aspects arising from this service translation.