Self-management will be a distinctive feature in future mobile network infrastructures. Decision points and control loops in the network depend on having the right information at the right place at the right time. For this task we present an Information Gathering and Processing System (IGPS) and show how meta-information (e.g. information costs) can be exploited as an organizing principle in the involved processes. Standardization in this area should at least provide suitable high-level measurement parameters that allow for a technology independent characterization of the network situation.

A salient feature of upcoming communication networks is unprecedented dynamicity, which can only be handled in a large scale by introducing self-configuration and self-maintenance mechanisms. The main contribution of this paper is the definition of a protocol toolbox for efficiently supporting communication for self-configuration and self-maintenance in dynamic environments. We leverage our experience from developing trigger management mechanisms for mobility control and extend the Generic Ambient Network Signaling protocol by defining a new routing method, the event- based routing method.

There is a growing trend towards convergence of telecommunication and data networks in order to support a richer set of services and applications. At the same time, increasing diversity and density of network access technologies has made the goal of providing connectivity anytime and anywhere a real possibility. Another important development is the emergence of small, low-complexity user owned networks, such as personal area networks and body area networks. Dynamic interworking, also known as network composition, between networks of different types and sizes is essential in the push towards convergence, as well as to realize truly seamless connectivity between heterogeneous access networks. Dynamic interworking requires signalling between different elements of the control planes of the different networks in order to coordinate the control functions and resources of the networks concerned. In this paper, we present the generic ambient network signalling protocol suite to address the diverse signalling requirements for dynamic interworking of networks.

Next generation communication networks will be characterized by the coexistence of multiple technologies and user devices in an integrated fashion. The increasing number of devices owned by a single user will lead to a new communication paradigm: users owning multiple devices that form cooperative networks, and networks of different users that communicate with each other, e.g., acquiring Internet access through each other. In this communication scenario no user intervention should be required and technology should seamlessly adapt to the user's context, preferences, and needs. In this paper we address one of those scenarios, interworking between personal area networks, using legacy technologies and the Ambient Network and network composition concepts, herein explained. We argue that new functionalities should be introduced to enable effortless use of legacy technologies in such dynamic and heterogeneous environments.

Reservation-based quality of service (QoS) in a mixed wireless and wireline environment requires an end-to-end signaling protocol that is capable of adapting to the idiosyncrasies of the different networks. The QoS NSIS signaling protocol (QoS-NSLP) has been created by the Next Steps In Signaling working group at the IETF to fulfill this need for an adaptive reservation protocol. It allows reservation requests to be interpreted by equipment implementing different QoS models along the path between a data sender and a data receiver. This paper describes the QoS-NSLP, and an example of a particular QoS model that is based on resource management in DiffServ (RMD). RMD provides a scalable dynamic resource management method for DiffServ networks. RMD has two basic functions to control the traffic load in a DiffServ domain: it provides admission control for flows entering the network and it has an algorithm that terminates the required amount of flows in case of congestion caused by failures (e.g. link or router) within a DiffServ domain. The admission control within the domain can be either measurement - or reservation-based. The basic signaling mechanism is described for different signaling scenarios and the expected performance of the protocol is discussed.

RSVP is a reservation setup protocol designed specifically to support QoS signaling in the Internet. However, RSVP end-to-end signaled QoS for the Internet has not become a reality. Moreover, there are many other applications demanding different signaling services. The paper analyses the features of RSVP version 1 we believe to be essential, and its complexity due to QoS-oriented design and multicast support as an indispensable component in a signaling protocol, deriving the design principles to be covered in a more generic signaling protocol. Based on this analysis, we present a light-weight version of RSVP, RSVP Lite, which clearly separates the signaled data from signaling messages and removes the multicast capability from the mandatory components of RSVP. RSVP Lite is intended to be applicable to a wide range of networking environments, while providing the flexibility to serve for generic signaling purposes and incremental deployment in the Internet.

Scalable and efficient management of today's fast growing networks requires distributed management systems. This paper introduces a classification of distributed management systems, followed by an overview of technologies for building such systems. One technology, the IETF Script MIB, is discussed in detail, including an implementation architecture and performance studies. Finally, application scenarios are presented, demonstrating how distributed management applications can be built by means of the IETF Script MIB.