In open systems, independent services exist in administrative domains outside that of the consumers of those services. Current standards exist to create management interfaces to allow operational management of services while keeping the services basic functionality fixed. These standards lack the ability to facilitate the establishment of agreements between services across administrative domains or with a divergent level of autonomy and adaptability. In this paper we propose a multi-faceted management interface capable of both operational and contractual operations. This allows relationships to be established between services with varying levels of capability. We then apply this management interface to an existing architectural framework that explicitly represents agreements as contracts between services and manages the interferences between those contracts.
Justin King, Alan W. Colman