A study on appropriate function allocation for an end customer controlled network operation system [computer networks]

Appropriate function allocation is presented that improves the total performance of an end customer control (ECC) system connected by networks that accommodate various speeds of communication. A four-layer functional architecture for an ECC´s functional distribution is proposed. It consists of a network element function, a terminal function realized by efficient terminals, and two management functions: one manages end customers, the other manages network elements. The characteristics determined from an ECC prototype system based on the proposed architecture prove the merit of the architecture