RFC3198

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Network Working Group A. Westerinen Request for Comments: 3198 J. Schnizlein Category: Informational Cisco Systems

                                                        J. Strassner
                                              Intelliden Corporation
                                                        M. Scherling
                                                               xCert
                                                            B. Quinn
                                                      Celox Networks
                                                           S. Herzog
                                                    PolicyConsulting
                                                            A. Huynh
                                                 Lucent Technologies
                                                          M. Carlson
                                                    Sun Microsystems
                                                            J. Perry
                                                   Network Appliance
                                                       S. Waldbusser
                                                       November 2001
            Terminology for Policy-Based Management

Status of this Memo

This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

This document is a glossary of policy-related terms. It provides abbreviations, explanations, and recommendations for use of these terms. The document takes the approach and format of RFC 2828, which defines an Internet Security Glossary. The intent is to improve the comprehensibility and consistency of writing that deals with network policy, particularly Internet Standards documents (ISDs).

Introduction

This document provides abbreviations, definitions, and explanations of terms related to network policy. All definitions are provided in Section 3, with the terms listed in alphabetical order.

The intent is to improve the comprehensibility and consistency of Internet Standards documents (ISDs) -- i.e., RFCs, Internet-Drafts, and other material produced as part of the Internet Standards Process RFC2026. Benefits across the ISDs are well-stated in the Introduction to RFC 2828 RFC2828:

o "Clear, Concise, and Easily Understood Documentation" - Requires

  that the set of terms and definitions be consistent, self-
  supporting and uniform across all ISDs.

o Technical Excellence - Where all ISDs use terminology accurately,

  precisely, and unambiguously.

o Prior Implementation and Testing - Requires that terms are used in

  their plainest form, that private and "made-up" terms are avoided
  in ISDs, and that new definitions are not created that conflict
  with established ones.

o "Openness, Fairness, and Timeliness" - Where ISDs avoid terms that

  are proprietary or otherwise favor a particular vendor, or that
  create a bias toward a particular technology or mechanism.

Common and/or controversial policy terms are defined. These terms are directly related and specific to network policy.

Wherever possible, this document takes definitions from existing ISDs. It should be noted that:

o Expired Internet-Drafts are not referenced, nor are their

  terminology and definitions used in this document.

o Multiple definitions may exist across the ISDs. Each definition

  is listed, with its source.

Explanation of Paragraph Markings

Section 3 marks terms and definitions as follows:

o Capitalization: Only terms that are proper nouns are capitalized.

o Paragraph Marking: Definitions and explanations are stated in

  paragraphs that are marked as follows:
  -  "P" identifies basic policy-related terms.
  -  "T" identifies various techniques to create or convey policy-
     related information in a network.  For example, COPS and an
     "Information Model" are two techniques for communicating and
     describing policy-related data.  SNMP and MIBs are another.
  -  "A" identifies specific Work Groups and general "areas of use"
     of policy.  For example, AAA and QoS are two "areas of use"
     where policy concepts are extremely important to their function
     and operation.

Terms

Note: In providing policy definitions, other "technology specific" terms (for example, related to Differentiated Services) may be used and referenced. These non-policy terms will not be defined in this document, and the reader is requested to go to the referenced ISD for additional detail.

$ AAA

  See "Authentication, Authorization, Accounting".

$ abstraction levels

  See "policy abstraction".

$ action

  See "policy action".

$ Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA)

  (A) AAA deals with control, authentication, authorization and
      accounting of systems and environments based on policies set
      by the administrators and users of the systems.  The use of
      policy may be implicit - as defined by RADIUS RFC2138. In
      RADIUS, a network access server sends dial-user credentials to
      an AAA server, and receives authentication that the user is
      who he/she claims, along with a set of attribute-value pairs
      authorizing various service features. Policy is implied in
      both the authentication, which can be restricted by time of
      day, number of sessions, calling number, etc., and the
      attribute-values authorized.

