Towards ambient networks management

Ambient Networks (AN) are under development and they are based on novel networking concepts and systems that will enable a wide range of user and business communication scenarios beyond today's fixed, 3rd generation mobile and IP standards. Central to this project is the concept of Ambient Control Space (ACS) and the Domain Manager control function, which manages the underlying data transfer capabilities and presents a set of interfaces towards the supported services and applications. Network Management Systems of Ambient Networks must work in an environment where heterogeneous networks compose and cooperate, on demand and transparently, without the need for manual (pre or re)-configuration or offline negotiations between network operators. To achieve these goals, ambient network management systems must become dynamic, distributed, self-managing and responsive to the network and its ambience. This paper describes the different management research challenges and four complementary solution approaches (i.e. Pattern-based Management, Peer-to-Peer Management, (Un)PnP Management, Traffic Engineering Management Application Approaches) that enable efficient management of ambient networks, and the relationships between them, and presents the main results achieved so far.