Modèle de confiance et ontologie probabiliste pilotés par réseaux bayésiens pour la gestion des accords de services dans l’environnement de services infonuagiques

L’infonuage est un nouveau paradigme de services informatiques disponibles à la demande qui a connu une croissance fulgurante au cours de ces dix dernières années. Le fournisseur du modèle de déploiement public des services infonuagiques décrit le service à fournir, le prix, les pénalités en cas de violation des spécifications à travers un document. Ce document s’appelle le contrat de niveau de service (SLA). La signature de ce contrat par le client et le fournisseur scelle la garantie de la qualité de service à recevoir. Ceci impose au fournisseur de gérer efficacement ses ressources afin de respecter ses engagements. Malheureusement, la violation des spécifications du SLA se révèle courante, généralement en raison de l’incertitude sur le comportement du client qui peut produire un nombre variable de requêtes vu que les ressources lui semblent illimitées. Ce comportement peut, dans un premier temps, avoir un impact direct sur la disponibilité du service. Dans un second temps, des violations à répétition risquent d'influer sur le niveau de confiance du fournisseur et sur sa réputation à respecter ses engagements. Pour faire face à ces problèmes, nous avons proposé un cadre d’applications piloté par réseau bayésien qui permet, premièrement, de classifier les fournisseurs dans un répertoire en fonction de leur niveau de confiance. Celui-ci peut être géré par une entité tierce. Un client va choisir un fournisseur dans ce répertoire avant de commencer à négocier le SLA. Deuxièmement, nous avons développé une ontologie probabiliste basée sur un réseau bayésien à entités multiples pouvant tenir compte de l’incertitude et anticiper les violations par inférence. Cette ontologie permet de faire des prédictions afin de prévenir des violations en se basant sur les données historiques comme base de connaissances. Les résultats obtenus montrent l’efficacité de l’ontologie probabiliste pour la prédiction de violation dans l’ensemble des paramètres SLA appliqués dans un environnement infonuagique.

