Abstract:
An object-oriented modeling approach is used to represent telecommunication services, parameters and calculation expressions associated with the parameters. Preferably, the Unified Modeling Language (“UML”) is used in this regard. Further still, UML “sequence diagrams” are used to represent the calculation expressions as a sequence of UML methods that accomplishes what is required by the expression. The use of UML to represent calculation expressions simplifies editing and creating the expressions and permits a visual representation of the expressions.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
         [0001]    This application claims priority to European Patent Application No. 02291174.7, filed May 10, 2002.  
         STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
         [0002]    Not applicable.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0004]    This invention generally relates to systems and methods for Quality of Service management. More specifically, this invention relates to an improved system for using Unified Modeling Language (“UML”) sequence diagrams to describe expressions between parameters in a service model described in UML.  
           [0005]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0006]    The field of telecommunications is evolving. Telecommunications networks began as lines of signaling towers that visually relayed messages from tower to tower. The invention of the telegraph led to electrical communication over wires strung between the transmitter and receiver. Switching techniques were then created to allow a given wire to be used for communication between different transmitters and receivers. What really fueled the expansion of telecommunications networks thereafter was the creation of the telephone, which allowed telephone owners to transmit and receive voice communications over the telegraph wires. It became necessary for telephone companies to maintain a complex infrastructure of telephones, wires, and switching centers.  
           [0007]    The telecommunications industry continues to grow, due in large part to the development of digital technology, computers, the Internet, and various information services. The sheer size of the telecommunications infrastructure makes it difficult to manage. Various specializations have sprung up, with telecommunications “carriers” providing and maintaining channels to transport information between localities, and telecommunications “providers” that provide and maintain local exchanges to allow access by end-users, and that provide and maintain billing accounts. In addition, a variety of telecommunications-related businesses exist to provide services such as directory assistance, paging services, voice mail, answering services, telemarketing, mobile communications, Internet access, and teleconferencing.  
           [0008]    The relationships between the various entities vary wildly. In an effort to promote efficiency in developing, overseeing, and terminating relationships between telecommunications entities, the TeleManagement Forum has developed a preliminary standard GB 917, “SLA Management Handbook,” published June, 2001, that provides a standardized approach to service agreements. Service level agreements, much as the name suggests, are agreements between a telecommunications entity and its customer that the entity will provide services that satisfy some minimum quality standard. The complexity of the telecommunications technology often makes the specification of the minimum quality standard a challenging affair. The approach outlined in the handbook discusses differences between network parameters (the measures that a carrier uses to monitor the performance of the channels used to transport information) and quality of service (QoS) (the measures of service quality that have meaning to a customer). Telecommunications entities need to be able to relate the two measures for their customers.  
           [0009]    Next generation (fixed and mobile) network service providers will be urgently competing for market share. One of their existing challenges is to minimize the delay between creation and roll-out of new added-value services. Telecommunications entities wishing to serve these providers need to have the capability to ensure fine control of newly created services in a very short period (weeks instead of months). Existing service platforms, which depend on technology-specific software development, are inadequate.  
           [0010]    As new technologies are introduced, resources will be shared between more customers. Yet the customers will expect higher QoS. Telecommunications entities will need a service platform that can measure and monitor the delivered QoS on a customer-by-customer basis. The existing platforms, which only provide customers with dedicated resources, will be unable to compete.  
           [0011]    Because existing service platforms rely on technology-specific software development, deployed technologies (i.e., ATM, IPVPN) have hard-coded models, often with fixed (pre-defined) performance parameters. These models are directed at service level assurance for the provider, and are unsuitable for monitoring individual customer QoS. Further, this approach requires that service models for new technologies be developed from scratch, and the resulting heterogeneity of tools required to monitor the different services and/or different steps of the service lifecycle and/or different data required to compute the service status (faults, performance data) guarantees inefficiency and confusion.  
           [0012]    For the above reasons, an efficient system and method for service model development, QoS measurement, with customer-by-customer customization, and real-time monitoring, is needed.  
         SUMMARY OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION  
         [0013]    The problems outlined above are in large part addressed by a method for representing services, parameters and expressions. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, an object-oriented modeling approach is used to model telecommunication-related services. Preferably, the Unified Modeling Language (“UML”) is used in this regard. Further still, UML “sequence diagrams” are used to represent calculation expressions. The use of UML to represent calculation expressions simplifies editing and creating the expressions and permits a visual representation of the expressions. These and other features and benefits will become apparent upon reviewing the following disclosure and associated drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained when the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment is considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 1 shows a telecommunications network having a platform for service monitoring;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 2 shows an example block diagram of a server that could be used to run the monitoring software;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram of the monitoring software;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 4 shows a meta-model for a service;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 5 a  shows an example of concrete service models defined in terms of the meta-model;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 5 b  shows an example of instantiated service models defined in terms concrete service model;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 6 shows a meta-model for a service level agreement;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 7 shows an example of association of objectives with service model parameters;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 8 shows the process flow of a calculation engine;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 9 shows an expression class representation; and  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 10 shows a sequence diagram in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
       [0026]    While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.  
