Method and Apparatus for Open Management of Multi-Media Services

Abstract

An architecture which permits externalized management of services includes a number of management service capability (MSC) definitions. Each operator may associate a management service capability with a Service/Service Capability for managing various aspects of the Service/Service Capability. An interface enables a variety of different management systems to utilize a common MSC structure, independent of the information models, transport mechanisms and management interface of the system using the MSC. With such an arrangement, management related integration costs associated with integrating and bundling complex multi-media services is significantly reduced.

1 . A system for managing services provided by a communication network, the system comprising:
 at least one database configured to maintain information defining a plurality of service capabilities, each service capability being associated with a respective protocol, at least some of the service capabilities being user service capabilities which can be used in combination to provide user service instances for providing services to users of the communication network, and at least some of the service capabilities being management service capabilities which can be used in combination to provide a management service instances for management of the user services;   at least one registry coupled to the database and configured for tracking the service instances;   at least one portal coupled to the at least one registry and configured for interfacing at least one operator to the at least one registry;   at least one externalization server coupled to the at least one portal and configured for executing the service instances; and   at least one application programming interface (API) coupled to the at least one portal and the at least one externalization server, the API being configured to enable access to service instances executing on the at least one externalization server by at least one client coupled to the API via the at least one portal.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the API is configured to translate a plurality of respective protocols used by clients into respective protocols associated with respective service capabilities to be accessed by the respective clients. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein respective clients are coupled to the communication network via the at least one portal and respective clients communicate with the at least one portal using the respective protocols. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein respective clients are coupled to the at least one API via the at least one portal and respective clients communicate with the at least one API via the at least one portal using the respective protocols. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the at least one portal uses Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messaging to communicate with the at least one externalization server. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one portal is configured with logical to physical mappings for the service instances. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one registry stores service descriptions and service capability descriptions. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one registry stores binding templates associated with service instances. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one registry stores Universal Resource Locators (URLs) associated with service instances. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one registry comprises at least one (Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one registry comprises at least one electronic business Extensible Markup Language (ebXML) registry. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one registry comprises at least one Web Services Description Language (WSDL) registry. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , comprising at least one life cycle manager configured to register services with the at least one registry based on service definitions obtained from the at least one database. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one API is provided by at least one Open Service Access (OSA) Parlay gateway. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein at least one management service capability uses a Distributed Management Task Force Common Information Model Web Based Enterprise Management (DMTF CIMWBEM) protocol. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the management service capabilities comprise fulfillment service operations. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the management service capabilities comprise assurance service operations. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the management service capabilities comprise billing service operations. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the management service capabilities comprise Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance operations. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the management service capabilities comprise query operations configured for querying information content of the system. 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the management service capabilities comprise filtering operations. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the management services comprise event subscription operations. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the management services comprise information retrieval capabilities.