$ CIM

  See "Common Information Model".

$ Common Information Model (CIM)

  (T) An object-oriented information model published by the DMTF
      (Distributed Management Task Force) [DMTF].  It consists of a
      Specification detailing the abstract modeling constructs and
      principles of the Information Model, and a textual language
      definition to represent the Model.  CIM's schemas are defined
      as a set of files, written in the language of the
      Specification, with graphical renderings using UML [UML].
      Sets of classes and associations represent CIM's Core and
      Common Models, defining an information model for the
      "enterprise" - addressing general concepts (in Core), and
      systems, devices, users, software distribution, the physical
      environment, networks and policy (in the Common Models).  (See
      also "information model".)

$ Common Open Policy Service (COPS)

  (T) A simple query and response TCP-based protocol that can be
      used to exchange policy information between a Policy Decision
      Point (PDP) and its clients (Policy Enforcement Points, PEPs)
      RFC2748.  The COPS protocol is used to provide for the
      outsourcing of policy decisions for RSVP RFC2749. Another
      usage is for the provisioning of policy RFC3084. (See also
      "Policy Decision Point" and "Policy Enforcement Point".)

$ condition

  See "policy condition".

$ configuration

  (P) "Configuration" can be defined from two perspectives:
      -  The set of parameters in network elements and other systems
         that determine their function and operation. Some
         parameters are static, such as packet queue assignment and
         can be predefined and downloaded to a network element.
         Others are more dynamic, such as the actions taken by a
         network device upon the occurrence of some event.  The
         distinction between static (predefined) "configuration" and
         the dynamic state of network elements blurs as setting
         parameters becomes more responsive, and signaling controls
         greater degrees of a network device's behavior.
      -  A static setup of a network element, done before shipment
         to a customer and which cannot be modified by the customer.
      The first is the accepted usage in the Internet community.

$ COPS

  See "Common Open Policy Service".

$ data model

  (T) A mapping of the contents of an information model into a form
      that is specific to a particular type of data store or
      repository.  A "data model" is basically the rendering of an
      information model according to a specific set of mechanisms
      for representing, organizing, storing and handling data.  It
      has three parts [DecSupp]:
      -  A collection of data structures such as lists, tables,
         relations, etc.
      -  A collection of operations that can be applied to the
         structures such as retrieval, update, summation, etc.
      -  A collection of integrity rules that define the legal
         states (set of values) or changes of state (operations on
         values).
      (See also "information model".)

$ DEN

  See "Directory Enabled Networks".

$ Differentiated Services (DS)

  (T) The IP header field, called the DS-field.  In IPv4, it defines
      the layout of the ToS (Type of Service) octet; in IPv6, it is
      the Traffic Class octet RFC2474.
  (A) "Differentiated Services" is also an "area of use" for QoS
      policies.  It requires policy to define the correspondence
      between codepoints in the packet's DS-field and individual
      per-hop behaviors (to achieve a specified per-domain
      behavior).  In addition, policy can be used to specify the
      routing of packets based on various classification criteria.
      (See also "Quality of Service" and "filter".)

$ diffserv

  See "Differentiated Services".

$ Directory Enabled Networks (DEN)

  (T) A data model that is the LDAP mapping of CIM (the Common
      Information Model).  Its goals are to enable the deployment
      and use of policy by starting with common service and user
      concepts (defined in the information model), specifying their
      mapping/storage in an LDAP-based repository, and using these
      concepts in vendor/device-independent policy rules [DMTF].
      (See also "Common Information Model" and "data model".)

$ domain

  (P) A collection of elements and services, administered in a
      coordinated fashion.  (See also "policy domain".)

$ DS

  See "Differentiated Services".

$ filter

  (T) A set of terms and/or criteria used for the purpose of
      separating or categorizing.  This is accomplished via single-
      or multi-field matching of traffic header and/or payload data.
      "Filters" are often manipulated and used in network operation
      and policy.  For example, packet filters specify the criteria
      for matching a pattern (for example, IP or 802 criteria) to
      distinguish separable classes of traffic.