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0027]    First, a brief note about terminology. In this document, the term “customer” is used to refer to companies that contract with the telecommunications entity for services. For example, customers may be voice-mail providers or internet access providers. Further, as used herein, the term “real time” means that the effect of measurements received by the system are propagated through to the system outputs in less than five minutes. “Near-real-time” means that the effect of these measurements are propagated through the system in less than twenty minutes, but no less than 5 minutes. “Batch” processing means that the system periodically calculates the effect of the measurements, typically on an hourly or daily basis.  
         [0028]    Turning now to the figures, FIG. 1 shows a telecommunications network  102  having a set of switches  104 ,  106 ,  108  that route signals between various devices  112 ,  114 ,  116 ,  118  and resources  120 . The network elements are coupled together by communications links, which may include mobile links, satellite links, microwave links, fiber optics, copper wire, etc. The network preferably includes a platform  110  that monitors the performance of the various communications links. Typically, the platform gathers the performance information from monitoring tools embedded in the switches. The platform  110  may assume an active role in which it provides allocation management when redundant communications links exist or when traffic of differing priorities is competing for insufficient bandwidth. The platform  110  may perform allocation management by adjusting the routing configuration of switches  104 ,  106 ,  108 . The routing configuration includes such parameters as routing table entries, queue lengths, routing strategies, and traffic prioritization. Preferably, the platform  110  performs allocation management to ensure that the network performance remains in compliance with specified performance levels.  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a server  200  that could be used as a monitoring platform  110 . Certainly, other computer configurations could also be used to provide the necessary processing power and input/output bandwidth necessary for this application. If desired, the task may be distributed across multiple computers.  
         [0030]    Server  200  may be a Compaq Alpha server, which includes multiple processors  202 ,  204 ,  206 . The processors are coupled together by processor buses, and each processor  202 ,  204 ,  206 , is coupled to a respective memory  212 ,  214 ,  216 . Each of the processors  202 ,  204 ,  206 , may further be coupled via a respective input/output bus to long term storage devices  222 ,  224 ,  226 , and to network interfaces  232 ,  234 ,  236 . The long term storage devices may be magnetic tape, hard disk drives, and/or redundant disk arrays.  
         [0031]    The processors  202 ,  204 ,  206 , each execute software stored in memories  212 ,  214 ,  216  to collect and process information from the telecommunications network via one or more of the network interfaces  232 ,  234 ,  236 . The software may distribute the collection and processing tasks among the processors  202 ,  204 ,  206 , and may also coordinate with other computers.  
         [0032]    Note that a complete copy of the software may be stored in one of the memories  212 , but this is unlikely for software applications of the size and complexity contemplated herein. It is more probable that the software will be distributed, with some processors (or computers) executing some software tasks, and other processors (or computers) executing different software tasks. One processor may execute multiple tasks, and one task may be executed by multiple processors (and/or multiple computers). Further, the relationship between processors and software may be dynamic, with the configuration changing in response to processor loading and various system events. Nevertheless, the hardware is configured by the software to carry out the desired tasks.  
         [0033]    Because of this loose, dynamic relationship between software and hardware, most software designers prefer to work in the “software domain,” sometimes referred to as “cyberspace,” and relegate the management of the hardware-software relationship to software compilers, the operating system, and low-level device drivers.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the software  300  executed by monitoring platform  110 . The components of this software are described in four tiers: 1) common services and infrastructure, 2) data collection, 3) data management, and 4) interfaces.  
         [0035]    Common Services and Infrastructure  
         [0036]    Software  300  includes message buses  302 ,  304 ,  306 ,  308 ,  310 . These message buses are software applications designed to allow communication between networked computers. Tibco Message Bus is one such software application. For details regarding the Tibco Message Bus, refer to “TIB/Rendezvous Concepts: Software Release 6.7,” published July 2001 by TIBCO Software, Inc.  
         [0037]    The message buses  302 - 310  provide multiple communications modes, including a decoupled communication mode between a message publisher and the subscribers to that bus. In this publish/subscribe mode, the publisher does not know anything about the message subscribers. The messages that pass over the buses  302 - 310  are preferably files in XML (extended markup language) format, that is, files that include self-described data fields. The subscribers receive messages based on an identified message field, e.g., a “topic” or “subject” field.  
         [0038]    The buses also provide another communications mode, the request/reply mode. In this mode, the message publisher includes a “reply” field in the message. The bus subscribers that receive the message (based on the “subject” field) process the message and send a response message with the contents of the original “reply” field in the “subject” field.  
         [0039]    The buses advantageously provide full location transparency. The bus software conveys the messages to all the suitable destinations, without any need for a central naming service. The preferred bus software employs daemon processes that run on each of the computers and that communicate between themselves using UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and fault-tolerant messaging techniques.  
