Towards autonomic service control in next generation networks

Current standardization efforts aim towards a unifying platform for fixed and mobile telecommunication services. The IP multimedia subsystem is advocated as the candidate for building next generation networks (NGNs). However the direction taken in standardization is towards a rather static architecture with centralized features. The downside is an expected increase in service management complexity and the need for highly specialized infrastructures. This paper presents an approach for improving service quality, scalability and reliability while facilitating service management towards self-managing next generation networks. To approach this we utilize and combine functionality available in the network using a Peer-to-Peer based service composition mechanism. The construction of composed services is based on a service chain principle and incorporates information about available services, QoS and applicable SLAs.