Importance

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Abstract

A service monitoring mechanism for providing on-line standardized contract configurations for monitoring Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Service Level Contracts (SLCs) is described. The service monitoring mechanism provides a method for monitoring a service level agreement that defines for a particular network, a level of service that has been offered to a customer by a service provider. In one aspect, to provide for the monitoring of a service level agreement, a Service Level Manger (SLM) is configured to manage, monitor, and verify the SLAs that have been established between a customer and a Service Provider. The SLM provides a standardized open interface that allows users, including third parties, to define SLCs and SLAs for monitoring and verifying the level of service that is being provided by a service provider. In one aspect, the standardized open interface is provided through the use of one or more schemas that include a set of rules that define the tags that can be included within a document and how the tags may be nested within the document. The one or more schemas specify the set of required and optional elements (and their attributes) and the ways in which they may be combined within a document. In response to receiving information that defines one or more tests for a particular service level agreement, the SLM verifies that the information conforms to the set of rules defined within the schema and distributes the one or more tests to one or more agents that are configured to perform the one or more tests.

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First Claim