As telecommunications companies face the rigors of competition, they soon find that their operational support systems play a critical role in providing new services faster, at lower cost and with better quality than their competitors. At TeleManagement Forum, the model for the successful service provider is 'the smooth operator' - a company whose processes and systems fully support its people to provide the best services possible at the lowest cost. Learning the importance of becoming a 'smooth operator' is hard, particularly as it requires giving up the old way of doing things - moving from an internal development environment to one that can take full advantage of 'off-the-shelf' software. The reasons for this shift include a shortage of resources, shortage of time, and the need to do business as part of a greater (and growing) global supply chain. Getting to 'smooth operator' status can be made easier with help from organizations like the TeleManagement Forum. In this paper, a twelve-step method is outlined to give pointers to service providers and their suppliers on how to make the journey successfully.

The paper argues that a radical shift in the market for communications services is emerging, driven by the mass availability of cheap bandwidth, computing and global mobility combined with the pervasive rise of Internet based data services. At the same time, the Operation Support Systems (OSS's^*) that are essential in order to create business value from these technologies are lagging behind market need. The authors argue for a re-think of the humble management system into a complete software wrap-around of the network to deliver a value creation platform - as different from yesterday's OSS as the bakelite telephone is from today's tri-band mobile handsets. This software will be based on product standards, not paper ones and will require a major shift of gears from the position of today. This value creation platform will be built from advanced, component based software delivered through a very different market model to that of today. Much of this technology exists; we simply need critical mass behind a common approach. The discussion in this paper represents the personal views of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of any organisation.

Today's complicated and heterogeneous telecommunication network environments need fully-integrated, cost-effective, user-friendly management systems. When developing such management systems in distributed environments, many telecommunication companies are carefully adopting CORBA and Java technologies. CORBA technology enables developers to create and manipulate distributed management system components easily while Java technology liberates human users from complicated and proprietary management system interfaces. In this paper, we propose a TMN-based integration framework for distributed network management by combining both CORBA and Java technologies. The framework generalizes a logically-layered architecture from the management agents layer to the user interface layer. It also provides generalized TMN management interfaces using inter-domain gateway systems for coordinating heterogeneous management protocols. By using these interfaces, TMN management function components can be easily constructed as CORBA objects to provide powerful TMN management services to administrators via user-friendly Web browsers. On the basis of this framework, we have designed and implemented a TMN alarm surveillance system which realizes our framework.

Multimedia service users can require multi-services according to their own environment for accessing to public networks. For copying with customer-oriented service requirements, network providers have to prepare multi-layer service networks. This paper deals with frame relay, ATM and IP networking services on multi-layer networks. In order to provide multiple data services, network provider needs to define and make use of client-server and interworking relationships between these networks. In this paper, we propose a service management architecture in order to efficiently manage multiple services and network resources from service point of view. The proposed service management architecture includes functionalities such as subscription management, customer-network management, communication session management, and business layer support management. Especially, it describes an information model for managing multi-layer networks by way of the interworking or client-server relationship. The proposed functionalities are modeled in accordance with the object-oriented modeling concept and implemented on a CORBA platform. The applications on the proposed architecture include VPN services and various statistical services for customers and the carrier. The realized system is to be used for Koera Telecom's high speed networks mainly for supporting Internet services.

This paper discusses a design and an implementation of a MIB tester, a conformance test tool of Management Information Base (MIB) for TMN. A remote test method is used as a practical test configuration. We classify test purposes into three; basic interconnection test, capability test and behaviour test. Test items for the capability test are defined according to Managed Object Conformance Statement (MOCS) and Managed Relationship Conformance Statement (MRCS). Test items for the behaviour test is defined according to GDMO BEHAVIOUR clause. The MIB tester automatically generates test scenarios for capability tests, which are also used as those for the basic interconnection test, and supports the scenario creation of the behaviour test in an user-friendly manner. We evaluate the implemented MIB tester through its application to the actual TMN agents.

We have developed an active Q adaptor (AQA) to achieve integration of multiple management protocols and dynamic modification of managed object (MO) definitions. To achieve dynamic modification, we introduce a new MO framework, called dynamic-MO, which has the ability of modifying its own definition. A dynamic-MO is composed of meta-data and some behavior programs. Meta-data lists attributes of a dynamic-MO in a text format and a behavior program describes actions of a dynamic-MO in scripting language such as Java, Tcl, etc. In our AQA architecture, modules which manage individual components of a dynamic-MO communicate among themselves via an object request broker (ORB) in order to achieve system scalability with high performance. To realize the functionality of a dynamic-MO, we propose interfaces among these modules that are independent of dynamic-MO definitions and an update mechanism of behavior programs. We define the interfaces based on the common management information protocol (CMIP) operations to avoid re-defining the interfaces when dynamic-MO definitions are modified. Furthermore, to execute modified behavior programs without any negative influence on the workings of the other behavior programs, we employ a Java class-loader which has its own specific naming-space on a Java virtual machine (Java VM). With all of these features, our AQA is extremely promising for developing programmable network management systems for end-to-end management of heterogeneous telecommunication networks.