Automatische Dienstvermittlung in dienstorientierten Architekturen

Die Technologie dienstorientierter Architekturen (Service-oriented Architectures, kurz SOA) weckt große Visionen auf Seiten der Industrie wie auch der Forschung. Sie hat sich als derzeit ideale Lösung für Umgebungen, in denen sich die Anforderungen an die IT-Bedürfnisse rapide ändern, erwiesen. Heutige IT-Systeme müssen Managementaufgaben wie Softwareinstallation, -anpassung oder -austausch erlauben, ohne dabei den laufenden Betrieb wesentlich zu stören. Die dafür nötige Flexibilität bieten dienstorientierte Architekturen, in denen Softwarekomponenten in Form von Diensten zur Verfügung stehen. Ein Dienst bietet über seine Schnittstelle lokalen wie entfernten Applikationen einen Zugang zu seiner Funktionalität. Wir betrachten im Folgenden nur solche dienstorientierte Architekturen, in denen Dienste zur Laufzeit dynamisch entdeckt, gebunden, komponiert, verhandelt und adaptiert werden können. Eine Applikation kann mit unterschiedlichen Diensten arbeiten, wenn beispielsweise Dienste ausfallen oder ein neuer Dienst die Anforderungen der Applikation besser erfüllt. Eine unserer Grundvoraussetzungen lautet somit, dass sowohl das Dienstangebot als auch die Nachfrageseite variabel sind. Dienstorientierte Architekturen haben besonderes Gewicht in der Implementierung von Geschäftsprozessen. Im Rahmen des Paradigmas Enterprise Integration Architecture werden einzelne Arbeitsschritte als Dienste implementiert und ein Geschäftsprozess als Workflow von Diensten ausgeführt. Eine solche Dienstkomposition wird auch Orchestration genannt. Insbesondere für die so genannte B2B-Integration (Business-to-Business) sind Dienste das probate Mittel, um die Kommunikation über die Unternehmensgrenzen hinaus zu unterstützen. Dienste werden hier in der Regel als Web Services realisiert, welche vermöge BPEL4WS orchestriert werden. Der XML-basierte Nachrichtenverkehr und das http-Protokoll sorgen für eine Verträglichkeit zwischen heterogenen Systemen und eine Transparenz des Nachrichtenverkehrs. Anbieter dieser Dienste versprechen sich einen hohen Nutzen durch ihre öffentlichen Dienste. Zum einen hofft man auf eine vermehrte Einbindung ihrer Dienste in Softwareprozesse. Zum anderen setzt man auf das Entwickeln neuer Software auf Basis ihrer Dienste. In der Zukunft werden hunderte solcher Dienste verfügbar sein und es wird schwer für den Entwickler passende Dienstangebote zu finden. Das Projekt ADDO hat in diesem Umfeld wichtige Ergebnisse erzielt. Im Laufe des Projektes wurde erreicht, dass der Einsatz semantischer Spezifikationen es ermöglicht, Dienste sowohl im Hinblick auf ihre funktionalen als auch ihre nicht-funktionalen Eigenschaften, insbesondere die Dienstgüte, automatisch zu sichten und an Dienstaggregate zu binden [15]. Dazu wurden Ontologie-Schemata [10, 16], Abgleichalgorithmen [16, 9] und Werkzeuge entwickelt und als Framework implementiert [16]. Der in diesem Rahmen entwickelte Abgleichalgorithmus für Dienstgüte beherrscht die automatische Aushandlung von Verträgen für die Dienstnutzung, um etwa kostenpflichtige Dienste zur Dienstnutzung einzubinden. ADDO liefert einen Ansatz, Schablonen für Dienstaggregate in BPEL4WS zu erstellen, die zur Laufzeit automatisch verwaltet werden. Das Vorgehen konnte seine Effektivität beim internationalen Wettbewerb Web Service Challenge 2006 in San Francisco unter Beweis stellen: Der für ADDO entwickelte Algorithmus zur semantischen Dienstkomposition erreichte den ersten Platz. Der Algorithmus erlaubt es, unter einer sehr großenMenge angebotener Dienste eine geeignete Auswahl zu treffen, diese Dienste zu Dienstaggregaten zusammenzufassen und damit die Funktionalität eines vorgegebenen gesuchten Dienstes zu leisten. Weitere Ergebnisse des Projektes ADDO wurden auf internationalen Workshops und Konferenzen veröffentlicht. [12, 11]

Managing ServerHotel

This graduate study was assigned by Unisys Oy Ab. The purpose of this study was to find tools to monitor and manage servers and objects in a hosting environment and to remotely connect to the managed objects. Better solutions for promised services were also researched. Unisys provides a ServerHotel service to other businesses which do not have time or resources to manage their own network, servers or applications. Contracts are based on a Service Level Agreement where service level is agreed upon according to the customer's needs. These needs have created a demand for management tools. Unisys wanted to find the most appropriate tools for its hosting environment to fulfill the agreed service level with reasonable costs. The theory consists of literary research focusing on general agreements used in the Finnish IT business, different types of monitoring and management tools and the common protocols used inthem. The theory focuses mainly on the central elements of the above mentioned topics and on their positive and negative features. The second part of the study focuses on general hosting agreements and what management tools Unisys has selected for hosting and why. It also gives a more detailed account of the hosting environment and its features in more detail. Because of the results of the study Unisys decided to use Servers Alive to monitor network and MS applications’ services. Cacti was chosen to monitor disk spaces, which gives us an idea of future disk growth. For remote connections the Microsoft’s Remote Desktop tool was the mostappropriate when the connection was tunneled through Secure Shell (SSH). Finding proper tools for the intended purposes with cost-conscious financial resources proved challenging. This study showed that if required, it is possible to build a professional hosting environment.

