Patent ID: 8073721

Claim:
A method for providing service level management, comprising: providing a service over a network having a plurality of network components that support the service, wherein performance of the service depends upon performances of the plurality of network components that support the service, and wherein the service has a service parameter that represents the performance of the service; monitoring, on a computing device, a plurality of component parameters for the plurality of network components that support the service, wherein the plurality of component parameters measure the performances of the plurality of network components that support the service; mapping, on the computing device, the plurality of component parameters monitored for the plurality of network components to the service parameter that represents the performance of the service, wherein the service parameter mapped to the plurality of component parameters has a value that indicates whether the service conforms to an agreed upon service level identified in a service level agreement; executing, on the computing device, one or more data mining algorithms to discover a subset of the plurality of component parameters that have a most influence on the service parameter, wherein the discovered subset includes more than one of the plurality of component parameters having the most influence on the service parameter; identifying, on the computing device, a function that takes one or more input arguments corresponding to the subset of the plurality of component parameters having the most influence on the service parameter and infers the value for the service parameter from the one or more input arguments to provide a many-to-one mapping between the subset of the plurality of component parameters and the value for the service parameter; monitoring, on the computing device, the subset of the plurality of component parameters that have the most influence on the service parameter; and determining, on the computing device, whether the service conforms to the agreed upon service level identified in the service level agreement from the monitored subset of the plurality of component parameters, wherein determining whether the service conforms to the agreed upon service level includes: providing, on the computing device, values for the monitored subset of the plurality of component parameters as the one or more input arguments to the function that provides the many-to-one mapping between the subset of the plurality of component parameters and the value for the service parameter; inferring, on the computing device, the value for the service parameter from the monitored values for the subset of the plurality of component parameters provided as the one or more input arguments to the function; and determining, on the computing device, whether the inferred value for the service parameter indicates that the service conforms to the agreed upon service level identified in the service level agreement.