$ goal

  See "policy goal".

$ information model

  (T) An abstraction and representation of the entities in a managed
      environment, their properties, attributes and operations, and
      the way that they relate to each other.  It is independent of
      any specific repository, software usage, protocol, or
      platform.

$ Management Information Base (MIB)

  (T) A collection of information that can be accessed via the
      Simple Network Management Protocol.  Management information is
      defined in MIB modules using the rules contained in SNMP's
      Structure of Management Information (SMI) specifications
      RFC2570.  Management information is an abstract concept, and
      definitions can be created for high level policy
      specifications, low level policy, as well as technology and
      vendor specific configurations, status and statistics.  (See
      also "Simple Network Management Protocol" and "Structure of
      Management Information".)

$ MIB

  See "Management Information Base".

$ MPLS

  See "Multiprotocol Label Switching".  (Also, MPLS may refer to
  Multi-Protocol Lambda Switching in optical networks.  But, this is
  unrelated to policy and not discussed further in this document.)

$ Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

  (T) Integrates a label swapping and switching framework with
      network layer routing RFC2702.  The basic idea involves
      assigning short fixed length labels to packets at the ingress
      to an MPLS cloud.  Throughout the interior of the MPLS domain,
      the labels attached to packets are used to make forwarding
      decisions (usually without recourse to the original packet
      headers).

$ outsourced policy

  (P) An execution model where a policy enforcement device issues a
      query to delegate a decision for a specific policy event to
      another component, external to it.  For example, in RSVP, the
      arrival of a new RSVP message to a PEP requires a fast policy
      decision (not to delay the end-to-end setup). The PEP may use
      COPS-RSVP to send a query to the PDP, asking for a policy
      decision [RFC2205, RFC2748].  "Outsourced policy" is
      contrasted with "provisioned policy", but they are not
      mutually exclusive and operational systems may combine the
      two.

$ PCIM

  See "Policy Core Information Model".

$ PDP

  See "Policy Decision Point".

$ PEP

  See "Policy Enforcement Point".

$ PIB

  See "Policy Information Base".

$ policy

  (P) "Policy" can be defined from two perspectives:
      -  A definite goal, course or method of action to guide and
         determine present and future decisions.  "Policies" are
         implemented or executed within a particular context (such
         as policies defined within a business unit).
      -  Policies as a set of rules to administer, manage, and
         control access to network resources RFC3060.
      Note that these two views are not contradictory since
      individual rules may be defined in support of business goals.
      (See also "policy goal", "policy abstraction" and "policy
      rule".)

$ policy abstraction

  (P) Policy can be represented at different levels, ranging from
      business goals to device-specific configuration parameters.
      Translation between different levels of "abstraction" may
      require information other than policy, such as network and
      host parameter configuration and capabilities.  Various
      documents and implementations may specify explicit levels of
      abstraction.  However, these do not necessarily correspond to
      distinct processing entities or the complete set of levels in
      all environments.  (See also "configuration" and "policy
      translation".)

$ policy action

  (P) Definition of what is to be done to enforce a policy rule,
      when the conditions of the rule are met.  Policy actions may
      result in the execution of one or more operations to affect
      and/or configure network traffic and network resources.
      -  In RFC3060, a rule's actions may be ordered.

$ policy condition

  (P) A representation of the necessary state and/or prerequisites
      that define whether a policy rule's actions should be
      performed.  This representation need not be completely
      specified, but may be implicitly provided in an implementation
      or protocol.  When the policy condition(s) associated with a
      policy rule evaluate to TRUE, then (subject to other
      considerations such as rule priorities and decision
      strategies) the rule should be enforced.
  (T) In RFC3060, a rule's conditions can be expressed as either
      an ORed set of ANDed sets of statements (disjunctive normal
      form), or an ANDed set of ORed sets of statements (conjunctive
      normal form).  Individual condition statements can also be
      negated.