         [0040]    The buses advantageously enable additional fault-tolerance techniques. Each of the components that communicate on a bus may have redundant “shadow” components that run in parallel with the primary component. Each of the components can receive the same messages and maintain the same state, so that if the primary component becomes unstable or “locks up,” one of the shadow components can take over without interruption. Alternatively, or in addition, the decoupled nature of the buses allows a component to be halted and restarted, without affecting other components of the application. This also provides a method for upgrading the software components without stopping the whole system.  
         [0041]    TIBCO Software, Inc. (www.tibco.com) provides adapters for most common software applications to allow them to communicate via message buses  302 - 310 . In addition, they offer a software developer toolkit (“SDK”) that allows programmers to develop similar adapters for other applications. A configuration manager  312  in software  300  provides configuration of these adapters and the applications. The configuration of all the adapters and applications can be stored in a central repository and managed from that central location. As applications (and adapters) are started or reconfigured, their configuration information is retrieved from the central location. This mechanism may be used to preserve configuration information across multiple instances of software components as the processes crash, restart, terminate, and move to new hardware locations.  
         [0042]    A process monitoring, or “watchdog” component  314  is also included in software  300  to monitor the execution of the other software components and to take action if a problem develops. The watchdog component may, for example, restart a component that has crashed, or move a component to a different computer if the processor load crosses a given threshold. An existing software component suitable for this purpose is available from TIBCO Software, Inc.  
         [0043]    The preferred watchdog component includes autonomous agents, running one per computer. On each computer, the agent monitors and controls all the components running on that computer. The agent receives data from “micro-agents” associated with the components. For example, each adapter may function as a micro-agent that feeds statistics to the local agent.  
         [0044]    The preferred watchdog component may further include a graphical user interface (“GUI”) application that discovers the location of the agents, subscribes to messages coming from the agents, allows a user to author or change the rules used by the agents, and implements termination, moving, and restarting of components when necessary.  
         [0045]    The watchdog component  314  and the configuration manager component  312  communicate with the various other components via bus  302 , which carries configuration messages.  
         [0046]    Data Collection  
         [0047]    Data collection occurs via bus  310 . Service adapters provide messages on this bus. Two service adapters  316 ,  318 , are shown in FIG. 3, but many more are contemplated. Service adapters  316 ,  318 , are independent processes that each gather data from one or more data sources. They may perform very minor processing of the information, but their primary purpose is to place the data into correct form for bus  310 , and to enforce the data collection interval.  
         [0048]    Data sources  320  are processes (hereafter called “data feeders”) that each collect parameter values at a given service access point. A service access point is a defined interface point between the customer and the service being provided. The parameters are chosen to be indicative of such things as usage, error rates, and service performance. The data feeders may be implemented in hardware or software, and may gather direct measurements or emulate end-users for a statistical analysis.  
         [0049]    In addition, other applications  322  running on the telecommunications management information platform (“TeMIP”)  110  may provide data to service adapters  318 . Information such as planned or unplanned outages, weather conditions, channel capacities, etc., may be provided from these applications.  
         [0050]    Software  300  includes a scheduler component  324  that may be used to provide triggers to those service adapters that need them. For example, many data feeders  320  may provide data automatically, whereas others may require the service adapter  316  to initiate the retrieval of data.  
         [0051]    It was mentioned that the service adapters may perform very minor processing. Examples of such processing may include aggregation, counter conversion, and collection interval conversion. Aggregation refers to the combining of data from multiple sources. An example where aggregation might be desired would be the testing of a given server by multiple probes deployed across the country. Counter conversion refers to the conversion of a raw counter output into a meaningful measure. For example, the adapter might be configured to compensate for counter rollover, or to convert a raw error count into an error rate. Collection interval conversion refers to the enforcement of the data collection interval on bus  310 , even if the adapter receives a burst of data updates from a data feeder within a single collection interval.  
         [0052]    Data collector  326  gathers the data from bus  310  and translates the data into values for the appropriate parameters of the service model. This may include translating specific subscriber identifiers into customer identifiers. The data collector  326  invokes the assistance of naming service  327  for this purpose. The method for translating collected data into service component parameters is specified by data feeder definitions in database  330 . The data collector  326  obtains the service model information from service repository manager  328 , and the parameter values are published on bus  308 . Note that multiple data collectors  326  may be running in parallel, with each performing a portion of the overall task.  
         [0053]    Data Management  
         [0054]    The service repository manager  328  is coupled to a database  330 . The service repository manager  328  uses database  330  to track and provide persistency of: the service model, data feeder models, instances of service components, service level objectives, and service level agreements. This information may be requested or updated via bus  306 .  
