Opening up networks with JAIN Parlay

The desire for new business growth has been a major driving force towards the development of open network APIs, such as the Parlay API, within telecommunications networks. The Parlay API enables both third parties (external companies, operating outside the security domain of the network operator) and network operators to build new applications that rely on real-time control of network resources. The Java APIs for integrated networks (JAIN^TM) Community is defining a Java version of the Parlay API to bring the benefits of the Java language to the Parlay API, and to promote industry-wide adoption of the Parlay API. This article describes the background and rationale behind the work of the Parlay Group, together with the characteristics, structure, and capabilities of the Parlay API. The benefits that Java and the JAIN Community bring to the Parlay API are then explored. A technical overview of the Java version of the Parlay API, referred to as the JAIN Parlay Edit Group API, is given and illustrated using example sequence diagrams. The article concludes by taking a look at what additional features may be added to the API and the implementation activities that lay ahead     

Java call control, coordination, and transactions

Future telecommunications networks will consist of integrated packet-switched (IP and/or ATM), circuit-switched (PSTN), and wireless networks. Service providers will offer a wide portfolio of innovative applications over these integrated networks. Doing so rapidly and efficiently requires open network APIs, with a key API being that for call control, as well as for coordination and transactions. The JAIN community is defining an API for Java call control and Java coordination and transactions. The JCC API defines the interface for applications to initiate and manipulate calls, while JCAT defines the facilities for applications to be invoked and return results before or during calls. Note that in this context a call refers to a multimedia, multiparty, multiprotocol communications session. The JCC/JCAT Edit Group of JAIN is in the process of defining the first version of the JCC/JCAT API specification, which is expected to be released in early 2000. This article describes the background of and motivation for the design of the JCC/JCAT API. We describe the AIN and JTAPI call models on which the JCC/JCAT API is based. We then describe the scope of JCC/JCAT and its relationship to other JAIN Edit Groups defining facilities for enabling service creation. Finally, we describe the requirements and example service drivers for JCC/JCAT, as well as the initial proposed design and structure for JCC and JCAT     

JAIN protocol APIs

JAIN envisions the creation of a number of Java APIs that abstract the details of networks and protocol implementations, and allow for the development of portable applications. The JAIN Protocol Experts Group (PEG) will focus on developing Java APIs for protocols used in telephony, INs, wireless networks, and the Internet. The PEG is organized into an SS7 subgroup and an IP subgroup. The article provides an introduction to PEG. It next describes the JAIN SS7 APIs. It then describes the JAIN IP APIs. The article also explains how JAIN SS7 and IP APIs can be leveraged for the converged SS7-IP networks of the future and describes the JAIN PEG roadmap     

Ubiquitous Information Services with JAIN Platform

To provide responsive information services in a ubiquitous computing environment, service software and system development are indispensable. A component-based ubiquitous information system with a JAIN (Java APIs for Integrated Networks) platform to achieve seamless transmissions and reach-everywhere communications was designed in our research. In this development, numerous ubiquitous service modules were identified: location management, roaming, mobile IP and WAP networking. These component-based network modules were constructed using a component composition language with component specification and interface definition, running on top of a distributed service architecture using a JAIN platform to distribute the ubiquitous information services to mobile users. Two applications, Wireless-Application-Protocol (WAP) Mail and Video-on-Demand (VoD) services, show that the JAIN-like platform with the developed networking components effectively fills the gap for application developers between mobile appliances and various kinds of ubiquitous information services.     

Control of multiple service, multiple resource communicationnetworks

The merging of telephone and computer networks is introducing multiple resources into networks, and information is becoming increasingly distributed across the network. Related services are being integrated onto a single network rather than being offered on separate uncoordinated networks. The authors focus upon communication networks that integrate multiple services using multiple resources. In particular, they look at the decision of whether to accept or deny service requests in such a system. They prove a conjecture for the optimal policy for a related system introduced in Foschini and Gopinath (1983) and characterize the optimal coordinate convex policy for the present multiple service, multiple resource system     

Layer 3 VPN Services over IPv6 Backbone Networks: Requirements, Technology, and Standardization Efforts

Layer 3 virtual private networks (L3VFN) enable organizations to connect geographically dispersed sites to one another across the packet switched network of a service provider. The most popular form of L3VPN is based on BGP/MPLS (border gateway protocol/multiprotocol label switching) technology in which the service provider offers a network-based IP VPN routing and forwarding service to its customers across its own IPv4-based MPLS backbone network. With the deployment of IPv6-based backbone networks underway, there is an emerging requirement to support these same L3VPN services across a native IPv6 backbone network. This introduces a requirement to provide routing and tunneling of IPv6 VPN (and IPv4 VPN) packets across an IPv6 backbone network. Softwires is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Working Group chartered to address the requirement of providing a generalized, network-based, multi-address family, IP routing and tunneling capability across native IP backbone networks pursuant to IPv6 transitions. Elements of the softwires work can form the basis of an L3VPN over IPv6 solution. After providing a brief overview of how L3VPN works in various topologies, this article presents the requirements for L3VPN services over an IPv6 backbone network and discusses a possible solution set that builds over the softwire technology and related IETF standards. Finally, we outline future directions and how the softwire technology can support new services and improved scalability     

