Contextualisation of Management Overlays in Ambient Networks Kerry Jean, Lawrence Cheng, Roel Ocampo, Alex Galis Department of Electronic Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK. E-mail: {k.jean, l.cheng, r.ocampo, a.galis}@ee.ucl.ac.uk Abstract: Next generation services requiring adaptability to network and environment changes can be created with the use of flexible, self and service adaptable management overlays. This paper presents such a management overlay, the Ambient Virtual Pipe (AVP) in Ambient Networks. Contextualisation of an AVP enables it to achieve service adaptation in response to changes in context information. Contextualisation is achieved through interactions with ContextWare, an infrastructure which collects, manages and disseminates context information. The contextualisation of the AVP and the architecture and components of ContextWare, are presented along with a proof of concept prototype. The convergence of current telecoms networks into an all IP core will facilitate the emergence of a multitude of next-generation services. A key feature in next generation networks will be services and applications tailored to user’s needs and that easily and efficiently adapt to changes in the network or environment [1]. One manner of creating these services is by using context- awareness. Context can be defined as any information that can be used to characterise the state of an entity involved in an application or service [1]. An entity can be a user, device, service or computational object. A service is deemed context-ware when it uses context to adapt to user’s needs and adapt to changes in context. In this paper we detail the contextualisation of the Ambient Virtual Pipe (AVP); using context information for adapting to changes in context and using it in the provision of services. Contextualisation is the process of using context to adapt a system’s behaviour to changes in context. The AVP [10] is a secure, context-aware and adaptive management overlay built on top of an underlying composed peer-to-peer management hierarchy, the Peer-to-peer Ambient Platform (PAP) [3]. It serves as the management component of a Service- aware Adaptive Transport Overlay (SATO). SATOs are “virtual networks” deployed for each media service in order to provide a network tailored to the requirements of that service [4]. Contextualisation of the AVP enables it to obtain, manage, model, distribute and use context information for service and management functions. Context is used to support adaptation and flexibility, to improve service provisioning and in the production of a more flexible management overlay. It enables the dynamic composition and decomposition of the management overlays and their self-adaptation as a result of changes in network context. Adaptation allows a system to maintain consistent behaviour across variations in operating environments and network conditions. Service-aware adaptation policies in the AVP are presented in [15]. In this paper, we present the contextualisation of the AVP through a context management infrastructure (ContextWare) to enable service and self-adaptation. This paper begins by introducing the Ambient Networks project [5] and its concepts. The ContextWare architecture and the AVP are then detailed. The use of ContextWare in the contextualisation of the AVP will then be presented. The implementation of the ContextWare components for the AVP in a proof of concept prototype is presented. The paper ends with the proof of concept evaluation and conclusions. 1 Ambient Networks The Ambient Networks project [5] addresses the creation of innovative network solutions for future mobile and wireless systems. To foster the co-operation between heterogeneous networks, it introduced a new networking concept, that of network composition/decomposition [7]. This concept details the merging of networks to share resources and services. The main feature of an Ambient Network (AN) is an Ambient Control Space (ACS), which can be used as a control plane overlay to integrate and interoperate seamlessly any existing network [6]. The ACS is complex set of control functions which collate the features of universal control across heterogeneous networks to provide users with the illusion of using a homogeneous network. Another distinguishing feature of Ambient Networks is a defined set of interfaces [8]. The Ambient Network Interface (ANI) [6][7] connects the ACS of different ANs. This interface is used for negotiation of network composition agreements and for transferring control information between the networks. The Ambient Resource Interface (ARI) [7][8] lies between the ACS and the physical network connectivity. It offers control mechanisms that the ACS can use to manage the resources residing in the connectivity plane. The Ambient Service Interface (ASI) [6][7][8] interfaces with the external services and allows them to issue requests to the ACS concerning the establishment, maintenance and termination of end-to-end connectivity between functional instances in an AN.