Up to now, a lot of efforts have been made for the management of telecommunication networks and equipment, but less effort has been made for the realization of higher-layer service and business management. Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) provides the infrastructure for interoperability of various object-oriented management applications in a distributed environment, and being widely used to develop distributed systems in many areas of information processing technologies. There are recently worldwide growing interests for applying CORBA technology for the realization of higher layer Telecommunication Management Network (TMN) management functions. In this paper, we propose a platform architecture for the efficient integration of CORBA technology within TMN framework, where CORBA-based management functions as well as TMN-based management functions can be realized efficiently. GDMO/ASN. 1 to IDL translator has been designed and implemented for translating TMN management information into OMG CORBA IDL interface. The CORBA/CMIP gateway has also been designed for realization of the interaction translation specification of JIDM task force with some additional extensions. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the CORBA-based network management system, and analyze the code reusability for the construction of the CORBA-based management system, in order to show the efficiency of the architecture.

This paper proposes an implementation of the Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture (TINA) connection management system, based on our involvement of The TINA Trial (TTT). The system is used for managing ATM networks, which consist of network elements with SNMP interfaces. It provides setup, configuration, and release of ATM connection with a GUI-based network design tool that generates network resource data used for deploying TINA software components. This paper reports on a method of implementing TINA components over a Distributed Processing Environment (DPE) and an effective way to manage computational objects with multiple interfaces by using the Trading Service.

For backup of failed VPs (Virtual Paths) in ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) networks, many self-healing algorithms have already been proposed. However, since the existing algorithms recover each failed VP with a single backup VP, a problem arises in that those algorithms cannot necessarily provide a failed VP having a higher recovery priority with a larger recovery ratio, which is the ratio of the bandwidth of a backup VP to that of a failed VP. For a solution to the problem, this paper proposes a new self-healing algorithm which recovers each failed VP with one or more backup VPs. We also evaluate its availability by comparing with an existing algorithm through simulations.

In this paper we present a Quality of Service (QoS) management architecture for distributed multimedia applications in heterogeneous communication environments of wired and wireless networks. Gaps in network performance such as bandwidths and error rates between wired and wireless networks, as well as gaps in terminal performance in media handling between desktop computers and handheld computers, bring about heterogeneities. Furthermore, even performance gaps among various desktop computers cause heterogeneities. As a result of these heterogeneities in network and terminal performances and various user preferences, the QoS requirement from each receiver is different. Therefore, mechanisms that adjust and satisfy each QoS requirement are needed. We propose a proxy server called Communication Coordination Server (CCS), which intermediates a video server and a receiver and manages the QoS coordination. The CCS performs QoS admission, adjustment, and allocation mechanisms to satisfy the user's QoS requirement. Then transcoding is used to realize the allocated QoS, and it decodes the input video stream from the video server and encodes it within the CCS. A QoS mapping mechanism that translates application-level QoS into resource-level QoS is needed for the QoS admission. We also propose a new QoS mapping mechanism using spline functions that enables a continuous QoS translation. We have built a CCS prototype in our laboratory testbed, and have verified that the CCS can resolve the heterogeneities between the server and receiver by the QoS adjustment mechanism of the transcoding and the QoS admission.

In this paper, we design and implement a Web-based Internet/Intranet service management system which can support Quality of Service (QoS) contracted by users and service providers, using Service Level Agreement (SLA) concept. We have analyzed the requirements and management information for Internet/Intranet service management. Based on this analysis, we have defined the suitable QoS parameters for the management of Internet/Intranet services, and developed new WWW service Management Information Bases (MIBs) for QoS management by extending the existing IETF's MIBs. The support of QoS management is done by incorporating the SLA concept, which is measured, monitored and controlled systematically in a multi-domain environment. Finally, we have built a prototype system, and evaluated its performance. The prototype system utilizes Java and CORBA technologies, so that various benefits of these technologies such as platform independence and scalability can be obtained.

Internet communication is increasingly becoming an important element in daily life. Keeping this network safe from malicious elements is an urgent task for network management. To maintain the security level networks are generally, monitored for indications of usage with ill-intentions. Such indications are events which need to be collated, correlated and analyzed in real-time to be effective. However, on an average medium to large size network the number of such events are very large. This makes it practically impossible to analyze the information in real-time and provide the necessary security measures. In this paper, we propose a mechanism that keeps the number of events, to be analyzed, low thereby making it possible to provide ample security measures. We discuss a real-time Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for detecting network attacks. The system looks out for TCP ACK/RST packets, which are generally caused by network scans. The system can extract the tendency of network flows in real-time, based on the newly developed time-based clustering and Dynamic Access Tree creation techniques. The algorithm, implemented and deployed on a medium size backbone network using RMON (Remote MONitoring) technology, successfully detected 195 intrusion attempts during a one month period. The results of the pilot deployment are discussed. In this paper, the proposal, implementation and evaluation will be described.