         [0055]    The parameter values that are published on bus  308  by data collector  326  (“primary parameters”) are gathered by performance data manager  332  and stored in database  334 . The performance data manager also processes the primary parameters to determine derivative, or “secondary,” parameters defined in the service model. The performance data manager may also calculate aggregation values. These features are discussed in further detail in later sections. The secondary parameters are also stored in database  334 . Some of these secondary parameters may also be published on bus  308 .  
         [0056]    The service model may define zero or more objectives for each parameter in the model. These objectives may take the form of a desired value or threshold. A service level objective (“SLO”) monitoring component  336  compares the parameter values to the appropriate objectives. The comparison preferably takes place each time a value is determined for the given parameter. For primary parameters, the comparison preferably takes place concurrently with the storage of the parameter. The result of each comparison is an objective status, which is published on bus  308  for collection and storage by data manager  332 . The status is not necessarily a binary value. Rather, it may be a value in a range between 0 and 1 to indicate some degree of degradation.  
         [0057]    Each objective may have a specified action that is to be performed when a threshold is crossed in a given direction, or a desired value is achieved (or lost). When comparing parameter values to objectives, the SLO monitoring component  336  initiates such specified actions. While the actions can be customized, they generally involve publication of a warning or violation message on bus  304 , where they can be picked up by an alarm gateway component  338 . Examples of other actions may include modification of traffic priorities, alteration of routing strategies, adjustment of router queue lengths, variation of transmitter power, allocation of new resources, etc.  
         [0058]    The performance data manager  332  and associated database  334  operate primarily to track the short-term state of the telecommunications network. For longer-term performance determination, a data warehouse builder component  342  constructs a “service data warehouse” database  340 . Builder  342  periodically extracts information from databases  330 ,  334 , to compile a service-oriented database that is able to deliver meaningful reports in a timely manner. Database  340  is preferably organized by customer, service level agreement, service, individual service instances, service components, and time. Builder  342  may further determine long-term measurements such as service availability percentages for services and customers over specified periods (typically monthly). Other performance calculations may include mean time to repair (“MTTR”), long term trends, etc. These long-term measurements may also be stored in database  340 .  
         [0059]    User Interfaces  
         [0060]    Alarm gateway component  338  receives warning or violation messages from bus  304  and translates them into alarms. These alarms may be sent to other applications  322  running on platform  110  to initiate precautionary or corrective actions. The type of alarm is based on the message received from bus  304  and the configuration of gateway  338 . The alarm typically includes information to identify the customer and the parameter that violated a service level objective. Some indication of severity may also be included.  
         [0061]    An enterprise application integration (“EAI”) interface  344  is preferably included in software  300 . The EAI interface  344  provides a bridge between buses  304 ,  306 , and some external communication standard  346 , thereby allowing the two-way transfer of information between external applications and software  300 . In a preferred embodiment, the transferred information is in XML format, and includes service definition creation (and updates thereof), service instance creation events, service degradation events, service level agreement violation events,  
         [0062]    Software  300  further includes a graphical user interface (“GUI”)  350  that preferably provides a set of specialized sub-interfaces  352 - 358 . These preferably interact with the various components of software  300  via a GUI server component  360 . The server component  360  preferably provides various security precautions to prevent unauthorized access. These may include user authentication procedures, and user profiles that only allow restricted access.  
         [0063]    The first sub-interface is service reporting GUI  352 , which provides users with the ability to define report formats and request that such reports be retrieved from database  340 . Various existing software applications are suitable that can be readily adapted for this purpose.  
         [0064]    The next sub-interface is service designer GUI  354 , which provides a user with the ability to graphically model a service in terms of service components and parameters. Predefined service components that can be easily re-used are preferably available. Service designer GUT  354  preferably also allows the user to define for a given service component the relationships between its parameters and the data values made available by service adapters  316 .  
         [0065]    The third sub-interface is service level designer GUI  356 , which allows users to define objectives for the various service component parameters. Objectives may also be defined for performance of service instances and the aggregations thereof.  
         [0066]    The fourth sub-interface is real-time service monitoring GUI  358 , which allows users to monitor services in near real-time. The user can preferably display for each service: the service instances, the service instance components, and the objective statuses for the services and components. The user can preferably also display plots of performance data.  
         [0067]    In addition to the sub-interfaces mentioned, additional sub-interfaces may be provided for GUI  350 . For example, GUI  350  may include a service execution GUI that allows a user to define service instances, to specify how services are measured (e.g., which service adapters are used), and to enable or disable data collection.  
         [0068]    GUI  350  may further include a service level agreement (“SLA”) editor. The SLA editor could serve as a bridge between customer management applications (not specifically shown) and software  300 . The SLA editor may be used to define an identifier for each customer, and to specify the services that the customer has contracted for, along with the number of service instances and the service level objectives for those instances.  
