4WARD

This D4.1 Definition of Scenarios and Use Cases for In-Network Management is the first deliverable coming out of the In-Network Management work package of 4WARD. It describes a core set of scenarios and use case that will guide the further work performed in the work package.
The goal of In-Network Management is to overcome limitations of traditional network management: it is developing engineering principles for automated configuration management, but also real-time monitoring functions that trigger adaptation of configuration. In-Network Management will support future large-scale networks that self-configure, dynamically adapt to external events and allow for low-cost operation. Its key idea is that management stations outside the network delegate management tasks to a self-organizing management plane inside the network.
In order to kick-off the work on In-Network Management a problem-driven approach has been adopted. As starting point for the research concrete scenarios and use cases have been selected that allow for a fundamental analysis of management problems encountered in the future Internet.
The four scenarios that have been selected highlight the wide range of challenges. They address self-management in wireless multi-hop networks, network management for a large operator network, management needs of home network environments, and management strategies availability under extreme conditions like catastrophes and natural disasters. For each scenario major use cases have been identified that analyse in more detail and on a concrete level the specific problems of that particular environment.
Based on the scenarios, evaluation criteria are derived that provide guidance for the follow-up activities in the work package and also offer the opportunity of a common ground for the cooperation between the other project work packages to help in the integration into a coherent overall framework of the various tracks of research performed by 4WARD.

This D2.1 is one of the 1st public deliverables of 4WARD [pdf] and it describes the technical requirements for a family of future global communication networks (referred to as “4WARD Framework” throughout the document), with the potential to supersede current telecommunication networks as well as the current “internet” in the long run, as identified in the first phase of the FP7 project “4WARD”.

First, the document describes briefly the mission and objectives of the project and the future network technology research areas in the work packages; as well as the followed methodology to collect the views from the different work packages. Then the aspects and the guidelines from the main non-technical perspectives (usage and services; socio-economics; regulation, governance and policy) are discussed. Based on those considerations, the overall technical requirements are derived and related to the views of the different technology areas as well as of the vertical technical themes (mobility, security, quality of service, inter-provider issues, and physical layer awareness). The detailed requirements are listed in the annex of the document.
The overall technical requirements for the 4WARD Framework listed in this document shall serve as a mandatory benchmark for the research directions and results expected by the project 4WARD, i.e. for the further design of specific 4WARD Networks, and may give useful guidelines for any activities towards a “Future Internet”.
The non-technical concerns are focusing on the expected demand created by new innovative services and applications, not only for a growing world population but also in a world of “connected things”. Special considerations have been given to the aspects of sustainability, awareness of environmental aspects, usability for everybody, and overcoming the shortages of the current internet concerning security, privacy vs. governance and control.

The technical requirements derived thereof are grouped around the following topics:
• services and application support for an information-centric network, covering also quality of services issues and usability
• mobility and wireless awareness,
• availability, scalability and extensibility
• interoperability, self-management, virtualisation
• security and privacy.
With this set of requirements as a starting point, further iterations during the design of specific 4WARD Networks will have to deal with an appropriate selection of these requirements still guaranteeing interoperability of dependent 4WARD Networks under the overall mission.

Summary of 4WARD

Today’s network architectures are stifling innovation, restricting it mostly to the application level while the need for structural change is increasingly evident. The absence of adequate facilities to design, optimize and interoperate new networks currently forces a convergence to an architecture that is suboptimal for many applications and that cannot support innovations within itself, the Internet. 4WARD overcomes this impasse through a set of radical architectural approaches built on our strong mobile and wireless background. 4WARD will improve the ability to design inter-operable and complementary families of network architectures. 4WARD enables the co-existence of multiple networks on common platforms through carrier-grade virtualization for networking resources. 4WARD will enhance the utility of networks by making them self-managing. 4WARD will increase their robustness and efficiency by leveraging diversity. Finally 4WARD will improve application support by a new information-centric paradigm in place of the old host-centric approach. These solutions will embrace the full range of technologies, from fibre backbones to wireless and sensor networks.

In this project the TSSG is working on two specific research themes. One is towards the architecture where the TSSG is developing an integrated framework to represent, design, implement and operate network architectures that all belong to a common family of interoperable network instances.

The second is towards in-network management were we are devising an embedded "default-on" management capability which is an inseparable part of the network itself. This capability will generate extra value in terms of guaranteed performance in a cost effective way, and will enable the networks to adjust themselves to different sizes, configurations and external conditions.

4WARD is currently Running and is funded by the European Union FP7 ICT work programme, under Call 1 to a total of €14.5 million euro. The project started in January of 2008 and will end in February 2010.

TSSG contact details
For more information contact miguelpdl@tssg.org or visit the TSSG website at http://4ward.tssg.org or the 4WARD website at http://www.4ward-project.eu/.

Tel: +353 51 302952
Tel: +353 51 302900
Fax: + 353 51 302901