Abstract: Traffic measurements provide critical input for a wide range of network management applications, including traffic engineering, accounting, and security analysis. Existing measurement tools collect traffic statistics based on some predetermined, inflexible concept of "flows." They do not have sufficient built-in intelligence to understand the application requirements or adapt to the traffic conditions. Consequently, they have limited scalability with respect to the number of flows and the heterogeneity of monitoring applications. We present ProgME, a Programmable MEasurement architecture based on a novel concept of flowset--an arbitrary set of flows defined according to application requirements and/or traffic conditions. Through a simple flowset composition language, ProgME can incorporate application requirements, adapt itself to circumvent the scalability challenges posed by the large number of flows, and achieve a better application-perceived accuracy. The modular design of ProgME enables it to exploit the surging popularity of multicore processors to cope with 7-Gb/s line rate. ProgME can analyze and adapt to traffic statistics in real time. Using sequential hypothesis test, ProgME can achieve fast and scalable heavy hitter identification.

Abstract: The femtocell technique can address the poor in-building coverage problem and increase net work capacity cost efficiently. At present, some wireless service providers have launched their femtocell services, although there are still plenty of challenges unsettled. In this article we discuss the business mode in macro-femto heterogeneous networks. We propose three frameworks according to the deployment types of femtocells, which are joint deployment, WSP deployment, and user deployment frameworks. Their unique characteristics, corresponding challenges, and potential solutions are further investigated to provide deeper insight systematically. We also present two schemes for WSP revenue maximization under the WSP deployment framework. The first scheme jointly handles the interference and users' demand satisfaction via cross-tier channel allocation, and the second scheme further considers the optimal pricing selection for accessing different networks.

Abstract: Handheld devices such as smartphones have become a major platform for accessing Internet services. The small, mobile nature of these devices results in a unique mix of network usage. Other studies have used Wi-Fi and 3G wireless traces to analyze session, mobility, and performance characteristics for handheld devices.We complement these studies through our unique study of the differences in the content and flow characteristics of handheld versus non-handheld traffic. We analyze packet traces from two separate campus wireless networks, with 3 days of traffic for 32, 278 unique devices. Trends for handhelds include low UDP usage, high volumes of HTTP traffic, and a greater proportion of video traffic. Our observations can inform network management and mobile system design.

Abstract: Mobile network operators, with decreasing revenue but high network performance requirements, are standing at a crossroads. Investing in 3GPP defined highly functional mobile networks and the consequent maintenance to sustain the market-driven network service quality standard results in high total cost of ownership unseen in fixed operators. Revenue reduction will make it significantly difficult to fund such TCO in the future. In this light, sharing networks is a viable solution to reduce network expenditure, as can also be seen from present trends. However, current networking sharing solutions, although reducing TCO, come with limitations in network management flexibility, and standalone decision making in network expansion and service introduction. Virtualization-based isolation techniques have the potential of enabling network sharing along with management flexibility and independence among the sharing entities. However, virtualization brings added complexity to the overall network management structure. In this article, we propose a next mobile network architecture, where the physical network infrastructure is shared by multiple entities, but the management and control of the physical infrastructure, virtual network creation and maintenance, and the usage of the virtual networks are decoupled from each other to reduce management complexity in each segment. In addition, we address the technical as well as business perspectives of the proposed architecture, discuss open issues, and provide research directions to realize such a flexible value-added commercial network for the future.

Abstract: Faced to continuous arising new threats, the detection of anomalies in current operational networks has become essential. Network operators have to deal with huge data volumes for analysis purpose. To counter this main issue, dealing with IP flow (also known as Netflow) records is common in network management. However, still in modern networks, Netflow records represent high volume of data. In this paper, we present an approach for evaluating Netflow records by referring to a method of temporal aggregation applied to Machine Learning techniques. We present an approach that leverages support vector machines in order to analyze large volumes of Netflow records. Our approach is using a special kernel function, that takes into account both the contextual and the quantitative information of Netflow records. We assess the viability of our method by practical experimentation on data volumes provided by a major internet service provider in Luxembourg.

