Cadenus: creation and deployment of end-user services in premium IP networks

Current trends in the information and communications technology industry clearly indicate the existence of a business requirement for a market-enabling technology that allows network operators to interact with users in a seamless, transparent manner for the sale and delivery of a wide range of services with guaranteed quality of service. In this context the need arises for the dynamic creation, configuration and delivery of services with QoS guarantees via the automated management of service level agreements. The aim of the Cadenus project is to bring theoretical and practical contributions to this area by defining a framework for the provisioning of advanced communication services in premium IP networks. Such networks might be characterized by a high degree of complexity, in terms not only of scale, but also of number of operators and technological heterogeneity. Our contribution is twofold, comprising both the design of the proposed framework and its actual implementation. An innovative approach was taken to framework design, based on the concept of mediation. With respect to the framework implementation, an example illustrating the realization of a virtual private network scenario is presented.