From desktop to data centre — addressing the OSS challenges in the delivery of network-centric ICT services

With increased commoditisation of traditional services, telecommunications service providers are exploiting their core network-centric strengths and targeting increased revenues from ICT-based services. Aimed at enterprise-scale customers, these services range from the provision of IP-VPNs to full IT outsourcing, and span the range of infrastructure domains from desktop to data centre. The primary challenge lies not in the ICT infrastructure itself, but in the increasing demands placed upon the operational support systems (OSS) to deliver services holistically across the range of ICT operations. Based on BT’s experience with corporate and government customers, this paper presents a detailed study of the ICT challenges on the OSS in achieving an end-to-end view of ICT service management. It proposes an architectural route forward and highlights BT’s work on policy-based service management solutions.     

The effect of ICT development on economic growth and energy consumption in Japan

A strongly held belief in Japan is that information and communication technologies (ICT) contribute to both a reduction in energy use and an increase in economic growth. As this assertion is presently unproven, the purpose of this analysis is to estimate the long-run relationship between ICT, energy consumption, and economic growth in Japan. Using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach, we estimate two different multivariate models corresponding to the production function and the energy demand function, both including ICT investment as an explanatory variable, over the period 1980–2010. The results reveal the presence of a long-run stable relationship, not only for the production function, but also for the energy demand function. However, in the production function, the long-run coefficient estimate for ICT investment is statistically insignificant, unlike the coefficients for labor, stock, and energy. In the case of the energy demand function, the coefficients for GDP, energy price, and ICT investment are statistically significant. The results also indicate that the long-run ICT investment elasticity of energy consumption is −0.155. On this basis, we conclude that while ICT investment could ceteris paribus contribute to a moderate reduction in energy consumption, but not to an increase in GDP.     

云计算平台的自适应资源供给

云计算系统中IaaS层通过对虚拟化后的基础设施进行池化管理来完成云内基础设施资源的管理。资源的池化为云服务提供按需索取的资源供应以及动态的资源配给。针对现有云计算平台缺乏对资源供应量的自动调整机制的问题,研究了云计算平台中基础设施资源供给的自适应性。通过二次平均时间序列预测法对未来一个时段内的业务负载峰值进行预测,并将预测值交予云平台转化为资源需求。对给定的资源需求,模型通过不断寻找最小虚拟机所能提供的资源与预期资源需求量之差的向量长度,做出虚拟机调度决策。仿真实验表明,本文提出的云计算自适应模型具有良好的精确性及稳定性。     

Service overlay networks: SLAs, QoS, and bandwidth provisioning

We advocate the notion of service overlay network (SON) as an effective means to address some of the issues, in particular, end-to-end quality of service (QoS), plaguing the current Internet, and to facilitate the creation and deployment of value-added Internet services such as VoIP, Video-on-Demand, and other emerging QoS-sensitive services. The SON purchases bandwidth with certain QoS guarantees from the individual network domains via bilateral service level agreement (SLA) to build a logical end-to-end service delivery infrastructure on top of the existing data transport networks. Via a service contract, users directly pay the SON for using the value-added services provided by the SON. In this paper, we study the bandwidth provisioning problem for a SON which buys bandwidth from the underlying network domains to provide end-to-end value-added QoS sensitive services such as VoIP and Video-on-Demand. A key problem in the SON deployment is the problem of bandwidth provisioning, which is critical to cost recovery in deploying and operating the value-added services over the SON. The paper is devoted to the study of this problem. We formulate the bandwidth provisioning problem mathematically, taking various factors such as SLA, service QoS, traffic demand distributions, and bandwidth costs. Analytical models and approximate solutions are developed for both static and dynamic bandwidth provisioning. Numerical studies are also performed to illustrate the properties of the proposed solutions and demonstrate the effect of traffic demand distributions and bandwidth costs on SON bandwidth provisioning.     

Energy Savings in Wireless Mesh Networks in a Time-Variable Context

Energy consumption of communication systems is becoming a fundamental issue and, among all the sectors, wireless access networks are largely responsible for the increase in consumption. In addition to the access segment, wireless technologies are also gaining popularity for the backhaul infrastructure of cellular systems mainly due to their cost and easy deployment. In this context, Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) are commonly considered the most suitable architecture because of their versatility that allows flexible configurations. In this paper we combine the flexibility of WMN with the need for energy consumption reduction by presenting an optimization framework for network management that takes into account the trade off between the network energy needs and the daily variations of the demand. A resolution approach and a thorough discussion on the details related to WMN energy management are also presented.     

