A network and service governance framework: Case study for efficient load balancing

Within the past twenty years, the evolution towards Future Networks has been dominated by the rapid increase in the number and heterogeneity of network infrastructures, devices and protocols. The traffic explosion and the rapid increase of information flows coming from `Data-Hungry´ smartphones and new applications is yet another driving force in this complex environment. In the past, the driving solution was to “throw additional resources onto the problem”. Given the resources limitations nowadays, network operators are struggling to find out emerging solutions for supporting the mobile users´ lifestyle, their individuality and the breakthrough of their unique needs. At the same time, the cost minimisation and the increase of the profits are always on the table. To this end, the introduction of the upcoming notion of joint network and service management pushes forward an intelligent automated way for the administration of the distinct operators´ networks and the eased interworking between them. This work presents a novel network and service governance framework for the automated control of the individual networks/domains based on high-level business goals. Special focus is paid on the application of this framework for efficient load balancing considering gold, silver and bronze users. The application of the model in a case study system proved that the introduction of the governance framework minimizes the failure rates for the gold and silver users, thereby allowing for the efficient and prioritized handling of their requests.