Service-oriented infrastructures pose new challenges in a number of areas, notably with regard to security and dependability. BT has developed a combination of innovative security solutions and governance frameworks that can address these challenges. They include advances in identity federation; distributed usage and access management; context-aware secure messaging, routing and transformation; and (security) policy governance for service-oriented architectures. This paper discusses these developments and the steps being taken to validate their functionality and performance.
When considering the benefits of a Service Orientated Architecture (SOA), it's clear from an abstract perspective that re-usable 'plug and play' software components are more desirable than continually developing 'stovepipe' software systems which lack interoperability and reusability. Although the high level vision of SOA seems attractive, it is important to understand the extent to which the adoption of the SOA approach leads to real quantifiable benefits on the ground. This paper first highlights some problems that were not envisaged or were underestimated when SOA was originally conceived; provides insight into design issues that could cause an SOA implementation to fail; and indicates how these problems can be overcome. With many organisations taking the SOA migration route without fully considering other approaches, the second part of this paper then introduces some complementary or alternative approaches to SOA.
Service orchestration aims to enable the creation of new service offerings by the seamless integration of existing services capabilities. Service providers can use service orchestration techniques to deliver innovative solutions that span content and communication services and that leverage their existing assets by combining them with emerging next-generation network (NGN) services. This paper presents the results of a study of different service orchestration techniques and presents a set of recommendations to help address the technology challenges. The key conclusion is that there is not a single approach to service orchestration which will be suitable for all situations. This paper defines a methodology for determining the best approach and recommends a set of guidelines to ensure that services are designed with orchestration in mind.
P2P networks, systems, and applications have been the subject of intensive studies in recent years. They have created new business opportunities, providing a low-cost mechanism for communication and for online content distribution. They have also sparked a spate of legal disputes with adverse consequences for copyright owners, P2P platform providers, ISPs and users. In this paper we consider a number of different aspects of the threats that P2P poses to the operator, and suggest ways in which these threats, might be transformed into new business opportunities. We argue that, thanks to its established and leading role in the provision and management of advanced services, the operator could, in future, be in a unique position to offer managed P2P services in compliance with the applicable law.
The concept of the Service Oriented Infrastructure (SOI) is not just the result of technological advance; it has been stimulated by the needs of organisations. The modern organisation is seeking to efficiently utilise its information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, while at the same time ensuring that components of the infrastructure can be substituted and augmented dynamically. The 3-layer SOI model is a response to this. The model builds on the service-oriented philosophy, which is already having significant market impact - e.g., through the deployment of Software-as-a-Service. The SOI model also owes its provenance in part to the concept of Grid Computing; an approach to computing which offers performance benefits and the ability to share complementary resources. Today a new concept, that of the virtual hosting environment, is being developed, building both on SOI and grid computing. The goal is to create an environment where ICT infrastructure, delivered as services, can be shared between partners in a virtual organisation, or made available for third parties. The result will be an ICT industry where services are delivered across organisational boundaries, enabling all manner of new business applications, which in turn will themselves be delivered to the end-user as services.
For the end-user, the complexities of the underlying network and IT infrastructure should be invisible: the end-user simply wants their application to work. This demands adequate network, compute, and storage resources to provide an acceptable session performance. However, behind the application may be a complex myriad of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) components from the desktop through to the data centre, each of which contributes to the overall performance experienced by the end-user, from PC to Local Area Network (LAN), to access network, to Wide Area Network (WAN), to data centre, servers, and application functionality. Whilst there have been recent advances in both data centre virtualisation and WAN optimisation technology, most virtualisation systems have focussed on the data centre and the data centre LAN. In this paper, we show how the addition of Service Oriented Infrastructure (SOI) technologies can enable us to deliver a total orchestration of ICT resources across both WAN and data centre, to meet the needs of user applications and to enable application-level Service Level Agreements (SLAs). In addition, we explain a prototype BT has developed that manipulates multi-site WAN resources, server resources, and storage resources together according to application needs.
