Effective QoS Monitoring in Large Scale Social Networks

Social Networking activities are still occupying the majority of the time that Internet users are spending in the Web. The generated content and social dynamics represent precious resources that everybody wishes to control. This scenario poses several challenges including the fact that different implementations, technologies, and formats are used to manage web content and social dynamics in heterogeneous, often antagonistic, Social Networking Sites. In order to master this heterogeneity the SocIoS project has defined an API that enables the aggregation of data and functionality made available by different Social Networking Sites APIs and their combination into complex and novel application workflows. However, the dependency on Social Networking Sites does not allow users of the SocIoS API to control the Quality of Service provided by the underlying platforms. In this paper we show how the QoSMONaaS (QoSMONitoring as a Service) component can be used to monitor and evaluate relevant metrics, such as availability and response time of the API calls, that are specified in the Service Level Agreement document. QoSMONaaS has been developed within the context of the SRT-15 project to implement a dependable (i.e. unbiased, reliable, and timely) monitoring of Quality of Service.