Implementing the Orwell protocol over a fibre-based high-speed ATMnetwork

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) has emerged as a possible contender for the next generation switching system and fundamental transport basis for the broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) and telecommunications in the future. It is widely thought of as the network to accommodate the uncertain requirements of future public communications because of its high degree of flexibility and service independency. The Orwell protocol developed by British Telecom can provide a communication base to meet the requirements of such a network. Orwell is used as a slotted ring protocol designed to carry a mixture of services which form the basis of an ATM network. The authors describe the realisation of a 155.52 Mbit/s fibre-optic physical layer from the Orwell protocol based on an ATM technology, and also discuss how the Orwell protocol can offer broadband transport capabilities and can provide access to and interwork with existing networks, such as telephone networks and 64 kbit/s based ISDNs     

Performance management of multiple access communication networks

This paper focuses on conceptual design, development, and implementation of a performance management tool for computer communication networks to serve large-scale integrated systems. The objective is to improve the network performance in handling various types of messages by on-line adjustment of protocol parameters. The techniques of perturbation analysis of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems (DEDS), stochastic approximation (SA), and learning automata have been used in formulating the algorithm of performance management. The efficacy of the performance management tool has been demonstrated on a network testbed. The conceptual design presented offers a step forward to bridging the gap between management standards and users' demands for efficient network operations since most standards such as ISO (International Standards Organization) and IEEE address only the architecture, services, and interfaces for network management. The proposed concept for performance management can also be used as a general framework to assist design, operation, and management of various DEDS such as computer integrated manufacturing and battlefield C³ (Command, Control, and Communications)     

Methods of addressing the interactions of intelligent networkservices with embedded switch services

A key factor in the transition of the existing network to an intelligent network (IN) environment is the need to partition the network intelligence and to ensure the coexistence of the embedded switch services with the externally controlled services. If the network intelligence can be defined by entities (e.g. access control and routing, connection control, basic call control, feature control, etc.), then the issue is how to manage their distribution over the evolving network elements (NEs). The authors focus on the early phases of the IN, during a 1991-2 time frame, when these features must interwork with the existing features (e.g. those within the Centrex service). They provide an overview of the features interactions and arbitration policies prevailing in today's network. They then describe the framework for both single- and multinode networked features models. The issues of call control distributed over the NEs of the IN are treated as extensions to the concepts and interfaces needed to provide networked services like areawide Centrex and private virtual networks. A model for offering IN/1+ services is described     

Authentication and ID-Based Key Management Protocol in Pervasive Environment

The combination of wired and wireless technologies is spreading rapidly with the advance of Internet and networks, since it enables the creation of new services, and provides new features to both users and service providers. In such wired and wireless integrated services, network integration is very important, because such systems involve linking heterogeneous networks; and they involve integrating transmission technologies across networks. In this situation, existing security and communication technologies are unsuitable, since network integration involves heterogeneous networks. The network may have several security vulnerabilities. Also, the available services are for roaming users. In these services, we must provide fast authentication and security for roaming. Therefore, in this paper we proposed authentication and ID-based key management in pervasive environments. Our system provides efficient, secure communication.     

A Jini service to reconstruct tomographic data

Distributed computing that uses dynamic networks will change the way we work and communicate thanks to the interaction of devices and services, that are automatically added and removed from the network as needed. The Jini technology, which is built atop the Java programming language, provides a homogenous view of the network and extends the ability of code to migrate in Java. This software design model simplifies the configuration and access to hardware devices and software services in a network. Thus, it becomes possible to execute new services without pre-installing software on client machines. This new programming paradigm is especially important in medical applications, where the reliable transmission of information is essential. This paper demonstrates how single photon emission computerized tomography data can be iteratively reconstructed using a Jini service.     