At the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA), we have been developing a network intrusion detection system called IDA (Intrusion Detection Agent system). IDA system has two distinctive features that most conventional intrusion detection systems lack. First, it has a mechanism for tracing the origin of a break-in by means of mobile agents. Second, it has a new and efficient method of detecting intrusions: rather than continuously monitoring the user's activities, it watches for an event that meets the criteria of an MLSI (Mark Left by Suspected Intruders) and may relate to an intrusion. By this method, IDA described herein can reduce the processing overhead of systems and networks. At present, IDA can detect local attacks that are initiated against a machine to which the attacker already has access and he or she attempts to exceed his or her authority. This paper mainly describes how IDA detects local attacks and traces intrusions.

In this paper, we present a traffic scheduling algorithm, called the Delay-Bound Monotonic with Average Rate Reservation (DM/ARR), which generates minimum output burstiness streams. We assume that connection i is policed by the leaky bucket algorithm with parameters (σ_i,ρ_i) where σ_i is the bucket size (or burstiness) and ρ_i is the leaky rate. Compared with the totally isolated scheme where connection i is allocated a bandwidth r_i=max{σ_i/d_i,ρ_i} (d_i is the delay bound requirement of connection i), the DM/ARR algorithm has a better performance in the sense that it has a larger admission region. We prove that, among all possible scheduling algorithms that satisfy the delay bound requirements of established connections, DM/ARR results in the minimum output burstiness. This is important because a smaller burstiness implies a smoother traffic and thus the receiver (or next switch node in a multihop network) can handle it more easily. Numerical results show that the admission region of the DM/ARR algorithm is close to that of the earliest deadline first algorithm. A packetized version is studied for ATM networks.

An approximate formula is proposed for the equivalent susceptance of a circular iris in a parallel plate waveguide when the TEM mode cylindrical wave is incident from the center of the iris. Schwinger's variational method for a linear iris is generalized to the cylindrical case, and an approximate closed form formula is obtained which recovers the result of the linear iris when the radius of the circular iris is sufficiently larger than the wavelength. For verification of the formula, an exact integral equation is formulated and solved numerically by Galerkin's method. A comparison between them shows good agreement.

In this paper, a method of Transmission Power Control (TPC) for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (OFDM-DS-CDMA), in order to compensate for power attenuation at each subcarrier, is proposed. Instead of assigning same power levels for all-subcarriers, different transmission power levels are assigned to different subcarriers, according to the attenuation of the subcarriers. System performance, in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER), has been evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation. The simulation results presented significant improvement, the proposed system performed much better than the system without TPC. It is shown that the Each Carrier TPC performs better than All Carriers TPC, which all carriers are controlled uniformly, hence Each Carrier TPC is more suitable for OFDM-DS-CDMA system.

A procedure for radar target discrimination is presented in this paper. The scheme includes an enhancement of late-time noisy scattering data based on a proposed signal processing algorithm and a decision procedure using previously known resonance annihilation filters. The signal processing stage is specifically adapted to scattering signals and makes use of the results of the singularity expansion method. It is based on a signal reconstruction using the SVD of a data matrix with a suitable choice of the number of singular vectors employed. To justify the inclusion of this stage, this procedure is shown to maintain the signal characteristics necessary to identify the scattered response. Simulation results clearly reveal a significant improvement due to the inclusion of the proposed stage. This improvement becomes especially important when the noise level is high or the targets to be discriminated (five regular polygonal loops) have a similar geometry.

Simple approximate formulas are obtained for the mutual impedance and admittance by using a product of radiation patterns of antennas. The formulas come from a stationary expression of the reaction integral between two antennas where far-field approximations are employed. The theory deals with antennas in free space as well as under the presence of a wedge. Two applications are given for microstrip antennas with experimental verifications.

This letter is concerned with a new algorithm which can be used to design a time-domain equalizer (TEQ) for xDSL systems employing the discrete multitone (DMT) modulation. The proposed algorithm, derived by neglecting the terms which do not affect the performance of a DMT system in ARMA modeling, is shown to have a good performance compared with the previous TEQ algorithms even with a significantly lower computational complexity. In addition, the proposed algorithm does not require the channel impulse response or training sequence, since all processing is made only with the received data.

In this letter, the probability of error performance improvements by rain fade countermeasure techniques is analyzed in a Ka-band geostationary satellite communication system using synchronous CDMA scheme, when power control and macrodiversity are used as rain fade countermeasures. Numerical results show that the composite power control plus macroscopic selection diversity system is better than that of utilizing only one technique as a countermeasure of rain fading.