         [0069]    Each of the software components shown in FIG. 3 may represent multiple instances running in parallel. The functions can be grouped on the same machine or distributed. In the latter case, the distribution is fully configurable, either in terms of grouping some functions together or in terms of splitting a single function on multiple machines. As an example, multiple performance data manager instances  332  may be running. One instance might be calculating secondary parameters for each individual service instance, and another might be performing aggregation calculations across customers and across service instances (this is described further below). Even the aggregation may be performed in stages, with various manager instances  332  performing the aggregation first on a regional level, and another manager instance  332  performing the aggregation on a national level. Preferably, the user interface  350  includes a tool to allow the user to distribute and redistribute the tasks of each of the software components among multiple instances as desired.  
         [0070]    At this point, a telecommunications network has been described, along with the hardware and software that together form a system for monitoring network performance and maintaining compliance with customer service agreements. The following discussion turns to the methods and techniques employed by the system. These techniques make service agreement monitoring and aggregation viewing robust and achievable in real-time.  
         [0071]    Model  
         [0072]    Software  300  preferably follows an object-oriented approach to modeling services. The Unified Modeling Language (“UML”) is a standard, well known method for object oriented design and thus is well suited for modeling the types of services described herein. Details regarding UML can be found in the document titled “OMG Unified Modeling Language Specification,” version 1.4, September 2001, incorporated herein by reference.  
         [0073]    In general, UML defines a graphical language for visualizing, specifying, constructing and documenting the artifacts of a software-intensive system. The UML offers a standard way to write a system&#39;s blueprints, including conceptual things such as business processes and system functions as well as concrete things such as programming language statements, database schemas, and reusable software components. UML provides for the modeling of “classes” using, for example, class diagrams. A class is a named description of a set of objects that share the same attributes, operations, methods, relationships and semantics. An object is an instance of a class that encapsulates state and behavior. In general, a UML diagram is a graphical presentation of a collection of model elements. A class diagram is a diagram that shows a set of classes, interfaces and/or collaborations and the relationships among these elements.  
         [0074]    [0074]FIG. 4 shows the model structure in accordance with UML. This model is best viewed as a meta-model, in that it defines a model from which service models are defined. A service  606  is a collection of service components  608  and the associations therebetween. The service  606  and each of its service components  608  may have one or more service parameters  610  that are uniquely associated with that service or service component. Note that service components  608  may be stacked recursively, so that each service component may have one or more subordinate service components. In addition, each service component  608  has one or more parents. In other words, a given service component may be shared by two or more services or service components.  
         [0075]    [0075]FIG. 5 a  shows an exemplary class diagram and illustrates the use of the object-oriented approach to service modeling. An actual or “concrete” service model is built from the objects defined in the meta-model. A mail service  502  requires an internet portal component  506  for internet access. The internet portal component  506  relies on one or more domain name service (“DNS”) components  508  for routing information. A distinct video service  504  may share the internet portal component  506  (and thereby also share the DNS component  508 ). Video service  504  also depends on a web server component  512  and a camera component  514 . Both components  512 ,  514  are operating from an underlying platform component  516 .  
         [0076]    One of the advantages of software  300  is that the service model may be dynamically updated while the system is in operation and is collecting data for the modeled service. For example, a user might choose to add a processor component  518  and tie it to the platform component  516 . Depending on the relationship type, the software may automatically instantiate the new component for existing instances of platform components  516 , or the software may wait for the user to manually create instances of the processor component.  
         [0077]    Each of the components has one or more service parameters  610  associated with it. Parameter examples include: usage, errors, availability, state, and component characteristics. For efficiency, the parameter types are preferably limited to the following: text strings, integers, real numbers, and time values.  
         [0078]    As an example, the internet portal component  506  may have associated service parameters for resource usage, and for available bandwidth. The server component  512  might have a service parameter for the number of errors. Once these parameters have been calculated, it will be desirable to determine if these parameters satisfy selected conditions. For example, a customer might stipulate that the resource usage parameter be less than 80%, that the average bandwidth be greater than 5 Mbyte/sec, and that the number of errors be less than 10%.  
         [0079]    [0079]FIG. 5 b  shows an example of service instances that are instantiated from the concrete service model in FIG. 5 a.  Note that multiple instances may exist for each of the components. This is but one possible service configuration that may result when the service model of FIG. 5 a  is deployed. A mail service instance “MAIL_PARIS”  520 , and two video service instances “VDO_PARIS”  522  and “VDO_LONDON”  524  are shown. The mail service instance  520  is tied to an IP access instance “POP”  526 , which in turn is tied to two DNS instances “DPRIM”  538  and “DSEC”  540 .  
         [0080]    The first video service instance  522  depends on two web servers “W1”  528  and “W2”  530 , and on a web cam “CAM1”  534 . Video service instance  522  also shares IP access instance  526  with mail service instance  520  and video service instance  524 . The two web servers  528 ,  530 , are running on platform “H1”  542 , which is tied to processor “CPU1”  546 . The second video service instance  524  is tied to web server instance “W3”  532  and web cam “CAM2”  536 , both of which share a platform instance “H2”  544 , which is tied to processor instance “CPU2”  548 .  
