OSLAM: Towards ontology-based SLA management for IPTV services

Abstract

IPTV is emerging as a new service that can be very lucrative for telecommunication service providers. In addition, work is progressing to make IPTV an entertainment platform that can replace traditional TV for customers. Guaranteeing service quality is one of the most important factors to make IPTV services successful. For this, an IPTV service provider and a customer make a contract that uses specific quality indicators in a Service Level Agreement (SLA). To efficiently manage and guarantee SLAs, a method is required that can manage all hierarchical performance indicators from raw device level performance indicators to key quality indicators. In this paper, we analyze various IPTV performance indicators from various standard organizations and suggest an IPTV performance indicator hierarchy by extending the DEN-ng information model. Then, we propose an architecture that uses an ontology and Semantic Web Rule Language to manage SLAs, and more specifically, to detect SLA violations. The proposed architecture is implemented and tested using a simple scenario. The test results showed a possibility that the architecture can be used for detecting SLA violations.