In this paper, a blind near-far resistant multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) array receiver is proposed for time-varying asynchronous multipath direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems. Unlike other work on MIMOs, the proposed receiver is built on array-antenna technology which is commonly used in applications such as the well-known smart-antenna system. As such, a novel space-time Doppler estimation algorithm can be devised which provides the joint angle and delay, as well as the Doppler shift-frequency estimation. Its multipath Doppler effect, instead of being detrimental to the system performance, has been exploited to provide an extra domain of diversity. With the integration of the channel estimator as the front-end of the receiver, the proposed MIMO array receiver requires no knowledge of the channel and is not susceptible to near-far problems. Furthermore, it is robust to channel estimation errors in the event of any unidentified (incomplete) or erroneous (incorrect) channel parameters. The proposed formulation and approach is also applicable in the two MIMO transmission schemes - a data rate maximisation MIMO scheme and a diversity maximisation MIMO scheme. In addition, the spreading code assignment strategies employed in typical CDMA BLAST systems can also be adapted for use with these schemes.
Most enterprises lack an accurate understanding of their network, IT, and application infrastructure, and the impact that the infrastructure has on their business processes. This complicates normal functions such as asset management and cost assignment. Moreover, strategic initiatives such as IT consolidation or ICT outsourcing are significantly hindered, as it may not be possible to communicate an accurate picture of the current infrastructure. Comprehensive 'ICT audit' systems, which automatically detect infrastructure, applications, and in some cases the relationships to business process, may provide the answer. This paper explores the ICT audit area, first by proposing an overall framework for understanding the different types of discovery systems, then by looking at the methodology for an ICT audit practice. The paper also presents the findings of recent tests at BT's Adastral Park technology centre, showing the limits of what can be achieved with the tools available on the marketplace today. The paper closes by suggesting a roadmap of discovery technologies which go beyond the capabilities of current tools into new areas that are already being developed and tested at Adastral Park.
Manufactured products and manufacturing processes have benefited hugely from the application of scientific methods to their development and production. In contrast, service development is often treated as a black art, outside the scope of a scientific approach. Services now account for more than 75 per cent of both employment and GDP in developed economies. Services differ in a number of ways from manufactured goods. In particular, services are intangible, they often need to be adapted to meet individual needs (so there is a strong element of end-user involvement in their delivery) and they are consumed in real-time; a service is indistinguishable from the service delivery system. Yet most management theory and business models are based on manufacturing. A growing number of companies and universities across the world are interested in developing a science of services and service systems. It is expected that the development of a more scientific approach to service development and delivery will result in new and better services, increased service quality and reduced costs. Because the subject is at an early stage basic issues such as what should be its core concerns are still under debate This paper is an introduction to services and systems science. The aim is to discuss why a science of service systems is needed, outline its potential benefits and to contribute to the ongoing debate on the content and nature of this new field of study.
In recent years, ultra-wideband (UWB) communications have captured the interest of research communities world-wide, due to their impulse radio system characteristics that enable short time impulses to be transmitted with reduced power spectral density. This makes UWB communications an ideal candidate for high-quality short-range wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs need a medium access control (MAC) layer which provides characteristics such as minimal bit error rate (BER), acceptable throughput and power efficient communications. This paper comparatively investigates the performance of three multiple access schemes to determine which of them could prove to be most suitable for a WSN MAC, in terms of the above characteristics. The three multiple access schemes investigated and compared are time-hopping UWB (TH-UWB), direct sequence spread spectrum UWB (DSSS-UWB) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing UWB (OFDM-UWB). All three of these multiple access candidates were evaluated by means of computer simulations in terms of BER, throughput and energy efficiency. An indoor scenario was considered, in which the performance of the schemes was assessed for 3 to 18 interfering sensor nodes operating in a single-hop environment with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and multipath interference. Fair comparison was achieved by making sure that, for all three candidates, the symbol rate, processing gain and pulse duration were equal. Results of simulations show that TH-UWB provides better overall performance than OFDM-UWB, and as such it would provide a better solution for a MAC design of UWB WSN operating in indoor environments with AWGN and multipath interference.
Converged networks and the need to better interpret Information and Communications Technology (ICT)'s impact on business processes make the understanding of application performance vital. This is particularly important for managed or outsourced services, where service levels are rigorously monitored. This paper looks at how applications and business processes are linked and the impact of underlying ICT infrastructures. It considers approaches to measurement and BT's experience with customer networks. The analysis examines what the standards bodies have to contribute and finally how application performance measurement fits with Operational Support System (OSS) development as it evolves towards a Service Orientated Infrastructure (SOI) model. The paper concludes with an assessment of the maturity of the approach, its major uses and potential for further adoption.