Garanzie del servizio in ambienti di cloud computing: uno studio sperimentale

Nel corso di questa tesi analizzeremo che cos'è il cloud computing, illustrando i contratti di service level agreement e le soluzioni presenti nel mercato.

Studio ed analisi sulle norme adottate per l'erogazione di servizi di Cloud Computing

Viene analizzato il Cloud Computing, il suo utilizzo, i vari tipi di modelli di servizio. L'attenzione poi vira sul SLA (Service Level Agreement), contratti stipulati tra il provider e l'utente affinchè il servizio venga utilizzato al meglio e in modo sicuro rispettando le norme.Infine vengono analizzati la sicurezza, la privacy e l'accountability nel Cloud.

Dynamic Optimization of SLA-Based Services Scaling Rules

Current advanced cloud infrastructure management solutions allow scheduling actions for dynamically changing the number of running virtual machines (VMs). This approach, however, does not guarantee that the scheduled number of VMs will properly handle the actual user generated workload, especially if the user utilization patterns will change. We propose using a dynamically generated scaling model for the VMs containing the services of the distributed applications, which is able to react to the variations in the number of application users. We answer the following question: How to dynamically decide how many services of each type are needed in order to handle a larger workload within the same time constraints? We describe a mechanism for dynamically composing the SLAs for controlling the scaling of distributed services by combining data analysis mechanisms with application benchmarking using multiple VM configurations. Based on processing of multiple application benchmarks generated data sets we discover a set of service monitoring metrics able to predict critical Service Level Agreement (SLA) parameters. By combining this set of predictor metrics with a heuristic for selecting the appropriate scaling-out paths for the services of distributed applications, we show how SLA scaling rules can be inferred and then used for controlling the runtime scale-in and scale-out of distributed services. We validate our architecture and models by performing scaling experiments with a distributed application representative for the enterprise class of information systems. We show how dynamically generated SLAs can be successfully used for controlling the management of distributed services scaling.

Improving Management of Distributed Services Using Correlations and Predictions in SLA-Driven Cloud Computing Systems

Recent advancements in cloud computing have enabled the proliferation of distributed applications, which require management and control of multiple services. However, without an efficient mechanism for scaling services in response to changing environmental conditions and number of users, application performance might suffer, leading to Service Level Agreement (SLA) violations and inefficient use of hardware resources. We introduce a system for controlling the complexity of scaling applications composed of multiple services using mechanisms based on fulfillment of SLAs. We present how service monitoring information can be used in conjunction with service level objectives, predictions, and correlations between performance indicators for optimizing the allocation of services belonging to distributed applications. We validate our models using experiments and simulations involving a distributed enterprise information system. We show how discovering correlations between application performance indicators can be used as a basis for creating refined service level objectives, which can then be used for scaling the application and improving the overall application's performance under similar conditions.

SLA-Driven Simulation of Multi-Tenant Scalable Cloud-Distributed Enterprise Information Systems

Cloud Computing is an enabler for delivering large-scale, distributed enterprise applications with strict requirements in terms of performance. It is often the case that such applications have complex scaling and Service Level Agreement (SLA) management requirements. In this paper we present a simulation approach for validating and comparing SLA-aware scaling policies using the CloudSim simulator, using data from an actual Distributed Enterprise Information System (dEIS). We extend CloudSim with concurrent and multi-tenant task simulation capabilities. We then show how different scaling policies can be used for simulating multiple dEIS applications. We present multiple experiments depicting the impact of VM scaling on both datacenter energy consumption and dEIS performance indicators.