Abstract: Traditionally, an assessment of transport network vulnerability is a computationally intensive operation. This article proposes a sensitivity analysis-based approach to improve computational efficiency and allow for large-scale applications of road network vulnerability analysis. Various vulnerability measures can be used with the proposed method. For illustrative purposes, this article adopts the relative accessibility index (AI), which follows the Hansen integral index, as the network vulnerability measure for evaluating the socio-economic effects of link (or road segment) capacity degradation or closure. Critical links are ranked according to the differences in the AIs between normal and degraded networks. The proposed method only requires a single computation of the network equilibrium problem. The proposed technique significantly reduces computational burden and memory storage requirements compared with the traditional approach. The road networks of the Sioux Falls city and the Bangkok metropolitan area are used to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the proposed method. Network manager(s) or transport planner(s) can use this approach as a decision support tool for identifying critical links in road networks. By improving these critical links or constructing new bypass roads (or parallel paths) to increase capacity redundancy, the overall vulnerability of the networks can be reduced.

Abstract: Recently, mobile traffic has increased tremendously due to the deployment of smart devices such as smartphones and smart tablets. These devices use various types of access networks such as 3G, WiFi, and mobile WiMAX. Network service providers also provide these access networks with various types of plans. There is a growing need to manage these smart devices and mobile networks. However, research on mobile network management has focused on the performance of the network itself. Few research has focused on applying the usage patterns of smartphone users to mobile network management. In this paper, we present an analysis of smartphone usage patterns. We define the five possible states of a smartphone based on such a phone's basic operations. We collected real usage log data from real smartphone users over a two month period. We show that all users have their own usage pattern. We present a case study in order to show how to apply usage pattern information to power management of smartphones. We also discuss how to apply such information to mobile device management and network management.

Abstract: In an embodiment, a method comprises: receiving a first request for network management information, the first request identifying at least one of a user, a user device, or a user application; determining a first set of user information for a given user, the determination being based on the first request and data stored in a network database, identifying one or more interrelations in the first set of user information that represent logical connections within the first set of user information; creating a first information tree rooted at data representing a user location and organized according to the one or more interrelations, the first information tree being based on the first set of user information and being created in memory of a network management computer; and displaying, based on the first information tree, the one or more interrelations and the first set of user information, network management information for the user.

Abstract: A growing number of industrial applications incorporate multimedia information processing. These multimedia applications are commonly distributed and subject to time constraints that must be met across networks without creating intolerable interference over typical control flows. However, multimedia traffic, in general, and video streaming, in particular, have specific characteristics that conflict with the operational framework of conventional real-time protocols. In particular, video compressors generate highly variable bit-rate streams that mismatch the constant-bit-rate channels typically provided by real-time protocols, severely reducing the efficiency of network utilization. This paper focuses on low-latency multimedia transmission over Ethernet with dynamic quality-of-service (QoS) management. We propose a multidimensional mechanism that controls, in an integrated way, both the compression parameters and the network bandwidth allocated to each stream. The goal is to provide the best possible QoS to each stream, recomputing the compression levels and network bandwidth whenever significant events, such as channel setup/teardown, or structural changes happen. This paper also presents novel QoS metrics based both on the image quality and network parameters. Several experiments with prerecorded video streams illustrate the advantages of the proposed approach and the convenience of the metrics.

Abstract: During their lifetime, multihop wireless mesh networks (WMNs) experience frequent link failures caused by channel interference, dynamic obstacles, and/or applications' bandwidth demands. These failures cause severe performance degradation in WMNs or require expensive manual network management for their real-time recovery. This paper presents an autonomous network reconfiguration system (ARS) that enables a multiradio WMN to autonomously recover from local link failures to preserve network performance. By using channel and radio diversities in WMNs, ARS generates necessary changes in local radio and channel assignments in order to recover from failures. Next, based on the thus-generated configuration changes, the system cooperatively reconfigures network settings among local mesh routers. ARS has been implemented and evaluated extensively on our IEEE 802.11-based WMN test-bed as well as through ns2-based simulation. Our evaluation results show that ARS outperforms existing failure-recovery schemes in improving channel-efficiency by more than 90% and in the ability of meeting the applications' bandwidth demands by an average of 200%.