Use of policy management to achieve flexibility in the delivery of network-centric ICT solutions

Network-centric ICT solutions present significant challenges for telecommunications operators. Enterprise-scale customers want joined-up IT functionality combined with increased flexibility, improved control and predictable performance. However, ICT is much too dynamic and complex to deliver and support efficiently using current service management methods. To fully deliver against the vision, changes need to be made to the models that underpin the use of the technology. This paper explores the role that policy-based management has to play within an integrated IT and communications infrastructure. It argues that profitable ICT deployment and management will be dependent on policy-driven business systems that provide extensive automation and flexibility, providing a unified means of managing services to meet the needs of the user. To assess the practical benefits, details are also presented of a proof-of-concept demonstrator employing policy-based ICT service management within the context of on-demand IP-VPN access.     

Energy-Efficient Cross-Layer Design of Cooperative MIMO Multi-Hop Wireless Sensor Networks Using Column Generation

Cooperative Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) schemes are recently shown to be able to reduce the transmission energy in distributed wireless sensor networks (WSNs). With the merit of the MIMO schemes, we study the joint routing, scheduling and stream control problem with the aim of minimizing energy consumption while satisfying a given end-to-end traffic demand in scheduling-based multihop WSNs. We present a cross-layer formulation of the problem by incorporating various power and rate adaptation schemes, and taking into account an antenna beam pattern model and the signal-to-interference-and-noise constraint at the receiver. In this context, we also propose a column generation solution to get rid of the complexity of having to enumerate all possible sets of scheduling links. The formulation is verified by simulation experiments, and the results show its effectiveness in both energy saving and QoS provisioning.     

开发绿色ICT推动节能减排

 本文首先说明ICT对节能减排的直接和间接作用。ICT产业的单位GDP能耗优于其他工业,ICT在工业设计、制造、管理、物流、销售和服务等环节的应用有助于工业和交通运输业节能减排。但随着ICT产品大量使用,其自身的节能和环保问题也不容忽视。本文介绍了通信产品近年来在节能方面的进展,以一些例子说明合理使用ICT产品可实现节能降耗,最后讨论了ICT产品的电磁辐射影响和电子垃圾的回收利用问题。     

Green ICT Impact on Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction

The direct and indirect effect of ICT on energy conservation and emission reduction is described. The energy consumption per unit GDP in the ICT industry is lower than that in other industries. The application of ICT in such fi elds as industrial design, manufacturing, management, logistics, sales and service can be helpful for energy conservation and emission reduction in the industrial and transportations industry; however, the issue of energy waste and environmental pollution caused by voluminous deploym...     

Multiple access based on different lengths super orthogonal codes to support QoS of M2M communications in next generation networks

Global connectivity, low latency, and ready‐to‐use infrastructure of next generation wireless (NGW) networks provide a platform for machine‐to‐machine (M2M) communications on a large scale. However, M2M communications over NGW networks pose significant challenges because of different data rates, diverse applications, and a large number of connections. In this paper, we address M2M challenges over NGW networks, and in particular, we focus on random access overload issue and diverse quality‐of‐service (QoS) requirements to enable M2M communications in the context of NGW networks. To enable massive M2M access while QoS guarantees, we propose group‐based M2M communications on the basis of identical transmission protocols and QoS requirements. Furthermore, to guarantee low energy consumption for M2M devices in the same group, we propose a decentralized group‐head selection scheme. In addition, a solution is proposed by using an effective capacity concept to provide QoS guarantees for M2M devices with a strict time constraint. A new random access approach based on different lengths super orthogonal codes is proposed to ease massive random access challenges with provisioning diverse QoS requirements of M2M communications in heterogeneous NGW networks.     

Intent‐based service management for heterogeneous software‐defined infrastructure domains

One of the main challenges in delivering end‐to‐end service chains across multiple software‐defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) domains is to achieve unified management and orchestration functions. A very critical aspect is the definition of an open, vendor‐agnostic, and interoperable northbound interface (NBI) that should be as abstract as possible and decoupled from domain‐specific data and control plane technologies. In this paper, we propose a reference architecture and an intent‐based NBI for end‐to‐end service management across multiple technological domains. The general approach is tested in a heterogeneous OpenFlow/Internet‐of‐Things (IoT) SDN test bed, where the proposed solution is applied to a rather complex service provisioning scenario spanning three different technological domains: an IoT infrastructure deployment, a cloud‐based data collection, processing, and publishing platform, and a transport domain over a geographic network interconnecting the IoT domain and the data center hosting the cloud services.     

