EuroBridge: making broadband services usable

The paper addresses the problem of using and developing broadband services over heterogeneous networks. It shows the approach being taken by the RACE II EuroBridge (R2008) project to solve this problem. This project enhances layer seven of the OSI stack in order to hide the complexity of the applications quality of service (QoS) requirements on the network from the user. It discusses the problems associated with supporting the QoS imposed by the broadband nature of these services. The objective is to hide the network specifics from the user at runtime by allowing a developer to enter QoS requirements in a manner appropriate to the service being developed. User requirements have led EuroBridge to develop a number of new application service elements (ASEs) and propose relationships between them and the telecommunications management network (TMN) as defined in CCITT M3010. Developer requirements have led to an identification of a need for a service creation environment (SCE) that can map the developers needs to the new ASEs and networks. It also mentions how this approach can map onto the views of the intelligent network (IN) and TMN communities