Diseño y configuración de una red de comunicaciones en un Centro de Contactos - Contact Center

Este proyecto muestra una solución de red para una empresa que presta servicios de Contact Center desde distintas sedes distribuidas geográficamente, utilizando la tecnología de telefonía sobre IP. El objetivo de este proyecto es el de convertirse en una guía de diseño para el despliegue de soluciones de red utilizando los actuales equipos de comunicaciones desarrollados por el fabricante Cisco Systems, Inc., los equipos de seguridad desarrollados por el fabricante Fortinet y los sistemas de telefonía desarrollados por Avaya Inc. y Oracle Corporation, debido a su gran penetración en el mercado y a las aportaciones que cada uno ha realizado en el sector de Contact Center. Para poder proveer interconexión entre las sedes de un Contact Center se procede a la contratación de un acceso a la red MPLS perteneciente a un operador de telecomunicaciones, quien provee conectividad entre las sedes utilizando la tecnología VPN MPLS con dos accesos diversificados entre sí desde cada una de las sedes del Contact Center. El resultado de esta contratación es el aprovechamiento de las ventajas que un operador de telecomunicaciones puede ofrecer a sus clientes, en relación a calidad de servicio, disponibilidad y expansión geográfica. De la misma manera, se definen una serie de criterios o niveles de servicio que aseguran a un Contact Center una comunicación de calidad entre sus sedes, entendiéndose por comunicación de calidad aquella que sea capaz de transmitirse con unos valores mínimos de pérdida de paquetes así como retraso en la transmisión, y una velocidad acorde a la demanda de los servicios de voz y datos. Como parte de la solución, se diseña una conexión redundante a Internet que proporciona acceso a todas las sedes del Contact Center. La solución de conectividad local en cada una de las sedes de un Contact Center se ha diseñado de manera general acorde al volumen de puestos de usuarios y escalabilidad que pueda tener cada una de las sedes. De esta manera se muestran varias opciones asociadas al equipamiento actual que ofrece el fabricante Cisco Systems, Inc.. Como parte de la solución se han definido los criterios de calidad para la elección de los Centros de Datos (Data Center). Un Contact Center tiene conexiones hacia o desde las empresas cliente a las que da servicio y provee de acceso a la red a sus tele-trabajadores. Este requerimiento junto con el acceso y servicios publicados en Internet necesita una infraestructura de seguridad. Este hecho da lugar al diseño de una solución que unifica todas las conexiones bajo una única infraestructura, dividiendo de manera lógica o virtual cada uno de los servicios. De la misma manera, se ha definido la utilización de protocolos como 802.1X para evitar accesos no autorizados a la red del Contact Center. La solución de voz elegida es heterogénea y capaz de soportar los protocolos de señalización más conocidos (SIP y H.323). De esta manera se busca tener la máxima flexibilidad para establecer enlaces de voz sobre IP (Trunk IP) con proveedores y clientes. Esto se logra gracias a la utilización de SBCs y a una infraestructura interna de voz basada en el fabricante Avaya Inc. Los sistemas de VoIP en un Contact Center son los elementos clave para poder realizar la prestación del servicio; por esta razón se elige una solución redundada bajo un entorno virtual. Esta solución permite desplegar el sistema de VoIP desde cualquiera de los Data Center del Contact Center. La solución llevada a cabo en este proyecto está principalmente basada en mi experiencia laboral adquirida durante los últimos siete años en el departamento de comunicaciones de una empresa de Contact Center. He tenido en cuenta los principales requerimientos que exigen hoy en día la mayor parte de empresas que desean contratar un servicio de Contact Center. Este proyecto está dividido en cuatro capítulos. El primer capítulo es una introducción donde se explican los principales escenarios de negocio y áreas técnicas necesarias para la prestación de servicios de Contact Center. El segundo capítulo describe de manera resumida, las principales tecnologías y protocolos que serán utilizados para llevar a cabo el diseño de la solución técnica de creación de una red de comunicaciones para una empresa de Contact Center. En el tercer capítulo se expone la solución técnica necesaria para permitir que una empresa de Contact Center preste sus servicios desde distintas ubicaciones distribuidas geográficamente, utilizando dos Data Centers donde se centralizan las aplicaciones de voz y datos. Finalmente, en el cuarto capítulo se presentan las conclusiones obtenidas tras la elaboración de la presente memoria, así como una propuesta de trabajos futuros, que permitirían