BT's portfolio of products and services has evolved to such an extent that revenues from 'calls and lines' has fallen to below 10 per cent of the total, with an increasing proportion being derived from information technology. That is, BT is extending far more into the world of software than was the case just a few years ago. This paper describes how BT is embracing the world of software by creating the equivalent of an operating system on BT's network. Using a service-oriented approach, this operating system creates an open market for service innovation, in which BT, other service providers and customers can rapidly create new products and services.
BT's Service Oriented Infrastructure (SOI) initiative provides flexible and assured virtual ICT resources as a set of services, and supports the implementation of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) within a customer's enterprise. In this paper, we look at the current and increasing popularity of SOA, its origins and its relationship with Enterprise Architecture Integration. We also look at the important role of the Enterprise Service Bus, which facilitates an SOA whilst considering the closely related concepts, technologies and supporting standards of virtualisation, autonomics, end-to-end dashboards, security and data mapping. This paper also explains the differences between Event Stream Processing and Complex Event Processing and between the Business Process coordination approaches of Orchestration and Choreography. Finally, we look at pervasiveness of the service oriented philosophy and suggest some challenges which SOIs will face.
Data centre virtualisation offers a range of business benefits. Costs can be reduced by consolidating the infrastructure to smaller numbers of servers and data centres. In addition, the time to provision new IT resources can be minimised, where applications can be instantiated rapidly on virtual servers. Reliability can be improved by load-balancing across virtual infrastructure, whilst the carbon emissions of the organisation can be reduced by using fewer servers with more efficient racking and cooling. Data centre virtualisation underpins the flexibility in IT resources required by software and application services and is fundamental to realising a service oriented infrastructure. This paper sets out the journey BT has undertaken in transforming its data centres for both internal use and customer use, according to BT's strategic objectives of improving 'right first time', minimising 'cycle time', and minimising 'total cost of ownership'.
A critical strategic objective for BT is that of enhancing business agility to enable the company to compete effectively in a 21st Century marketplace, a marketplace that will increasingly be dominated by new types of collaborative online services. This changing business environment coupled with the advent of the 21st Century Network (21CN) demands a new business model, transforming the operation of the company. The major barriers that have to be overcome include product and organisational stovepipes and a vast, complex, systems estate.The path chosen by BT has been to introduce a single enterprise architecture, known as the Matrix and based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles, to provide the company with a flexible, standardised platform containing re-usable blocks of functionality. Alignment with core customer-focused business processes ensures that BT will become process driven instead of systems driven, providing the agility needed for business transformation and delivering the functionality to support BT's objectiveWhen the deployment is complete, BT expects to cut product development cycle time by as much as two-thirds and massively reduce its cost base. Although at an early stage of its introduction, the Matrix will provide a platform on which BT will be able to create innovative, new-wave products and services that offer customers a zero touch, real time, self-service experience.
Servers are a major component in an interactive TV service, and once systems of only modest size are considered, the technology requirements are challenging. If BT moves to a roll-out of broadband interactive TV services, then close working with chosen suppliers will be required if costs are to be viable.This paper looks at some server architectures and technologies that might eventually be part of BT's interactive TV service.
Both human analysts and particularly automated tool suites are capable of deriving sensitive information and conclusions from collections of data items that individually cannot be considered critical or sensitive. This activity of analysing and correlating material that is not immediately related is, in fact, highly desirable in many application areas and cannot be controlled precisely in advance. The decision whether a program or an analyst is performing searches and correlations beyond the scope of his authorisation or current mission can frequently be determined only ex post based on a heuristic analysis of documents accessed.In this paper we describe a mechanism for the instrumentation of operating systems to obtain information on the documents and resources accessed by arbitrary processes. Such a mechanism could be an important component of the infrastructure of an operational risk management system, generating an audit trail for compliance and forensic investigation, and acting as a sensor generating data for analysis. Addressing the latter application, the paper also outlines an approach for extracting textual information and metadata from accessed documents, regardless of the application program and workflow mechanisms used, without unduly impeding either workflows or operator performance.This information can then be subjected to an heuristic analysis based on natural language processing to extract the semantic context of each document or segment. Clustering this content and extracting the conceptual patterns that a user has accessed can then allow abnormal behaviour to be identified. This can then be refined further to determine heuristically whether the authorised remit of the user has been breached and whether an investigation is warranted. We argue that the risk of misbehaviour can be reduced while at the same time increasing productivity. This is made possible by enhancing the degree of freedom for individual users to act in the interest of their mission objectives and at the same time providing automated mechanisms for analysing user behaviour.
