An Agent Model for the Resolution of Feature Conflicts in Telephony [Vol. 8, No. 3, 2000]

An Agent Model for the Resolution of Feature Conflicts in Telephony

Magdi Amer
School of Information Technology and Engineering
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5
Email: amer_AT_sol.genie.uottawa.ca

Ahmed Karmouch
School of Information Technology and Engineering
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5
Email: karmouch_AT_site.uottawa.ca.

Tom Gray
Mitel Corporation, 350 Legget Drive, P.O. Box 13089
Kanata, Ontario, Canada K2K 2W7
Email: tom_gray_AT_mitel.com

Serge Mankovskii
Metamail Canada Inc., 10265 Yonge Street,
Richmond Hill, Ontario, L4C 4Y7
Email: serge_mankovski_AT_mitel.com

Abstract
Most telecommunication service providers resolve the feature interaction problem by providing specific instructions in their management software to handle scenarios where feature interaction may occur. This approach suffers from the complexity of the resulting code and the difficulty of adding new features to the system. Moreover, the system predefines the result of the resolution of the conflicting features and the end user has no means of choosing a different behavior, depending on the preferences of the user. In this paper, we propose an agent-based architecture to detect and resolve feature interactions. Our system benefits from the flexibility and the semantic richness of policies and fuzzy logic to allow the end user to alter the behavior of the system, thus obtaining a more personalized service.

Keywords: Feature interaction, agent negotiation, conflict resolution, and policies.

JNSM: Vol. 8, No. 3, 2000 An Agent Model for the Resolution of Feature Conflicts in Telephony [Vol. 8, No. 3, 2000]

NOTE: only abstract of paper available on-line; please contact your library or the authors for the full paper

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