$ policy conflict

  (P) Occurs when the actions of two rules (that are both satisfied
      simultaneously) contradict each other.  The entity
      implementing the policy would not be able to determine which
      action to perform.  The implementers of policy systems must
      provide conflict detection and avoidance or resolution
      mechanisms to prevent this situation.  "Policy conflict" is
      contrasted with "policy error".

$ policy conversion

  See "policy translation".

$ Policy Core Information Model (PCIM) RFC3060

  (T) An information model describing the basic concepts of policy
      groups, rules, conditions, actions, repositories and their
      relationships.  This model is described as a "core" model
      since it cannot be applied without domain-specific extensions
      (for example, extensions for QoS or IPsec).  PCIM is "core"
      with respect to the area of policy.  However, it is a "Common
      Model," with respect to CIM - in that it extends the basic CIM
      concepts for policy.  (See also "Common Information Model".)

$ policy decision

  (P) Two perspectives of "policy decision" exist:
      -  A "process" perspective that deals with the evaluation of a
         policy rule's conditions
      -  A "result" perspective that deals with the actions for
         enforcement, when the conditions of a policy rule are TRUE

$ Policy Decision Point (PDP)

  (P) A logical entity that makes policy decisions for itself or for
      other network elements that request such decisions RFC2753.
      (See also "policy decision".)

$ policy domain

  (P) A collection of elements and services, and/or a portion of an
      Internet over which a common and consistent set of policies
      are administered in a coordinated fashion RFC2474. This
      definition of a policy domain does not preclude multiple
      sources of policy creation within an organization, but does
      require that the resultant policies be coordinated.
      -  Policies defined in the context of one domain may need to
         be communicated or negotiated outside of that domain. (See
         also "policy negotiation".)

$ policy enforcement

  (P) The execution of a policy decision.

$ Policy Enforcement Point (PEP)

  (P) A logical entity that enforces policy decisions RFC2753.
      (See also "policy enforcement".)

$ policy error

  (P) "Policy errors" occur when attempts to enforce policy actions
      fail, whether due to temporary state or permanent mismatch
      between the policy actions and the device enforcement
      capabilities.  This is contrasted with "policy conflict".

$ policy goal

  (P) Goals are the business objectives or desired state intended to
      be maintained by a policy system.  As the highest level of
      abstraction of policy, these goals are most directly described
      in business rather than technical terms.  For example, a goal
      might state that a particular application operate on a network
      as though it had its own dedicated network, despite using a
      shared infrastructure. 'Policy goals' can include the
      objectives of a service level agreement, as well as the
      assignment of resources to applications or individuals.  A
      policy system may be created that automatically strives to
      achieve a goal through feedback regarding whether the goal
      (such as a service level) is being met.

$ Policy Information Base (PIB)

  (T) Collections of related PRovisioning Classes (PRCs), defined as
      a module.  (See also "PRovisioning Class".)

$ policy mapping

  See "policy translation".

$ policy negotiation

  (P) Exposing the desired or appropriate part of a policy to
      another domain.  This is necessary to support partial
      interconnection between domains, which are operating with
      different sets of policies.

$ policy repository

  (P) "Policy repository" can be defined from three perspectives:
      -  A specific data store that holds policy rules, their
         conditions and actions, and related policy data.  A
         database or directory would be an example of such a store.
      -  A logical container representing the administrative scope
         and naming of policy rules, their conditions and actions,
         and related policy data.  A "QoS policy" domain would be an
         example of such a container.
      -  In RFC3060, a more restrictive definition than the prior
         one exists.  A PolicyRepository is a model abstraction
         representing an administratively defined, logical container
         for reusable policy elements.

