Method for Managing Resources in a Platform for Telecommunication Service and/or Network Management, Corresponding Platform and Computer Program Product Therefor

• US 20090122706A1
• Filed: 10/28/2004
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Inventors: Cassone, Giuseppe, Covino, Giuseppe, Gotta, Danilo, Alfano, Rosario, Ughetti, Marco, Bobbio, Fabrizio, Porta, Marisa
• Granted Patent: US 8,264,971 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/237
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0087 Network testing or monitoring arrangements

Abstract

A method and system for managing resources in telecommunications services and networks. The method and system regard execution of processes by distributed agents on processing machines to perform predetermined tasks on the network, and are characterized by setting target data including goals on processes and constraints on resource utilization to be met by the system; monitoring computational resources utilization and processes execution by agents, and collecting performance data representative of resource utilization and process execution; comparing the collected performance data with the set data, a penalty being established when performance data do not fulfill target data; and re-allocating resources for process execution by agents so as to minimize the penalty determined on the basis of the comparison.

Claims

1-30. -30. (canceled)

31. A method for managing resources in a platform for telecommunication service and/or network management, wherein the platform is able to manage process executions having process priorities by distributed agents, comprising:

setting target data to be met by the platform, wherein said target data comprises goals on the process executions by the distributed agents and constraints on platform resource utilization;

monitoring the process executions by the distributed agents and the resource utilization;

collecting performance data representative of said process executions and of said resource utilization;

comparing the collected performance data with the set target data;

establishing at least one penalty clause on the basis of a comparison between the collected performance data of said agents and the set target data; and

re-allocating resources to said agents for process executions by agents on the basis of said established at least one penalty clause.

32. The method according to claim 31, wherein the re-allocating resources step comprises modifying the process priorities at the distributed agents.

33. The method according to claim 31, wherein the re-allocating resources step comprises:

executing an evaluation step and a decision step at determined observation intervals, wherein the evaluation step comprises;

collecting data representative both of process executions and of the number of forecasted process executions for at least one of subsequent observation intervals, and

evaluating, on the basis of said collected data, the resources as required by said agents, and wherein the decision step comprises;

comparing the resources as required to resources as available by each of said agents, and

applying determined resource re-allocation rules to said agents in order to modify resource utilization among the agents and/or change process priorities at the agents and/or reallocate process executions among the agents.

34. The method according to claim 31, comprising:

providing distributed process engines to the agents; and

storing process descriptions representative of processes in a process descriptions database associated with said distributed process engines.

35. The method according to claim 34, wherein the process descriptions comprise workflows and/or rules.

36. The method according to claim 31, comprising:

providing the agents on hierarchical levels according to a multi-layered configuration of agents.

37. The method according to claim 36, wherein the process executions are assigned to the multi-layered configuration of agents by a centralized manager module.

38. The method according to claim 37, wherein the collecting performance data step comprises:

transmitting said performance data to the centralized manager module and/or to a plurality of local performance control agents associated with the agents.

39. The method according to claim 37, comprising:

providing at least one master agent at the top layer of said multi-layered configuration of agents, the master agent charging process executions to agents located in sub-layers of said multi-layered configuration.

40. The method according to claim 31, comprising, for each agent, the steps of:

inserting a process execution request into a multilevel priority process queue according to a priority criterion; and

scheduling the process executions on the basis of the multilevel priority process queue.

41. The method according to claim 40, comprising scheduling process executions by at least one process engine thread associated with each agent.

42. The method according to claim 40, wherein the process execution requests in the multilevel priority process queue are upgraded based on a timeout criterion.

43. The method according to claim 38, wherein each control agent controls a number of process engine threads and resource utilization by the agents.

44. The method according to claim 38, wherein

the control agent executes a load balancing algorithm for determining the load of the agents;

and

each agent sends process execution requests to other agents on the basis of a criterion, including at least an evaluation of the load of the agents as determined by the control agent.

59. A method for setting up and managing telecommunication services, or an ADSL connectivity service, comprising the step of managing resources according to the method as defined in claim 31.

60. A computer program product or computer program set of computer program products loadable in the memory of at least one computer and comprising software code portions capable of performing the steps of claim 31.

45. A platform for managing resources for telecommunication services and/or networks, comprising

a plurality of distributed agents able to manage process executions having process priorities, comprising:

process engines associated with said agents and configured for monitoring the process executions and resource utilization by the distributed agents, and by

a centralized manager module, configured for;

setting target data to be met by the platform, wherein said target data comprises goals on the process executions by the distributed agents and constraints on platform resource utilization to be met by the platform;

collecting performance data representative of said process executions and of said resource utilization by the distributed agents;

comparing the collected performance data with the set target data;

establishing at least one penalty clause on the basis of a comparison between the collected performance data of said agents and the set target data; and

re-allocating resources to said agents for process executions by agents on the basis of said established at least one penalty clause.

46. The platform according to claim 45, wherein said centralized manager module comprises a resource allocator module comprising:

an evaluate module configured for;

collecting data representative both of process executions and of the number of forecasted process executions for a subsequent observation interval, and

evaluating, on the basis of said collected data, the resources as required by said agents, and

a decide module configured for;

comparing the resources as required to resources as available by each of said agents, and

applying determined resource re-allocation rules to said agents in order to modify resource utilization among the agents and/or change process priorities at the agents and/or reallocate process executions among the agents.

47. The platform according to claim 45, wherein said centralized manager module comprises:

a process description database for storing process descriptions representative of behavioural and functional aspects of the platform.

48. The platform according to claim 47, wherein said centralized manager module further comprises:

a service creation console arranged for definition, creation and modification of the process descriptions in the process description database.

49. The platform according to claim 47, wherein the process descriptions comprise workflows and/or rules.

50. The platform according to claim 45, wherein

said plurality of distributed agents are organized on hierarchical levels according to a multi-layered configuration, and wherein

said centralized manager module is configured for assigning process executions to said multi-layered configuration of agents.

51. The platform according to claim 45, comprising:

local performance control agents associated with at least a set of distributed agents, said process engines comprising resource monitor modules being configured for;

transmitting said performance data to the centralized manager module and/or to the local performance control agents associated with the agents.

52. The platform according to claim 50, comprising:

at least one master agent located at the top layer of said multi-layered configuration of agents and configured for charging process executions to agents located in sub-layers of said multi-layered configuration.

53. The platform according to claim 45, comprising:

at least one processing machine comprising at least one set of said plurality of distributed agents.

54. The platform according to claim 53, wherein at least one local performance control agent is associated with said at least one processing machine.

55. The platform according to claim 54, wherein said at least one local performance control agent comprises:

a common local performance monitoring module arranged for collecting performance data representative of resource utilization and process execution by the agents and transmitting the performance data to the centralized manager module;

a common thread controller coupled to the resource monitor arranged for creating process engine threads for executing waiting processes; and

a common dispatcher module coupled to the process engine threads and arranged for sending process execution requests to other agents according to a predetermined load balancing algorithm.

56. The platform according to claim 45, wherein the manager module comprises:

a capacity planning module configured for;

forecasting availability of resources in an observation interval on the basis of historical performance and of data representative of present resource utilization.

57. The platform according to claim 45, wherein the manager module comprises:

an administrative console configured for;

defining the hardware configuration of the platform; and

defining constraints on process executions.

58. A telecommunications network managed by a platform according to claim 45.