4.5 Information Architecture 

The overall information architecture of the framework will now be described. This includes 

the design of the SLA that can be used to describe the QoS requirements and other 

information as perceived by the end user of a Web delivered Service. 

4.5.1 SLA Design 

The design of the SLA to describe a Web delivered service, as perceived by the end user is a 

key component to the overall framework. The SLA needs to be able to capture information 

relating to performance, availability, monitoring and trouble handling aspects of a Service 

delivered via the Web in a generic way so that a SLA for any Web delivered service can be 

defined. The areas that are focused on in this dissertation are general items, QoS aspects, 

trouble handling, and monitoring and reporting aspects. The accounting or security aspects 

of SLAs are not addressed. 

4.5.1.1 SLA Breakdown 

A breakdown of how to represent the components in a SLA for a Web delivered Service will 

now be undertaken. Two main groups of parameters/subgroups are defined as follows. 

Grouping 

Description 

General Parameters 

Contains general items such as identifiers for 

the service, information relating to 

availability and performance requirements, 

action to take for trouble handling and 

monitoring and reporting aspects. 

QoS Parameters 

Contains specific QoS parameters for the 

service being delivered 

Table 5: SLA Parameter Groupings