Model based Framework for Implementing Situation Management Infrastructure

Situation management leverages automated information collection, processing, and control techniques in complex application domains. Traditional control and management of large networks is perhaps the earliest example of using information infrastructures for efficient and predictable situation management. More intricate situation management architectures are now being contemplated. It is important to be able to quantify the overall objectives for situation management applications and evaluate the various infrastructural approaches for their implementation in a rigorous fashion. A situation management framework can facilitate the design of innovative schemes and provide a systematic way to analyze and compare various implementation and operational options. This paper formalizes fundamental components for such a model-based framework, proposes key performance parameters, and suggests domain independent features by generalizing the key networking and computing concepts. Representative examples of situation management instances reported in recent workshops are briefly surveyed. In the second part of the paper, a reference SMI architecture, verified and tested in the networking domain with automated capacity management, is also described to better illustrate the applicability and usefulness of the framework for a variety of other situation management domains.