SHUFFLE: An agent based approach to controlling resources in UMTS networks

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 99.0436-2

Key words (English)

UMTS; software agent technology; FIPA; service level agreement; network management; UMTS simulation; agent-based negotiation

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: IST-1999-11014

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.2.4 Essential technologies and infrastructures

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Queen Mary and Westfield College QMW (UK), Swisscom AG (CH), Martel Gmbh (CH), National Technical University of Athens NTUA (EL), Tele Danmark A/s (DK), Nortel Networks Plc (UK), Portugal Telecom Inovacao, SA (P)

Abstract (English)

The project SHUFFLE aims at the creation a novel architecture for efficient, scalable & robust real time control of resources in 3rd generation mobile systems in the context of realistic business models of network providers, service providers and customers.
It aims at designing and implementing intelligent agents for the control of interactions between the service provider and the network operator, and between the network operator and the radio resources, in a UMTS environment. Scenarios and use cases have been designed and implemented in order to show the efficiency of the Shuffle approach from a realistic network operator point of view. The main activities of Swisscom Corporate Technology in the scope of SHUFFLE are summarized hereafter:
· Comparisons between existing agent platforms and writing report. Theoretical studies and contribution in several documents about ongoing work in the area of UMTS (3GPP, ETSI) standardization and physical requirements regarding power consumptions and modulation schemes.
· Elaboration of scenarios and uses cases for the experimentations of agent-based negotiations between service providers and network operators in order to optimize the UMTS network resources taking into account SLA requirements. The use cases have been designed based upon realistic criteria from a network operator point of view.
· Joint development involving the other partners of the agent architecture and interactions scheme between agents and participation to the elaboration of negotiation algorithms (two prices calculation proposed by Swisscom).
· Implementation of the agents with the Java-based FIPA-OS agent platform and troubleshooting the NTUA UMTS Simulator. A market-place approach has been developed to support the dynamic interactions between service providers and network operators.
· Development of a lightweight Java-based UMTS simulator - called Eventthrower - to experiment the agent interactions. The simulator supports traffic generation according to various probabilistic distribution models and generates the corresponding calls to the agent framework. Various cells configurations are supported.
· Multiple events - internal workshops & demos - organized during 2001 and 2002 carried out for Corporate Technology and for the business units concerned with the project, namely Swisscom Mobile.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 99.0436-2