junto con el proyecto actual, realizar una solución técnica completa incluyendo otras áreas tecnológicas necesarias en una empresa de Contact Center. Todas las ilustraciones y tablas de este proyecto son de elaboración propia a partir de mi experiencia profesional y de la información obtenida en diversos formatos de la bibliografía consultada, excepto en los casos en los que la fuente es mencionada. ABSTRACT This project shows a network solution for a company that provides Contact Center services from different locations geographically distributed, using the Telephone over Internet Protocol (ToIP) technology. The goal of this project is to become a design guide for performing network solutions using current communications equipment developed by the manufacturer Cisco Systems, Inc., firewalls developed by the manufacturer Fortinet and telephone systems developed by Avaya Inc. and Oracle Corporation, due to their great market reputation and their contributions that each one has made in the field of Contact Center. In order to provide interconnection between its different sites, the Contact Center needs to hire the services of a telecommunications’ operator, who will use the VPN MPLS technology, with two diversified access from each Contact Center’s site. The result of this hiring is the advantage of the benefits that a telecommunications operator can offer to its customers, regarding quality of service, availability and geographical expansion. Likewise, Service Level Agreement (SLA) has to be defined to ensure the Contact Center quality communication between their sites. A quality communication is understood as a communication that is capable of being transmitted with minimum values of packet loss and transmission delays, and a speed according to the demand for its voice and data services. As part of the solution, a redundant Internet connection has to be designed to provide access to every Contact Center’s site. The local connectivity solution in each of the Contact Center’s sites has to be designed according to its volume of users and scalability that each one may have. Thereby, the manufacturer Cisco Systems, Inc. offers several options associated with the current equipment. As part of the solution, quality criteria are being defined for the choice of the Data Centers. A Contact Center has connections to/from the client companies that provide network access to teleworkers. This requires along the access and services published on the Internet, needs a security infrastructure. Therefore is been created a solution design that unifies all connections under a single infrastructure, dividing each services in a virtual way. Likewise, is been defined the use of protocols, such as 802.1X, to prevent unauthorized access to the Contact Center’s network. The voice solution chosen is heterogeneous and capable of supporting best-known signaling protocols (SIP and H.323) in order to have maximum flexibility to establish links of Voice over IP (IP Trunk) with suppliers and clients. This can be achieved through the use of SBC and an internal voice infrastructure based on Avaya Inc. The VoIP systems in a Contact Center are the key elements to be able to provide the service; for this reason a redundant solution under virtual environment is been chosen. This solution allows any of the Data Centers to deploy the VoIP system. The solution carried out in this project is mainly based on my own experience acquired during the past seven years in the communications department of a Contact Center company. I have taken into account the main requirements that most companies request nowadays when they hire a Contact Center service. This project is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is an introduction that explains the main business scenarios and technical areas required to provide Contact Center services. The second chapter describes briefly the key technologies and protocols that will be used to carry out the design of the technical solution for the creation of a communications network in a Contact Center company. The third chapter shows a technical solution required that allows a Contact Center company to provide services from across geographically distributed locations, using two Data Centers where data and voice applications are centralized. Lastly, the fourth chapter includes the conclusions gained after making this project, as well as a future projects proposal, which would allow along the current project, to perform a whole technical solution including other necessary technologic areas in a Contact Center company All illustrations and tables of this project have been made by myself from my professional experience and the information obtained in various formats of the bibliography, except in the cases where the source is indicated.