         [0081]    This meta-model approach provides a flexible infrastructure in which users can define specific service models, which are then deployed as service instances. Each deployed instance may correspond to an actively monitored portion of the telecommunications network.  
         [0082]    The parameters for each instance of a service or service component fall into two categories: customer dependent, and customer independent. As customer dependent parameters are determined by the data collector  326  or calculated by the performance data manager  332 , a separate parameter is maintained for each of the customers. Conversely, only one parameter is maintained for each of the customer independent parameters associated with a given instance of a service or service component.  
         [0083]    [0083]FIG. 6 shows the service meta-model in the context of a larger service-level agreement meta-model. Beginning at the lowest level, each service parameter  610  may have one or more service parameter objectives associated with it. A service parameter objective (“SPO”)  616  is a collection of one or more SPO thresholds  618  that specify values against which the service parameter  610  is compared. The SPO thresholds  618  also specify actions to be taken when the objective is violated, and may further specify a degradation factor between zero and one to indicate the degree of impairment associated with that objective violation. The service parameter objective  616  has an objective status that is set to the appropriate degradation factor based on the position of the parameter relative to the specified thresholds. The service parameter objective  616  may further specify a crossing type and a clear value.  
         [0084]    When a crossing type is specified (e.g., upward or downward) by a service parameter objective  616 , the action specified by the SPO threshold  618  is taken only when the parameter value reaches (or passes) the specified threshold value from the appropriate direction. The action may, for example, be the generation of an alarm. When a clear value is specified, the degradation factor for the parameter is set to zero whenever the parameter is on the appropriate side of the clear value.  
         [0085]    The objective statuses of one or more service parameter objectives  616  that are associated with a given service component  608  may be aggregated to determine an objective status for that service component. The method of such an aggregation is defined by a service component objective  614 . Similarly, the objective statuses of service component objectives  614  and service parameter objectives  616  can be aggregated to determine an objective status for the service  606 . The method for this aggregation is defined by a service level objective  612 .  
         [0086]    It is expected that service level objectives  612  may serve one or more of the following purposes. Contractual objectives may be used to check parameter values against contract terms. Operational objectives may be used for pro-active management; i.e., detecting problems early so that they can be corrected before contract terms are violated. Network objectives may be used for simple performance monitoring of systems.  
         [0087]    A service-level agreement (“SLA”) object  602  may be defined to specify one or more service level objectives  612  for one or more services  606 . The SLA object  602  may be uniquely associated with a customer  604 . The SLA object operates to gather the objectives for a given customer together into one object.  
         [0088]    Note that the objects of FIG. 6 may be instantiated multiple times, so that, for example, there may be multiple instances of service  606  with each instance having corresponding instances of the various components, parameters, objectives, and thresholds defined for that service  606 . When this occurs, a service instance group object  605  is added to the model to serve as a common root for the service instances. If a service is instantiated only once, the group object  605  may be omitted.  
         [0089]    [0089]FIG. 7 shows an example of an instantiated video service  724  with parameters and associated parameter objectives. Starting at the bottom, a video application instance  702  has a number-of-bytes-lost parameter. An objective  704  tests whether the number of bytes lost exceeds zero, so that, for example, a warning message may be triggered when bytes start getting lost. A video system component  706  has a processor load parameter. Here, two objectives  708  are associated with the parameter to test whether the parameter value is greater than or equal to 85% and 100%, respectively. One objective might initiate precautionary actions (such as bring another system online), and the other objective might initiate a violation report.  
         [0090]    A video streaming component  710  has an availability parameter that is determined from the parameters of the video application and video system components&#39; parameters. Again, two objectives  712  are associated with the parameter. Note that each of the components is shown with a single parameter solely for clarity, and that in fact, multiple parameters would be typical for each, and each parameter may have zero or more objectives associated with it.  
         [0091]    Similarly, an IP network component  714  has a Used Bandwidth parameter with two objectives  716 , and a web portal component  718  has an availability parameter with two objectives  720 . A video feeder component  722  is shown with a status parameter and no objective. The video service  724  has an availability parameter that is determined from the web portal  718 , IP network  714 , video streaming  710 , and video feeder  722  parameters. Two objectives  726  are associated with the video service availability parameter.  
         [0092]    The meta-model structure allows a customer to negotiate, contract, and monitor services in a well-defined and configurable manner. Evaluation of the parameters is performed by the data collector  326  and the performance data manager  332  in real time, and evaluation of the various parameter, component, and service level objectives is performed concurrently by SLO monitoring component  336 . The GUI component  350  allows users to define service level agreement models, initiate the tracking of service level objectives for those models, and monitor the compliance with those service level objectives in real-time or near-real-time. The flexibility and response time of this model depends largely on the ability of the performance data manager  332  to evaluate model parameters in a timely and reliable manner.  