Abstract: A network management apparatus is designed so that when reassigning the existing address, the network management apparatus extracts a link with the largest link cost from among links comprising the network based on the network configuration information and specifies a flow routed though the extracted link based on the statistic information; when receiving a path change request and a via link request to request a via link with respect to the specified flow from an external terminal, the network management apparatus selects either one of addresses of an address pair of the specified flow as a change target address; and when changing the selected change target address, the network management apparatus changes the change target address to a candidate address to be assigned by selecting an address, which is routed through a link included in the via link request and has not been assigned, as the candidate address to be assigned.

Abstract: Autonomic networking aims to solve the mounting problems created by increasingly complex networks, by enabling devices and service-providers to decide, preferably without human intervention, what to do at any given moment, and ultimately to create self-managing networks that can interface with each other, adapting their behavior to provide the best service to the end-user in all situations. This book gives both an understanding and an assessment of the principles, methods and architectures in autonomous network management, as well as lessons learned from, the ongoing initiatives in the field. It includes contributions from industry groups at Orange Labs, Motorola, Ericsson, the ANA EU Project and leading universities. These groups all provide chapters examining the international research projects to which they are contributing, such as the EU Autonomic Network Architecture Project and Ambient Networks EU Project, reviewing current developments and demonstrating how autonomic management principles are used to define new architectures, models, protocols, and mechanisms for future network equipment. It provides reviews of cutting-edge approaches to the management of complex telecommunications, sensors, etc. networks based on new autonomic approaches. This enables engineers to use new autonomic techniques to solve complex distributed problems that are not possible or easy to solve with existing techniques. It includes discussion of FOCALE, a semantically rich network architecture for coordinating the behavior of heterogeneous and distributed computing resources. This provides vital information, since the data model holds much of the power in an autonomic system, giving the theory behind the practice, which will enable engineers to create their own solutions to network management problems. It includes real case studies from the groups in industry and academia who work with this technology. These allow engineers to see how autonomic networking is implemented in a variety of scenarios, giving them a solid grounding in applications and helping them generate their own solutions to real-world problems.

Abstract: Distributing Radio Resource Management (RRM) in heterogeneous wireless networks is an important research and development axis that aims at reducing network complexity. In this context, RRM decision making can be delegated to mobiles by incorporating cognitive capabilities into mobile handsets, resulting in the reduction of signalling and processing burden. This may however result in inefficiencies (such as those known as the "tragedy of commons") that are inherent to equilibria in non-cooperative games. Due to the concern for efficiency, centralized network architectures and protocols keep being considered and being compared to decentralized ones. From the point of view of the network architecture, this implies the co-existence of network-centric and terminal-centric RRM schemes. Instead of taking part within the debate among the supporters of each solution, we propose in this paper hybrid schemes where the wireless users are assisted in their decisions by the network that broadcasts aggregated load information. At some system's states, the network manager may impose his decisions on the network users. In other states the mobiles may take autonomous actions in reaction to information sent by the network. In order to improve the performance of the non-cooperative scenario, we investigate the properties of an alternative solution concept named Stackelberg game, in which the network tries to control the users' behavior by broadcasting appropriate information, expected to maximize its utility, while individual users maximize their own utility. We derive analytically the utilities related to the Quality of Service (QoS) perceived by mobile users and develop a Bayesian framework to obtain the equilibria. Numerical results illustrate the advantages of using our hybrid game framework in an association problem in a network composed of HSDPA and 3G LTE system that serve streaming and elastic flows.

Abstract: Future wireless networks (LTE and beyond) will experience a continuous growth regarding the number of network elements with increasingly complex interrelations between the configuration of multiple network elements (NEs). A related trend is the seamless integration of multiple radio technologies into a single heterogeneous wireless network. Both developments increase network management complexity and require new management concepts with a very high degree of automation such as Self-Organizing Network (SON) concepts, which are currently discussed in the network operator (NGMN), research, and standardization (3GPP) communities. SON functions have to be coordinated and supervised in an automated way in order to enable a stable system operation with tight control over the system behavior by the network operator together with a high degree of automation. Based on a detailed analysis of the requirements for the coordination, a policy-based approach to realize the coordination-related decision making based on the network configuration and SON function context is presented. Results for two use cases (fully automatic hardware to site mapping and coverage & capacity optimization) are presented to show the applicability of the developed approach to diverse SON use cases.