$ policy request

  (P) A message requesting a policy-related service.  This may refer
      to a request to retrieve a specific set of policy rules, to
      determine the actions to enforce, or other policy requests.
      When sent by a PEP to a PDP, it is more accurately qualified
      as a "policy decision request" RFC2753.  (See also "policy
      decision".)

$ policy rule

  (P) A basic building block of a policy-based system.  It is the
      binding of a set of actions to a set of conditions - where the
      conditions are evaluated to determine whether the actions are
      performed RFC3060.

$ policy server

  (P) A marketing term whose definition is imprecise. Originally,
      RFC2753 referenced a "policy server".  As the RFC evolved,
      this term became more precise and known as the Policy Decision
      Point (PDP).  Today, the term is used in marketing and other
      literature to refer specifically to a PDP, or for any entity
      that uses/services policy.

$ policy translation

  (P) The transformation of a policy from a representation and/or
      level of abstraction, to another representation or level of
      abstraction.  For example, it may be necessary to convert PIB
      data to a command line format.  In this "conversion," the
      translation to the new representation is likely to require a
      change in the level of abstraction (becoming more or less
      specific).  Although these are logically distinct tasks, they
      are (in most cases) blurred in the act of
      translating/converting/mapping.  Therefore, this is also known
      as "policy conversion" or "policy mapping".

$ PolicyGroup

  (T) An abstraction in the Policy Core Information Model RFC3060.
      It is a class representing a container, aggregating either
      policy rules or other policy groups.  It allows the grouping
      of rules into a Policy, and the refinement of high-level
      Policies to lower-level or different (i.e., converted or
      translated) peer groups.

$ PRC

  See "PRovisioning Class".

$ PRI

  See "PRovisioning Instance".

$ provisioned policy

  (P) An execution model where network elements are pre-configured,
      based on policy, prior to processing events. Configuration is
      pushed to the network device, e.g., based on time of day or at
      initial booting of the device.  The focus of this model is on
      the distribution of configuration information, and is
      exemplified by Differentiated Services RFC2475.  Based on
      events received, devices use downloaded (pre-provisioned)
      mechanisms to implement policy. "Provisioned policy" is
      contrasted with "outsourced policy".

$ PRovisioning Class (PRC)

  (T) An ordered set of attributes representing a type of policy
      data.  PRCs are defined in PIB modules (encoded using SPPI)
      and registered in the Object Identifier tree.  Instances of
      each PRC are organized in tables, similar to conceptual tables
      in SMIv2.  (See also "Structure of Policy Provisioning
      Information" and "Policy Information Base".)
      The acronym, PRC, has evolved from "policy rule class" to
      "provisioning class".  The reason for the change is that a
      discrepancy existed between the use of the words, "policy
      rule" in the PRC context versus other uses in PCIM and the
      industry.  In the latter, rules are If/Then statements - a
      binding of conditions to actions.  PRCs are not "rules" by
      this definition, but the encoding of (network-wide)
      configuration information for a device.

$ PRovisioning Instance (PRI)

  (T) An instantiation of a PRovisioning Class.  (See also
      "PRovisioning Class".)

$ QoS

  See "Quality of Service".

$ Quality of Service (QoS)

  (A) At a high level of abstraction, "Quality of Service" refers to
      the ability to deliver network services according to the
      parameters specified in a Service Level Agreement. "Quality"
      is characterized by service availability, delay, jitter,
      throughput and packet loss ratio.  At a network resource
      level, "Quality of Service" refers to a set of capabilities
      that allow a service provider to prioritize traffic, control
      bandwidth, and network latency.  There are two different
      approaches to "Quality of Service" on IP networks: Integrated
      Services RFC1633, and Differentiated Service RFC2475.
      Integrated Services require policy control over the creation
      of signaled reservations, which provide specific quantitative
      end-to-end behavior for a (set of) flow(s).  In contrast,
      Differentiated Services require policy to define the
      correspondence between codepoints in the packet's DS-field and
      individual per-hop behaviors (to achieve a specified per-
      domain behavior).  A maximum of 64 per-hop behaviors limit the
      number of classes of service traffic that can be marked at any
      point in a domain.  These classes of service signal the
      treatment of the packets with respect to various QoS aspects,
      such as flow priority and packet drop precedence.  In
      addition, policy can be used to specify the routing of packets
      based on various classification criteria.  Policy controls the
      set of configuration parameters and routing for each class in
      Differentiated Service, and the admission conditions for
      reservations in Integrated Services.  (See also "policy
      abstraction" and "Service Level Agreement".)