Telecommunications management network (TMN) architecture andinterworking designs

The authors discuss data communications networks (DCNs) used by operating telephone companies to interconnect large numbers of telecommunications network elements with operations systems and workstations to support and manage telecommunications networks, referred to by the international telegraph and telephone consultative committee (CCITT) as a telecommunications management network (TMN). The TMNs can include different types of DCNs such as private lines, circuit-switched networks, packet-switched networks, and integrated services digital networks (ISDNs). These can be divided into two classes: connection-mode and connectionless-mode networks. The authors briefly consider TMN concepts and implementation architectures. They then focus on TMN internetworking design alternatives, issues, and protocol stacks, in order to provide data network designers and implementors with the necessary fundamentals in considering and choosing interworking solutions for TMN applications     

The Efficiency of Engineering Traffic Across Network Boundaries

With the arrival of wideband packet and circuit-oriented data services, it becomes a challenge to provide efficiently the desired quality of service for speech, packet data, and real-time data on a network. As these diverse networks will coexist, architectural studies on integrated heterogeneous networks suggest that a common radio resource manager be used to coordinate radio resource allocation between diverse network types. Initial studies show that supernets, which engineer traffic across wireless networks, are more efficient than operating separate cellular/wireless networks. Increased sharing occurs in supernets because a larger number of services compete for a larger pool of resources. If sharing can be shown to be efficient in general, then supernets should likewise be more efficient. This study decomposes the two-dimensional Markov chain to prove when sharing is beneficial and when it is not.     

Introduction strategies for ATM broadband networks in a Europeancontext

The aim of the European Community's RACE programme has been the introduction of integrated broadband communication services throughout the Community by 1995. Project R1022 is tasked with demonstrating the feasibility of a broadband network based on the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). The authors consider the alternative ways of introducing ATM broadband networks into the existing European communications structure in a cost-effective manner which offers advantages to network operators and end users     

Interaction of call blocking and cell loss in an ATM network

The introduction of broadband ATM networks and services will raise new operational issues. An area of significant challenge to the network operators will be network dimensioning. ATM networks differ from today's STM networks in that they will have to provide acceptable performance with respect to not only call blocking, but also cell loss and cell delay. Consequently, it is important to understand the interaction of call blocking and cell loss/delay in ATM networks. The paper presents a method of exploiting the interaction of call blocking and cell loss performance in order to efficiently operate the ATM networks. Specifically, the paper demonstrates that when the network is dimensioned or engineered to meet an appropriate call blocking objective, the cell loss performance perceived by the accepted calls can be significantly better than the cell loss objective set for the connection admission control (CAC) to admit or deny a call     

Interworking Solutions for a Two-Level Integrated Services Local Area Network

A new generation of integrated services local networks (ISLN's) is needed to yield to local area users the provision of voice, data, and images in a cost-effective manner. Besides high-speed and service integration features, these advanced multiservice communication systems have to also provide powerful interconnection with both public networks and traditional LAN's. So conception and design of the interconnection units, i.e., gateways and bridges, have to be carried out contextually with the network architecture definition. The paper addresses the interworking solutions adopted for a local integrated optical network (LION) currently under development. The architecture of bridges and gateways allowing users belonging to different LION subnetworks to communicate with public networks and commercial systems is also described. In particular, the interconnection with the integrated services digital network (ISDN) is highlighted.     

ATM and the future of telecommunication networking

Telecommunication services and networks are in the process of significant change. This paper examines whether asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), thought at one time to be the only viable broadband communication protocol, providing end-to-end connectivity for all applications, still has a role to play in the evolving telecommunication environment. The paper considers the trends in network integration, the emergence of many new services, and the alternative communication protocols with which ATM must compete or interwork. It also addresses the fundamental issue of how to develop a reasonable pricing strategy for these integrated multiservice networks. Several examples are given which show how ATM is adapting to accommodate changing requirements, whilst maintaining its essential ability to transport a diverse range of services. In addition, the authors make a tentative proposal about how economic forces could be harnessed to form a new integrated service model that is compatible with a network infrastructure based upon ATM or any suitable alternative     

Advances in network-supported media delivery in next-generation mobile systems

This article presents new concepts for network-supported media delivery in mobile networks. Automatic composition and merging of networks are central parts of these concepts. Media delivery is no longer an end-to-end service that only uses the network as an IP transport. Instead, these concepts create a service-aware network and provide customized delivery support through per-service overlay networks. They also integrate specialized processing nodes as part of the delivery topology, which include transcoders but also more complex processors, such as localized program insertions or personalized spam control. This article describes the underlying concepts and how these new network capabilities for media delivery services are requested, invoked, and managed.     

Parametric methodology for analyzing implementation strategies ofresidential broadband networks: the incremental cost of integratedaccess

An engineering framework for estimating the investment cost of two implementation strategies intended to provide broadband (video services) access to residential customers in new construction areas is described. One strategy is the deployment of a single (digital and fiber) integrated network, and the other is the codeployment of dual, separate networks (one for narrowband and the others for TV distribution). The methodology derives the investment per subscriber as a function of network element's costs and demographical, topological, and service penetration parameters. The methodology is applied to TELEFONICA's network. The incremental cost of the integrated network (compared with dual networks codeployment) is estimated to be around $700 per customer. The results highlight the importance of broadband services that would not be fully provided by conventional cable TV distribution networks