Protection Management for Guaranteed User‐Driven Virtual Circuit Services in Dynamic Multi‐domain Environments: Design Issues and Challenges

Fault management of virtualized network environments using user‐driven network provisioning systems (NPSs) is crucial for guaranteeing seamless virtual network services irrespective of physical infrastructure impairment. The network service interface (NSI) of the Open Grid Forum reflects the need for a common standard management API for the reservation and provisioning of user‐driven virtual circuits (VCs) across global networks. NSI‐based NPSs (that is, network service agents) can be used to compose user‐driven VCs for mission‐critical applications in a dynamic multi‐domain. In this article, we first attempt to outline the design issues and challenges faced when attempting to provide mission‐critical applications using dynamic VCs with a protection that is both user‐driven and trustworthy in a dynamic multi‐domain environment, to motivate work in this area of research. We also survey representative works that address inter‐domain VC protection and qualitatively evaluate them and current NSI against the issues and challenges.     

QoS-aware service composition and adaptation in autonomic communication

Advents in network technology and distributed system design have propelled network communication service beyond best effort data delivery. With the rising complexity of network infrastructures and the need for on-demand provisioning operations, a high degree of self-sufficiency and automation is required in the network service infrastructure. Guided by the autonomic communication principle, this paper first presents an autonomic service provisioning framework for establishing quality-of-service (QoS)-assured end-to-end communication paths across administratively independent domains. Through graph abstraction, we show that the domain composition and adaptation problem could be reduced to the classic k-multiconstrained optimal path (MCOP) problem. In analyzing existing k-MCOP solutions, we show their inefficiencies when applied to the service provisioning context and establish a number of new domain composition and adaptation algorithms. These new algorithms are designed for the self-configuration, self-optimization, and self-adaptation of end-to-end network communications and can provide hard QoS guarantees over domains with relative QoS differentiations. Through in-depth experimentations, we compare the performance of our algorithms with classic k-MCOP solutions and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.     

Radio-over-Fibre access for sustainable Digital Cities

Pervasive broadband access will transform cities to the net social, environmental and economic benefit of the e-City dweller as did the introduction of utility and transport network infrastructures. Yet without action, the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the increasing energy consumption of access networks will become a serious threat to the environment. This paper introduces the vision of a ‘sustainable Digital City’ and then considers strategies to overcome economic and technical hurdles faced by engineers responsible for developing the information and communications technology (ICT) network infrastructure of a Digital City. In particular, ICT energy consumption, already an issue from an operating cost perspective, is responsible for 3 % of global energy consumption and is growing unsustainably. A grand challenge is to conceive of networks, systems and devices that together can cap wireless network energy consumption whilst accommodating growth in the number of subscribers and the bandwidth of services. This paper provides some first research directions to tackle this grand challenge. A distributed antenna system with radio frequency (RF) transport over an optical fibre (or optical wireless in benign environments) distribution network is identified as best suited to wireless access in cluttered urban environments expected in a Digital City from an energy consumption perspective. This is a similar architecture to Radio-over-Fibre which, for decades, has been synonymous with RF transport over analogue intensity-modulated direct detection optical links. However, it is suggested herein that digital coherent optical transport of RF holds greater promise than the orthodox approach. The composition of the wireless and optical channels is then linear, which eases the digital signal processing tasks and permits robust wireless protocols to be used end-to-end natively which offers gains in terms of capacity and energy efficiency. The arguments are supported by simulation studies of distributed antenna systems and digital coherent Radio-over-Fibre links.     

Practical and analytical approaches for designing scalable on‐demand policy‐based resource allocation in stateless IP networks

Today the policy‐based management (PBM) approach is recognized as an efficient solution to simplify the complex task of managing and controlling networks. To this end, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has introduced a reference framework to build PBM systems. However, this framework only addresses the provisioning of relatively long validity period services based on predefined service‐level agreements. Furthermore, very little work addresses the scalability properties of the instantiation of this framework in a real network. This work aims to extend the IETF PBM framework in order to support dynamic provisioning of short‐term services (end‐system signalling) as well as an instantiation scheme that is scalable (distributed provisioning of edge routers). This instantiation scheme is based on the distribution of the provisioning process while keeping centralized only the parts that involve critical resources, namely bandwidth brokerage. The performance properties of the proposed scheme are then demonstrated throughout both extensive experimentation and an analytical study. The extension of this performance analysis to the case where multiple bandwidth brokers are used is also discussed. The results of this work are intended to be used as a guideline to help network operators to design a scalable PBM system in order to offer to their customers services with quality of service assurance on an on‐demand basis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