$ Resource reSerVation Protocol (RSVP)

  (T) A setup protocol designed for an Integrated Services Internet,
      to reserve network resources for a path RFC2205. And, a
      signaling mechanism for managing application traffic's QoS in
      a Differentiated Service network.

$ role

  (P) "Role" is defined from three perspectives:
      -  A business position or function, to which people and
         logical entities are assigned [X.500]
      -  The labeled endpoints of a UML (Unified Modeling Language)
         association.  Quoting from [UML], "When a class
         participates in an association, it has a specific role that
         it plays in that relationship; a role is just the face the
         class at the near end of the association presents to the
         class at the other end of the association".  The Policy
         Core Information Model RFC3060 uses UML to depict its
         class hierarchy. Relationships/associations are significant
         in the model.
      -  An administratively specified characteristic of a managed
         element (for example, an interface).  It is a selector for
         policy rules and PRovisioning Classes (PRCs), to determine
         the applicability of the rule/PRC to a particular managed
         element RFC3060.
      Only the third definition (roles as selectors of policy) is
      directly related to the management of network policy. However,
      the first definition (roles as business positions and
      functions) may be referenced in policy conditions and actions.

$ role combination

  (P) A lexicographically ordered set of roles that characterize
      managed elements and indicate the applicability of policy
      rules and PRovisioning Classes (PRCs).  A policy system uses
      the set of roles reported by the managed element to determine
      the correct rules/PRCs to be sent for enforcement.  That
      determination may examine all applicable policy rules
      identified by the role combination, its sub-combinations and
      the individual roles in the combination RFC3060.  In the
      case of PRCs, a PRC must explicitly match the role combination
      of the managed element in order to be applicable and/or
      enforced.  (The comparison is typically case-sensitive.)  The
      final set of rules/PRCs for enforcement are defined by the
      policy system, as appropriate for the specified role
      combination of the managed element.

$ RSVP

  See "Resource reSerVation Protocol".

$ rule

  See "policy rule".

$ rule based engine

  (T) A rule based engine is able to evaluate policy condition(s)
      and trigger appropriate policy actions.  A particular rule
      based engine may only be capable of acting upon policy rules
      that are formatted in a specified way or adhere to a specific
      language.

$ schema

  (T) Two different perspectives of schema are defined:
      -  A set of rules that determines what data can be stored in a
         database or directory service [DirServs]
      -  A collection of data models that are each bound to the same
         type of repository.
      The latter is the preferred and recommended one for Internet
      Standards documents.  (See also "data model".)

$ service

  (P) The behavior or functionality provided by a network, network
      element or host [DMTF, RFC2216].  Quoting from RFC 2216
      RFC2216, in order to completely specify a "service", one
      must define the "functions to be performed ..., the
      information required ... to perform these functions, and the
      information made available by the element to other elements of
      the system".  Policy can be used to configure a "service" in a
      network or on a network element/host, invoke its
      functionality, and/or coordinate services in an interdomain or
      end-to-end environment.

$ Service Level Agreement (SLA)

  (P) The documented result of a negotiation between a
      customer/consumer and a provider of a service, that specifies
      the levels of availability, serviceability, performance,
      operation or other attributes of the service RFC2475. (See
      also "Service Level Objective".)

