The feature and service interaction problem in telecommunications systems: a survey

Abstract

Today's telecommunications systems are enhanced by a large and steadily growing number of supplementary services, each of which consists of a set of service features. A situation where a combination of these services behaves differently than expected from the single services' behaviours, is called service interaction. This interaction problem is considered as a major obstacle to the introduction of new services into telecommunications networks. In this contribution, we give a survey of the work carried out in this field during the last decade. After a brief review of classification criteria that exist for feature interactions so far, we use a perspective we call the emergence level view. This perspective pays respect to the fact that the sources for interactions can be of many different kinds, like, e. g., requirement conflicts or resource contentions. It is used to rationalise the impossibility of coping with the problem with one single approach. Afterwards, we present a framework of four different criteria in order to classify the approaches dealing with the problem: The general kind of approach taken, a refinement of the well-known detection, resolution, and prevention categories, serves as the main classification criterion. It is complemented by the method used, the stage during the feature lifecycle where an approach applies, and the system (network) context. The major results of the different approaches are then presented briefly using this classification framework. We finally draw some conclusions on the applicability of this framework and on possible directions of further research in this field.

Software diversity: state of the art and perspectives

“…Generally, these are modifications of feature behaviour compared to when features operate in isolation. Two surveys covering the topic up to 2002 exist [127,43]. Some of the major research challenges include cheaply predicting when feature interactions may possibly occur, detecting precisely which feature interactions do occur, and resolving those [43].…”

Managing Distributed Feature Interactions in Enterprise SIP Application Servers

“…Off-line approaches are applicable prior to deployment of the services during requirements capturing or the design phase whereas on-line approaches are applied during testing or post-deployment at run-time of the services. Approaches are discussed in detail in [6] and [7]. The work in this paper is particularly related to approaches which order services for execution allowing for increased interworking and re-use.…”

Modelling of Features and Feature Interactions in Nokia Mobile Phones Using Coloured Petri Nets

“…Feature interactions have been studied in several application areas, e.g., telecommunications systems (see [15] for a survey), process planning [12], and computer-aided design [20]. To our knowledge there are no applications of CP-nets to feature interactions.…”