         [0093]    Service parameters  610  are inter-dependent, meaning that calculation steps are sometimes required to obtain “upper” service parameters from “lower” service parameters. As an example, a state parameter of a given service component (e.g., operational states of DNS components  508 ,  510 ) may be aggregated to obtain the same service parameter (operational state) in upper service components (IP access component  506 ). Interdependence can also occur within a given service component.  
         [0094]    Relational Database  
         [0095]    For performance and scalability, all service parameter calculations are preferably performed in a relational database management system (“RDBMS”) by embedded mechanisms (i.e., stored procedures) instead of a customized dedicated process. In the preferred embodiment, Oracle 9i is employed, which offers enhanced performance of PL/SQL collections, and robust embedded Oracle mechanisms (e.g., triggers, PL/SQL stored procedures). In the preferred embodiment, the service parameter values calculations are performed by action procedures (also called “triggers”).  
         [0096]    Relational databases are based upon tables, in which columns represent fields and rows represent records having a set of corresponding values for each field. In a properly constructed relational database, each table holds information concerning only one entity type. For example, one table may represent parameter values, while another table represents classes of concrete service components, and while yet another table represents instances of the concrete service components. RDBMSs allow users to establish relationships between columns of different tables. So, for example, a user can determine which parameter values are associated with a given instance of a concrete service component. Normally each relationship is accomplished through the use of a “key” column in the related tables that contains a shared value unique to the associated records.  
         [0097]    An action procedure, or “trigger,” is an RDBMS mechanism that operates each time a column value is updated within a table. In Oracle, the triggers may be procedures written in PL/SQL, Java, or C that execute (fire) implicitly whenever a table or view is modified, or when some user actions or database system actions occur.  
         [0098]    The action procedure can implement automatically any desired software processing that depends on the updated cell value. This can lead to updating of other cells in the same table or in other tables, and these updates can in turn trigger further action procedures. This provides a convenient way to automate user-defined procedures without having to: a) build a complex data processing procedure based on data in memory, b) limit the processing to a pre-defined set of expressions, or c) re-compute all results in response to each update.  
         [0099]    The triggers associated to a table column can be used to compute the secondary parameters and/or aggregation values. For the secondary parameter calculations, a trigger may be declared for: 1) each column storing primary parameter values needed to compute a secondary parameter value, and 2) each column storing secondary parameter values needed to compute another secondary parameter value. If a secondary parameter depends on several parameters, triggers may be created on all the columns representing the input parameters.  
         [0100]    The trigger bodies thus compute new parameter values, using parameter calculation expressions given by the service designer. As a trigger cannot modify a mutating table (a mutating table is a table that is currently being modified by an UPDATE, DELETE or INSERT statement), the new parameter values preferably are first stored in a temporary table and then re-injected by the parameter calculation engine into the right table.  
         [0101]    Calculation Expression Modeling and Organization  
         [0102]    The calculation of secondary parameters begins with values given by data feeders  320 . Data collector  326  maps these values to primary parameters. Thereafter, secondary parameters are defined by expressions that may operate on primary and/or other secondary parameters. Expressions have only one output (a service parameter), but potentially have several inputs. Preferably, the expression for a parameter of a given service component can only be defined on primary parameters, those secondary parameters from the given service component, and/or those secondary parameters from service components directly linked to the given service component. This allows for efficient algorithm modularization.  
         [0103]    As explained above, the services are modeled using UML which mainly models classes and interactions between objects. If the “structural” part of the model (i.e., the definition of the services, components, etc.) is represented in UML, it is highly desirable to represent the “behavioral” part of the model (i.e., how the parameters are linked together) also in UML because these two parts are closely linked together. A problem that is encountered, however, is how to model calculation expressions which specify how the parameters are linked together. UML does not model expressions per se.  
         [0104]    In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, calculation expressions are modeled using UML “sequence diagrams.” A sequence diagram is an interaction diagram that focuses on the time-ordering of messages. Sequence diagrams have two dimensions. Typically, time is on one dimension and various instances of objects are on the other dimension.  
         [0105]    Preferably, expressions are defined as operations on a global utility class “Expression” or on an associated parent class or classes, as shown in FIG. 9. The expression class  650  defines one or more expressions such as the assignment, difference, addition, minimum, maximum and summation expressions shown in FIG. 9. Additional, or different, expressions can be included and the particular set of expressions represented is not particularly significant. This scheme allows adding external packages of expressions. A sequence diagram can then be constructed for each service class or service component showing the class itself, the “expression” class and all classes in relation to the service class or service component. Service designers then can graphically define their expressions as shown in FIG. 10.  
         [0106]    [0106]FIG. 10 shows an exemplary sequence diagram  400 . In this diagram, time flows along the vertical dimension. As shown, the diagram includes a plurality of objects  402  which include video, IP Access, WebServer and WebCam objects which correspond to the services and service components shown in FIG. 5A. The vertical dashed lines  404  represent “lifelines” which represent the life of a given object. Each thin vertically oriented rectangle  406  is a “focus of control” which shows the period of time during which a given object has control.  
