The design of an Autonomic Element for managing emerging networks and services

Next generation networks, as well as the future Internet, aim to provide context-sensitive business services that adapt to changing user needs, business goals, and environmental conditions. This paper describes the composition of an autonomic element, as a fundamental part of an autonomic architecture, which uses information models and semantics to link the business services with the services provided by the underlying network devices. This linkage is inherently context-aware, and allows context changes to determine the impact of changes in the network towards business services and vice versa. The described autonomic element is a programmable toolbox supporting the clean-slate approach as well as evolutionary approaches for the future Internet.