Dirección estratégica de la asignatura Dirección Estratégica de las Tecnologías de la Información

¿Se pueden utilizar las habilidades, las técnicas y los principios de la dirección estratégica en el diseño y ejecución de la programación docente de una asignatura? Esta es la pregunta que nos planteamos al diseñar la asignatura Dirección Estratégica de las Tecnologías de la Información perteneciente al Máster Universitario en Ingeniería Informática de la Universidad de Alicante. Estas técnicas las aplicaremos a aspectos clave de la innovación educativa: contrato pedagógico, objetivos, evaluación, trabajo en equipo y comunicación oral. Algunas de las propuestas innovadoras, que tienen el doble objetivo de ser un instrumento de la asignatura pero al mismo tiempo recoger aspectos de dirección y de mejora continua, son el SLA (“Service Level Agreement”) de aprendizaje, las actas de aprendizaje, el análisis de tendencias en las TI y el espacio para la creatividad. Tras dos cursos académicos de ajuste de la propuesta docente, en el curso 2014-2015 hemos analizado el nivel de satisfacción de los estudiantes con la misma y la autoevaluación crítica de los profesores que la han impartido. Los resultados han sido muy satisfactorios, con comentarios del estilo “ha sido una experiencia de aprendizaje efectivo”. Los estudiantes agradecen que los profesores prediquemos con el ejemplo. Nos hace más humanos y más creíbles.

SLA-Based Guidelines for Database Transitioning

Component-based Software Engineering (CBSE) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) became popular ways to develop software over the last years. During the life-cycle of a software system, several components and services can be developed, evolved and replaced. In production environments, the replacement of core components, such as databases, is often a risky and delicate operation, where several factors and stakeholders should be considered. Service Level Agreement (SLA), according to ITILv3’s official glossary, is “an agreement between an IT service provider and a customer. The agreement consists on a set of measurable constraints that a service provider must guarantee to its customers.”. In practical terms, SLA is a document that a service provider delivers to its consumers with minimum quality of service (QoS) metrics.This work is intended to assesses and improve the use of SLAs to guide the transitioning process of databases on production environments. In particular, in this work we propose SLA-Based Guidelines/Process to support migrations from a relational database management system (RDBMS) to a NoSQL one. Our study is validated by case studies.

Extensões na arquitetura SDN para o provisionamento de QoS através do monitoramento e uso de múltiplos caminhos

The substantial increase in the number of applications offered through the computer networks, as well as in the volume of traffic forwarded through the network, have hampered to assure adequate service level to users. The Quality of Service (QoS) offer, honoring specified parameters in Service Level Agreements (SLA), established between the service providers and their clients, composes a traditional and extensive computer networks’ research area. Several schemes proposals for the provision of QoS were presented in the last three decades, but the acting scope of these proposals is always limited due to some factors, including the limited development of the network hardware and software, generally belonging to a single manufacturer. The advent of Software Defined Networking (SDN), along with the maturation of its main materialization, the OpenFlow protocol, allowed the decoupling between network hardware and software, through an architecture which provides a control plane and a data plane. This eases the computer networks scenario, allowing that new abstractions are applied in the hardware composing the data plane, through the development of new software pieces which are executed in the control plane. This dissertation investigates the QoS offer through the use and extension of the SDN architecture. Based on the proposal of two new modules, one to perform the data plane monitoring, SDNMon, and the second, MP-ROUTING, developed to determine the use of multiple paths in the forwarding of data referring to a flow, we demonstrated in this work that some QoS metrics specified in the SLAs, such as bandwidth, can be honored. Both modules were implemented and evaluated through a prototype. The evaluation results referring to several aspects of both proposed modules are presented in this dissertation, showing the obtained accuracy of the monitoring module SDNMon and the QoS gains due to the utilization of multiple paths defined by the MP-Routing, when forwarding data flow through the SDN.