         [0107]    Calculation expressions can be seen as “constraints” between parameters, where as UML sequence diagrams show interactions between objects. Such interactions in sequence diagrams are ordered with respect to time. A sequence diagram can be used to represent a “constraint” by the interactions necessary to evaluate it. As such, sequence diagrams are preferred for representing expressions because they can be used to specify the sequence of operations that are used to evaluate expressions. FIG. 10 shows two examples of the use of a sequence diagram.  
         [0108]    The assignment expression preferably causes one parameter to be assigned to another parameter. In the upper part of the sequence diagram, an assignment method is invoked to the expression class to cause the number of video downloads (“NbVideoDownLoads”) to be retrieved from a GEN SQL data feeder  410 . This value is then returned to Video as the NbDownloadedMovies value.  
         [0109]    Referring still to FIG. 10, a minimum expression  420  is shown which causes three methods  422 ,  424 , and  426  to be invoked on the IPAccess, WebServer and WebCam objects. The three methods  422 - 426  retrieve the operational state attribute from IPAccess, then retrieve the operational state from WebServer and finally the operational state from WebCam. The minimum of these values is determined and this minimum value is returned as the OperationalState of Video.  
         [0110]    By using sequence diagrams, the task of editing calculation expressions in UML is relatively straightforward. Further, semantic checking of the expression is possible and, if desired, automatic in UML editors (e.g., Rational Rose). Semantic checking refers to checking the existence of a parameter in its class, and checking the consistency of the types of the parameters in the expressions. Calculation expressions defined in sequence diagrams are semantically valid in UML when (1) the service, service components and data feeders they are using are defined in the model (class diagram), (2) the parameters they are using are defined in the correct service, service components or data feeders, and (3) the calculation operation is defined in the class “expression.” All of this can be checked with most UML editors such as Rational Rose.  
         [0111]    Using sequence diagrams to represent calculation expressions offers the following benefits. First, the representation is UML-compliant thereby reducing development time and cost. Second, expressions can be visually represented. Third, editing the expressions is simplified. Consistency checking is made relatively easy and straightforward. Fourth, complex service definition is possible and lastly, reverse engineering is made possible. As the service model is 100% UML, it can be used by all UML compliant tools (editors, repositories, etc.). There are standard protocols and formats (such as XML and MOF) to exchange a UML model between applications.  
         [0112]    The parameter calculations are preferably performed by defining action procedures on parameter tables. Service parameter expressions are preferably coded in either Java or in PL/SQL, and stored in a separate table. One advantage of doing this is that each of these calculation procedures will be re-useable once created. Indeed if the same function is needed elsewhere, it can just be referenced; no heavy code duplication will be required.  
         [0113]    The data flow model employed by manager  332  is shown in FIG. 8. The primary parameters are stored in temporary storage  802  and permanent storage  334 . The calculation engine  804  operates on the parameters in temporary storage to determine secondary parameters, which eventually are also placed in permanent storage. There may be multiple calculation engines  804  in operation.  
         [0114]    Other mechanisms besides triggers may be employed. PL/SQL (Oracle&#39;s procedural extension of SQL) offers the possibility of manipulating whole collections of data, and treating related but dissimilar data as a logical unit. This possibility may simplify aggregation calculations, and reduce the number of triggers fired in a calculation update.  
         [0115]    In one embodiment, calculations are performed periodically, so that, e.g., the parameters are updated once every five minutes. In the preferred embodiment, a parameter value change triggers a calculation update for all parameters affected by the changed parameter. The change propagates until all affected parameters are updated. Database triggers may be used to implement this second embodiment. In either case, the new parameter values are stored in the database  334  after the completion of the update. A mixture of both methods may be used with parameters affected by frequent updates being calculated on a scheduling basis, and infrequently-updated parameters being updated by triggered propagation.  
         [0116]    Before the model is put into operation, it is validated to ensure compliance with various rules. First, it is verified that all parameters expressions are specified on defined service component associations. For a given association between service components, it is verified that all the expressions operate in the same direction (i.e., the output parameters of these expressions are to the same service component). This allows a unique determination of the service component hierarchy. Next, it is verified that there are no cycles in the service component hierarchy. Verification that the input and output parameters are well defined is also done. Consistency of input and output data types is verified.  
         [0117]    The disclosed system allows the service provider to define without software development new service models and to deploy these services on the fly without any monitoring interruption. The system collects, aggregates, correlates, and merges information end-to-end across the entire service operator&#39;s network, from the Radio Access Network to the Application and Content servers (such as Web Servers, e-mail, and file servers). It translates operational data into customer and service level information. The system supports continuous service improvement by capturing service level information for root cause analysis, trending and reporting. Services are monitored in real-time by defining thresholds. If a service level deviates from a committed level, the system can forward a QoS alarm to the alarm handling application.  
         [0118]    Numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.