Forum aims to clean up SLA terminology

The Frame Relay Forum is nearing approval of a set of common network service parameters that should enable customers and carriers to strike more meaningful service-level agreements (SLA).

Forum officials say that at its meeting this week near Cannes, France, the forum is likely to adopt its Service-Level Definition Implementation Agreement (SLD), a common vocabulary set that defines what network characteristics are to be measured under an SLA. Such definitions will give users and service providers a common "handbook" for defining and measuring what appears in customer contracts.

As networks become increasingly mission-critical, customers are making louder demands for clauses in their service contracts that guarantee minimum service levels. However, enforcing guarantees has been difficult because customers and service providers often use different criteria, tools and time intervals for measuring the same parameter. This can lead to disagreement about whether the carrier is, in fact, delivering on the contract.

The SLD vocabulary set will define formulas for measuring network uptime, latency (round-trip delay) and throughput (percentage of packets actually delivered), as well as standard network service levels, such as mean time to repair. The definitions aim to serve the best interests of users and service providers by specifying exactly what is reasonably covered in a SLA. For customers, it's important to have a means of enforcing their SLAs. For service providers, it's necessary to define their responsibilities.

If the SLD passes on this round, it will become an official forum implementation agreement in July. If not, it's likely that some changes will be made and voted on again later in the year.