The Views of Young People about an Intervention Programme Designed to Support Them with Exam Related Anxiety and Stress

Both preparing for and sitting exams can be extremely stressful for children and young people. Whilst the research within the area of exam anxiety acknowledges the detrimental impact that it can have on individuals, much of the research has been completed with university students. Limited research has been carried out with children and young people. In addition to this, there is also little research that has been completed in order to understand which interventions are helpful in reducing exam anxiety in young people. The systematic literature review highlighted that much of the research employed quantitative techniques. This means young people’s views and experiences of exam anxiety has largely been unexplored. The EPS service in which the TEP currently works is a partially traded service. Some of the schools that had bought a service level agreement requested support for certain pupils that were experiencing exam anxiety. The EPS service therefore delivered an intervention called ‘beating exam anxiety together’ (further details of this intervention can be found within chapter 1). Seven semi-structured interviews were carried out with GCSE students who took part in the ‘beating exam anxiety together’ intervention. The purpose of the interviews was to understand more about young people’s views on exam anxiety, and also their experiences of the intervention in which they took part. The research highlighted the possible detrimental impact of exam anxiety on young people in terms of their mental health, and also how able they feel to prepare for their exams. The results of the research interestingly showed that young people experience high levels of pressure from school teachers and also their parents. Furthermore, students reported that they didn't know how to revise. The results revealed that young people feel that the way in which exams are spoken about in schools is largely negative. As a result of this, the researcher suggested that it may be helpful to shift the narrative around the way in which exams are currently spoken about. In addition to this, the results indicate that the intervention was largely helpful in improving young people’s well being and their ability to be able to manage exam anxiety.

Radio frequency communication and fault detection for railway signalling

The continuous and swift progression of both wireless and wired communication technologies in today's world owes its success to the foundational systems established earlier. These systems serve as the building blocks that enable the enhancement of services to cater to evolving requirements. Studying the vulnerabilities of previously designed systems and their current usage leads to the development of new communication technologies replacing the old ones such as GSM-R in the railway field. The current industrial research has a specific focus on finding an appropriate telecommunication solution for railway communications that will replace the GSM-R standard which will be switched off in the next years. Various standardization organizations are currently exploring and designing a radiofrequency technology based standard solution to serve railway communications in the form of FRMCS (Future Railway Mobile Communication System) to substitute the current GSM-R. Bearing on this topic, the primary strategic objective of the research is to assess the feasibility to leverage on the current public network technologies such as LTE to cater to mission and safety critical communication for low density lines. The research aims to identify the constraints, define a service level agreement with telecom operators, and establish the necessary implementations to make the system as reliable as possible over an open and public network, while considering safety and cybersecurity aspects. The LTE infrastructure would be utilized to transmit the vital data for the communication of a railway system and to gather and transmit all the field measurements to the control room for maintenance purposes. Given the significance of maintenance activities in the railway sector, the ongoing research includes the implementation of a machine learning algorithm to detect railway equipment faults, reducing time and human analysis errors due to the large volume of measurements from the field.

Media Brokerage: Agent-Based SLA Negotiation

Media content personalisation is a major challenge involving viewers as well as media content producer and distributor businesses. The goal is to provide viewers with media items aligned with their interests. Producers and distributors engage in item negotiations to establish the corresponding service level agreements (SLA). In order to address automated partner lookup and item SLA negotiation, this paper proposes the MultiMedia Brokerage (MMB) platform, which is a multiagent system that negotiates SLA regarding media items on behalf of media content producer and distributor businesses. The MMB platform is structured in four service layers: interface, agreement management, business modelling and market. In this context, there are: (i) brokerage SLA (bSLA), which are established between individual businesses and the platform regarding the provision of brokerage services; and (ii) item SLA (iSLA), which are established between producer and distributor businesses about the provision of media items. In particular, this paper describes the negotiation, establishment and enforcement of bSLA and iSLA, which occurs at the agreement and negotiation layers, respectively. The platform adopts a pay-per-use business model where the bSLA define the general conditions that apply to the related iSLA. To illustrate this process, we present a case study describing the negotiation of a bSLA instance and several related iSLA instances. The latter correspond to the negotiation of the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for a specific end viewer.