Objective
Main Objective
The overall objective of IMPACT is to implement control strategies on an ATM testbed as a society of interacting/co-operating agents. The work will use the EXPERT platform in Basel and will interconnect the switch on which the agents are implemented with the existing testbed network in order that the performance of the agent approach may be tested.
The application will concentrate on Connection Admission Control (CAC) but to demonstrate the attractiveness of agents in controlling co-operating functions, the work will also introduce an accounting/charging agent.
The project will also validate the FIPA model for agent management and communication in the context of a real time distributed telecommunications environment.
Technical Approach
Existing applications will communicate with a signalling entity in a new switch, the FLEXTEL switch, to request a new connection; that entity will have an agent wrapper to allow it to communicate with the CAC agent which then requests resources brokered by other agents. Once a connection end-to-end has been negotiated, the CAC agent informs the signalling (and hence the application) that the connection has been set-up and user-to-user transfer of data can start. The CAC agent will also notify the charging agent of the parameters to be used for charging and, in this simplified model, data from the Usage Parameter Control (UPC) function will be used by the charging agent to calculate the actual cost. It should be noted that here it is assumed that the switch connection is also initiated by the CAC agent through a switch interface function.
Where an agent function is installed in the terminal, control-plane communication is entirely by the Agent Control Language (ACL) (through a user agent); the advantage of this approach is that it allows more flexibility in negotiations between terminal and network. The network interface provides adaptation between the existing network (here the existing testbed) with the agent-based network control architecture.
Summary of Trial
Having implemented a set of co-operating agents that make the CAC decision on entry to the network, it is necessary to validate the way in which this works. In this project two approaches will be used:
-By comparing the behaviour with the conventional CAC on the testbed: This is the core of the validation, as real applications will be used to compare and validate the agent approach. Where possible, as much of this work as possible will be done through trials.
-By network simulation: To check that the decisions being taken by the agents lead to a QoS comparable with that obtained from conventional step-by-step algorithmic CAC, traffic mixes corresponding to those being handled by the agents will be presented to the agents. Those mixes that are admitted will be modelled by simulation to confirm that the required QoS is obtained and that the performance obtained is comparable with that obtained using conventional CAC. Having these two approaches available is made possible through the connection of the FLEXTEL to the existing testbed.
Expected Achievements
IMPACT will be demonstrating the potential of agent technology to control complex telecommunications systems. By opening up the "agent dimension", the project will be providing input into the technological decisions being made on control and management as systems become ever more complex. This work will be input to Standards bodies.
Expected Impact
Current control strategies are generally based on deterministic and algorithmic approaches. Using autonomous intelligent agents is a new dimension offering the possibility of being able to control complex systems in a holistic manner more than is possible at present.
The use of the EXPERT platform, already a showcase for the ACTS programme as a whole, will ensure that the results from IMPACT will have maximum visibility throughout ACTS and beyond.
Main contributions to the programme objectives:
Main deliverables
A connection admission control functionality in an ATM testbed using agent technologies.
Contribution to the programme
Development of agent technology for the intelligent control of telecommunications networks
Key Issues
-Definition of a suitable subset of Agent Communication Language to be used instead of signalling
-Design of an agent architecture and the component agents
-Implementation of the agent architecture onto the EXPERT platform
-Validation of the performance of agent control
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications telecommunications networks
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Coordinator
3000 Bern
Switzerland
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