Abstract: The literature on network management in the public sector reports positive effects of network activity on agency performance. Current studies show however no differences between specific types of contacts in an agency's environment. The present article adopts an explorative design to study the different types of environmental actors in the networks of nine colleges for nursing studies in the Netherlands. A typology of environmental ties is introduced, and applied to the nine cases. It appears that contacts to different types of actors reflect different levels of ambition in the network management of the colleges. The level of ambition in network management appears to be associated with two indicators for college performance: it is positively associated with diploma rate, and negatively associated with drop-out rates among freshmen. These results are discussed with reference to the current literature in public network management.

Abstract: Participatory sensing is becoming more popular with the help of sensor-embedded smartphones to retrieve context-aware information for users. However, new challenges arise for the maintenance of the energy supply, the support of the quality-of-information (QoI) requirements, and the generation of maximum revenue for network operator, but with sparsely research exposure. This paper proposes a novel efficient network management framework to tackle the above challenges, where four key design elements are introduced. First is the QoI satisfaction index, where the QoI benefit the queries receive is quantified in relation to the level they require. Second is the credit satisfaction index, where the credits are used by the network operator to motivate the user participation, and this index is to quantify its degree of satisfaction. Third is the Gur Game-based distributed energy control, where the above two indexes are used as inputs to the mathematical framework of the Gur Game for distributed decision-making. Fourth is the dynamic pricing scheme, based on a constrained optimization problem to allocate credits to the participants while minimizing the necessary adaptation of the pricing scheme from the network operator. We finally evaluate the proposed scheme under an event occurrence detection scenario, where the proposed scheme successfully guarantees less than 7% detection outage, saves 80% of the energy reserve if compared with the lower bound solution, and achieves the suboptimum with only 4% gap if compared with optimal solution.

Abstract: Emerging data-center network designs seek to provide physical topologies with high bandwidth, large bisection capacities, and many alternative data paths Yet, existing protocols present a one-size-fits-all approach for forwarding packets Traditionally, the routing process chooses one "best" route for each end-point pair While some modern protocols support multiple paths through techniques like ECMP, each path continues to be selected using the same optimization metric However, today's data centers host applications with a diverse universe of networking needs; a single-minded forwarding approach is likely to either let paths go unused, sacrificing reliability and performance, or make the entire network available to all applications, sacrificing needs such as isolation This paper introduces topology switching to return control to individual applications for deciding best how to route data among their nodes Topology switching formalizes the simultaneous use of multiple routing mechanisms in a data center, allowing applications to define multiple routing systems and deploy individualized routing tasks at small time scales We introduce the topology switching abstraction and illustrate how it can provide both network efficiency and individual application performance, and admit flexible network management strategies

Abstract: One of the biggest problems of the IPTV providers is to offer enough quality of experience (QoE) to their customers. The minimum bandwidth in the access network required to provide IPTV services, jointly with the necessity to guarantee the QoE to the customers, creates the need for new type of algorithms to satisfy the network requirements. Apart from the parameters that depend on the application aspect and design, the user's QoE mainly depends on the video quality (VQ), which can be affected by the network parameters (jitter, delay, lost packets, etc.), and on other parameters, such as zapping time and synchronization time. In this paper, we implement several benches to know how each measurable parameter affects the user's QoE. Taking into account these parameters, we propose an analytical expression for the QoE calculation. Then, the paper presents a network management algorithm that takes into account the information received by the user to take the appropriate actions and vary some features of the IP network to provide enough IPTV QoE to the customer. Finally, we measure how one of the actions taken by our system affects the network performance and the VQ. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (The user's QoE mainly depends on the video quality, which can be affected by parameters such as jitter, delay, packets lost, synchronization time, etc. In this paper, we analyze how each one of them affects the QoE and we propose an analytical expression for its calculation. Then, we present a network management algorithm that takes into account the information received from the customer and vary some features in the IP network in order to provide enough QoE to the customer. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Abstract: Embodiments enable a network operator to use any (and a single) network management system (NMS) that it desires to manage a network having mixed fiber to the home optical network units (ONUs) and coaxial connected cable modems. For example, embodiments enable a cable company operator to use a DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) NMS (which the cable company already uses to manage its DOCSIS network) to manage such mixed network, by a simple addition of a DOCSIS Mediation Layer (DML) module between the NMS and the optical line terminal (OLT). On the other hand, embodiments enable a telephone company operator to use a standard EPON (Ethernet Passive Optical Network) OLT NMS with minor OLT and OAM (Operations, Administration, and Maintenance) protocol modifications to manage the same mixed network.

