5.4.1 Basic elements of SOA

32.1013GPPPrinciples and high level requirementsRelease 17Telecommunication managementTS

The basic building block of SOA is a service. In the context of this document, the word service is used to denote the various kinds of network management services, provided or provisioned by and consumed by network management applications. This type of network management services are distinct from those that are consumed by, say, mobile phone subscribers. One example of this type of network management service is one that is used for the management of alarm information of a network. Another example can be one that is used for the management of the transfer of large amount of network management information in files.

A service, in the context of this document, is considered a black box whose internal design and characteristics are of no relevance. A service performs tasks that satisfy a specific set of requirements. A service is realized by a Service Provider (SP) entity. This entity, the SP, is responsible to register (re: using the registerService offered by SD to SP of the following diagram) its provisioned service in one or more Service Directory (SD) entities. Service Consumers (SCs), without prior knowledge of the kind of services provisioned and the service access point (SAP) of the provisioned service, can consult the SD for the information (re: using the locateService offered by SD to SC of the following diagram). Once the SC discovers the wanted provisioned service and its associated SAP, it can contact the SP and start consuming the wanted provisioned service (re: using the useService offered by SP to SC of the following diagram).

Using the basic interaction scenario described above, a new SC can be installed and activated without prior knowledge of its wanted service SAP(s). As long as a) the new SC is given the SAP of the SD and b) the SP providing the wanted service has registered its service with the SD, the new SC can discover the availability of its wanted service and its SAP, and thus, can begin to access the service wanted.

Similarly, a new SP can be installed and activated (i.e. to provision its service) without prior knowledge of its potential SC(s). It is required to register its provisioned service with SD(s).

The SD is a special kind of SP. It provides two kinds of services. One service supports the registration of the identity, availability and SAP of the provisioned service (re: registerService offered by SD to SP of the following diagram). The other service supports the discovery of services (re: locateService offered by SD to SC of the following diagram).

The SDs’ SAPs for providing registration of provisioned service should be made known to all SPs. The SDs’ SAPs for discovery of provisioned service should be made known to all SCs. The means by which these SAPs are make known to SCs and SPs are not subject to standardization.

The NE, EM, NM and DM of Figure 1 are entities that contain a SP. The DM, NM and Enterprise System of Figure 1 are entities that contain a SC.

The following diagram depicts the key elements of SOA and their relations. The relation is depicted by an arrow with a label. The arrow end indicates the consumer of the network management service. The other end indicates the provider of the service. The label identifies the service.

Figure 2a: SOA basic elements