A novel architecture for active service management

Future multiservice networks will be extremely large and complex. In this environment, Active Services will be needed to enable the rapid service evolution demanded by users. Active services also enable service management to be delegated to network users as a large set of independent small-scale management systems, thus minimising management costs. However, novel management solutions will be required to enable efficient multi-user management of the sites where the active services are run. We present an architecture for management of a network offering active services, which uses a combination of policies and adaptive algorithms to enable multi-user management of network based service components.