Abstract: Recently, the forecasting technologies for network traffic have played a significant role in network management, congestion control and network security. Forecasting algorithms have also been investigated for decades along with the development of Time Series Analysis (TSA). Chaotic Time Series Analysis (CTSA) may be used to model and forecast the time series by Chaos Theory. As one of the prevailing intelligent forecasting algorithms, it is worthwhile to integrate CTSA and Support Vector Machine (SVM). In this paper, after the vulnerabilities of Local Support Vector Machine (LSVM) in forecasting modeling are analyzed, the Dynamic Time Wrapping (DTW) and the "Dynamic K" strategy are introduced, as well as a short-term network traffic forecasting algorithm LSVM-DTW-K based on Chaos Theory and SVM is presented. Finally, two sets of network traffic datasets collected from wired and wireless campus networks, respectively, are studied for our experiments.

Abstract: We introduce ‘Copper’, a generic browser for the Internet of Things based on the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP). Current estimates foresee that the number of networked embedded devices encompassed by the Internet of Things will be vast. Additionally, most systems will be optimized for the constrained environment with its limited energy and bandwidth. These factors make it difficult for users to observe and control the devices. Thus, a major problem will be node and network management, as experienced before in large wireless sensor network deployments. By adopting well-known patterns from the Web, such as browsing, bookmarking, and linking, we provide a user-friendly management tool for networked embedded devices. By integrating it into the Web browser, we allow for intuitive interaction and a presentation layer that is originally missing in the CoAP protocol suite.

Abstract: IP networks today require massive effort to configure and manage. Ethernet is vastly simpler to manage, but does not scale beyond small local area networks. This article describes an alternative network architecture called SEATTLE that achieves the best of both worlds: The scalability of IP combined with the simplicity of Ethernet. SEATTLE provides plug-and-play functionality via flat addressing, while ensuring scalability and efficiency through shortest-path routing and hash-based resolution of host information. In contrast to previous work on identity-based routing, SEATTLE ensures path predictability, controllability, and stability, thus simplifying key network-management operations, such as capacity planning, traffic engineering, and troubleshooting. We performed a simulation study driven by real-world traffic traces and network topologies, and used Emulab to evaluate a prototype of our design based on the Click and XORP open-source routing platforms. Our experiments show that SEATTLE efficiently handles network failures and host mobility, while reducing control overhead and state requirements by roughly two orders of magnitude compared with Ethernet bridging.

Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to focus on managing networks within destinations, or destination network management. The purpose is to provide a conceptual definition of the term.Design/methodology/approach – Destinations are seen as networks, and networks are approached from a strategic perspective. Reviewing and drawing on the literature on destination management, tourism networks, strategic networks and strategic management the paper proposes a concept that could be of use in analyses of network management.Findings – It is suggested that managing is a value‐creating activity embedded within a network, and that there are two approaches to network management: strategic management and the coordination of cooperation among the actors involved.Research limitations/implications – The paper is conceptual in nature. The authors intend to test the developed hypothesis in empirical case studies in the near future.Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature on destination management in proposing a nove...

Abstract: The main internet problem is how to deal with temporary overload, which negatively affects quality-sensitive high value services while others do not suffer. Capacity overprovisioning als well as volume tariffs will not be efficient. The optimal solution is the application of priority pricing, where higher prices are paid for higher qualities. This is economically superior to network management as well as to strict net neutrality.