Objective
Main Objective
The main objective of FlowThru is to build a management system which supports the flow of management information across organisational and technological domains by reusing components that have been developed by other ACTS projects.
Technical Approach
This project exploits the plug-and-play solutions concept that is now the norm in the computer industry. Telecommunication system developers should be able to customise "off the shelf" software technologies to support the creation of integrated management solutions across organisational and technological domains. In order to demonstrate such solutions the project will adapt and integrate components that have been developed in different ACTS projects into a single trial. The following approach is proposed:
-At the service level, components based on TINA specifications for multimedia service management, security management, subscription management and accounting management will be obtained from the Prospect and VITAL projects. Security components in the CMIP domain have been developed by the TRUMPET project. At the network level, TINA-based components for fault, restoration, metering and configuration management will be reused from the REFORM and VITAL projects.
-FlowThru will integrate components that address multiple aspects of the Fault-Configuration-Accounting-Performance-Security (FCAPS) functional areas which are designed according to both TINA and TMN architectural guidelines and deployed on either CORBA, CMIP or SNMP technology platforms.
-The flowthru technical approach is heavily influenced by the industrial requirements captured in the Network Management Forum (NMF) Business Process Model. FlowThru will provide concrete implementation examples of management information flows within such a model.
Summary of Trial
This FlowThru trial will represent a real service management problem involving different administrative domains, i.e. service customers and a value chain of providers. The trial will also span several management technology domains, i.e. CORBA, CMIP and SNMP. FlowThru will provide the necessary management applications to allow an actual validation of its demonstrator in a trial involving end customers.
The flowthru trial is structured to allow the assessment both of the reuse of software components in building systems that implement inter-domain management information flows, and of the approach to supporting management information flows across technological domains.
Expected Achievements
The FlowThru project will:
-Build, demonstrate and validate integrated solutions, based on reusable components, which address the telecommunication business problems of providing integrated management systems across technological and organisational domains.
-Provide guidelines on the capture and specification of business process interactions and information flows across the value chain of end customer, service provider and network operator.
-Produce recommendations for the development and customisation of reusable components which enable the realisation of integrated management systems without massive re-engineering costs and delays.
Expected Impact
FlowThru will provide industry with concrete guidance on how to build optimum solutions to specific management problems from the wide range of architectural and technological approaches currently available from bodies such as the ITU-T, ISO, NMF, TINA-C, OMG, ETSI and EURESCOM, among others. In particular, guidance will be given on the design issues needed to create reusable telecommunications management components from a number of sources that may be integrated together to provide operational support system solutions. Such guidance will allow developers of service management systems to make reasoned selections from existing solutions (standardised or otherwise) while ensuring the integrity of the information flows required to satisfy business requirements.
Main contributions to the programme objectives:
Main deliverables
Build a management system supporting flow of management information across organisational and technological domains.
Contribution to the programme
Provides industry with guidelines on how to build optimum solutions to management problems from approaches available from standards bodies such as ITU-T, ISO, TMF, TINA-C, OMG, ETSI, EURESCOM. Demonstrate the integration of re-usable components from related projects.
Key Issues
-Effective analysis of management information flow: Useful management services are implemented through the interaction of management functional components. To design management systems the aggregation of interactions between management functional components must be analysed to ensure that the resulting information flow supports the required management task.
-Effective reuse of components: The pressure to reduce service development cycles, increase service quality and reduce cost may be addressed in software by the adoption of reuse techniques. However, though interface standards are essential for interoperability, they do not by themselves deliver the benefits of software and design reuse in management systems. Existing solutions have to be reanalysed to elicit the core patterns that embody the benefits of the solution, as well as to understand the other effects of using the solution.
-Techniques for the development of evolving systems: The task of analysing management components from different sources is complicated by the variety of methods used to document them. For example, OSI MIBs are documented in GDMO, SNMP MIBs in SMI, CORBA designs use IDL while TINA uses ODP viewpoints with different notations including quasi-GDMO, OMT and ODL. A common notation would greatly ease this process.
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 software
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications
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Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
Waterford
Ireland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.