固定式信息和通信技术设备外接通用电源适配器方案——建议书ITU-T L.1001介绍

建议书ITU-T L.1001提出了固定式信息和通信技术(ICT)设备通用电源适配器(UPA)方案的要求,通过将同一款电源适配器应用到更多的设备中,加强其再利用,增加其使用寿命,来减少所生产的电源适配器的数量。本方案同样旨在降低能源消耗。更长的使用寿命和避免充电器重复生产的可能性能够降低对原材料的需要和减少电子垃圾的产生。固定式ICT设备通用电源适配器方案可以用来为绝大多数ICT设备服务。     

QoS‐aware cross‐domain collaborative energy‐saving mechanism for FiWi virtual networks

The fiber‐wireless (FiWi) access network is a very promising solution for next‐generation access networks. Because of the different protocols between its subnets, it is hard to globally optimize the operation of FiWi networks. Network virtualization technology is applied to FiWi networks to realize the coexistence of heterogeneous networks and centralized control of network resource. The existing virtual resource management methods always be designed to optimize virtual network (VN) request acceptance rate and survivability, but seldom consider energy consumption and varied requirements of quality of service (QoS) satisfaction, which is a hot and important topic in the industrial field. Therefore, this paper focuses on the QoS‐aware cross‐domain collaborative energy saving mechanism for FiWi virtual networks. First, the virtual network embedding (VNE) model, energy consumption model, and VNE profit model of FiWi networks are established. Then, a QoS‐aware in‐region VN embedding mechanism is proposed to guarantee service quality of different services. After that, an underlying resource updating mechanism based on energy efficiency awareness is designed to realize low‐load ONU and wireless routers co‐sleep in FiWi networks. Finally, a QoS‐aware re‐embedding mechanism is presented to allocate proper resource to the VNs affected by the sleeping mechanism. Especially for video VNs, a re‐embedding scheme which adopts traffic splitting and multipath route is introduced to meet resource limitation and low latency. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can reduce FiWi network's energy consumption, improve VNE profit, and ensure high embedding accepting rate and strict delay demand of high‐priority VNs.     

基于合作微分博弈的物联网能量带宽优化模型（英文）

Internet of Things(IoT) refers to an infrastructure which enables the forms of communication and collaboration between people and things,and between things themselves.In order to improve its performance,we present a tradeoff between bandwidth and energy consumption in the IoT in this paper.A service providing model is built to find the relationship between bandwidth and energy consumption using a cooperative differential game model.The game solution is gotten in the condition of grand coalition,feedback Nash equilibrium and intermediate coalitions and an allocation policy is obtain by Shapley theory.The results are shown as follows.Firstly,the performance of IoT decreases with the increasing of bandwidth cost or with the decreasing of energy cost;secondly,all the nodes in the IoT composing a grand coalition can save bandwidth and energy consumption;thirdly,when the factors of bandwidth cost and energy cost are equal,the obtained number of provided services is an optimised value which is the trade-off between energy and bandwidth consumption.     

Service configuration and traffic distribution in composite radio environments

This paper adopts the assumption that cellular, broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA), wireless local area networks (WLAN), and digital video broadcasting (DVB) systems can be co-operating components of a composite-radio infrastructure. It is believed that through the composite radio concept, operators will be enabled to offer efficient, in terms of cost and QoS, wireless access to broadband IP-based services. The exploitation of this infrastructure calls for the application of computational intelligence (CI) technologies for the development of appropriate, sophisticated service and network resource management functionality. In this context, this paper identifies and addresses the important problem of service configuration and distribution in a composite radio environment (SCD-CRE). The problem's objective is to determine the best way to accommodate a demand volume, with which the composite radio infrastructure is faced. The pro finds the QoS levels that can be offered, and the networks that can support the demand at the selected QoS levels. The paper includes a first approach to the definition, mathematical formulation, and solution of a version of the SCD-CRE problem. Results indicating some of the capabilities of the SCD-CRE are also presented. Further application fields for CI technologies are indicated, in the area of the necessary reconfiguration of the managed, radio and fixed, network segments.     

Towards 5G: Context Aware Resource Allocation for Energy Saving

With the objective of providing high quality of service (QoS), 5G system will need to be context-aware that uses context information in a real-time mode depends on network, devices, applications, and the environment of users’. In order to continue enjoying the benefits provided by future technologies such as 5G, we need to find solutions for reducing energy consumption. One promising solution is taking advantage of the context information available in today’s networks. In this paper, we take a step towards 5G by utilizing context information in the scheduling process as conventional packet scheduling algorithms are mainly designed for increasing throughput but not for the energy saving. We investigate a Context Aware Scheduling (CAS) algorithm which considers the context information of users along with conventional metrics for scheduling. An information model of context awareness along with a context aware framework for resource management is also presented in this paper. CAS is simulated applying a system level simulator and the results obtained show that considerable amount of energy is saved by utilizing the context information compare to conventional scheduling algorithms.