An architecture for agent-enhanced network service provisioning through SLA negotiation

Abstract

This paper focuses on two main areas. We first investigate variousaspects of subscription and session Service Level Agreement (SLA) issues suchas negotiating and setting up network services with Quality of Service (QoS)and pricing preferences. We then introduce an agent-enhanced servicearchitecture that facilitates these services. A prototype system consisting ofreal-time agents that represent various network stakeholders was developed. Anovel approach is presented where the agent system is allowed to communicatewith a simulated network. This allows functional and dynamic behaviour of thenetwork to be investigated under various agent-supported scenarios. This paperalso highlights the effects of SLA negotiation and dynamic pricing in acompetitive multi-operator networks environment.