$ Service Level Objective (SLO)

  (P) Partitions an SLA into individual metrics and operational
      information to enforce and/or monitor the SLA.  "Service Level
      Objectives" may be defined as part of an SLA, an SLS, or in a
      separate document.  It is a set of parameters and their
      values.  The actions of enforcing and reporting monitored
      compliance can be implemented as one or more policies.  (See
      also "Service Level Agreement".)

$ Service Level Specification (SLS)

  (P) Specifies handling of customer's traffic by a network
      provider.  It is negotiated between a customer and the
      provider, and (for example) in a DiffServ environment, defines
      parameters such as specific Code Points and the Per-Hop-
      Behavior, profile characteristics and treatment of the traffic
      for those Code Points.  An SLS is a specific SLA (a negotiated
      agreement) and its SLOs (the individual metrics and
      operational data to enforce) to guarantee quality of service
      for network traffic.  (See also "Service Level Agreement" and
      "Service Level Objective".)

$ Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

  (T) SNMP is a framework (including a protocol) for managing
      systems in a network environment RFC2570.  It can be used
      for policy-based configuration and control using a specific
      MIB Module designed to execute policies on managed elements
      via scripts.  The elements (instances) in a network device are
      evaluated using a policy filter, to determine where policy
      will be applied.

$ SLA

  See "Service Level Agreement".

$ SLO

  See "Service Level Objective".

$ SLS

  See "Service Level Specification".

$ SMIv2

  See "Structure of Management Information".

$ SNMP

  See "Simple Network Management Protocol".

$ SPPI

  See "Structure of Policy Provisioning Information".

$ Structure of Policy Provisioning Information (SPPI)

  (T) An adapted subset of SNMP's Structure of Management
      Information (SMIv2) that is used to encode collections of
      related PRovisioning Classes as a PIB RFC3159. (See also
      "Policy Information Base" and "PRovisioning Class".)

$ Structure of Management Information, version 2 (SMIv2)

  (T) An adapted subset of OSI's Abstract Syntax Notation One, ASN.1
      (1988) used to encode collections of related objects as SNMP
      Management Information Base (MIB) modules RFC2578.

$ subject

  (P) An entity, or collection of entities, which originates a
      request, and is verified as authorized/not authorized to
      perform that request.

$ target

  (P) An entity, or collection of entities, which is affected by a
      policy.  For example, the "targets" of a policy to reconfigure
      a network device are the individual services that are updated
      and configured.

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Acknowledgements

This document builds on the work of previous terminology drafts. The authors of these documents were Fran Reichmeyer, Dan Grossman, John Strassner, Ed Ellesson and Matthew Condell. Also, definitions for the general concepts of policy and policy rule include input from Predrag Spasic. Very helpful comments and suggestions were received from Juergen Schoenwaelder, Joe Salowey, Jon Saperia, Ravi Sahita, Bob Moore, Guus Sliepen, T.H. Jonatan and Dave Perkins.

Security Considerations

This document only defines policy-related terms. It does not describe in detail the vulnerabilities of, threats to, or mechanisms that protect specific policy implementations or policy-related Internet protocols.

References

[DecSupp] Building Effective Decision Support Systems. R.

            Sprague, and E. Carleson.  Prentice Hall, 1982.

[DirServs] Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services. T.

            Howes, M. Smith, and G. Good.  MacMillan Technical
            Publications, 1999.

[DMTF] Common Information Model (CIM) Schema, version 2.x.

            Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. The components
            of the CIM v2.x schema are available via links on the
            following DMTF web page:
            http://www.dmtf.org/standards/standard_cim.php.

RFC1633 Braden, R., Clark, D. and S. Shenker, "Integrated

            Services in the Internet Architecture: An Overview", RFC
            1633, June 1994.

RFC2026 Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision

            3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

RFC2138 Rigney, C., Rubens, A., Simpson, W. and S. Willens,

            "Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)",
            RFC 2138, April 1997.

RFC2205 Braden, R., Zhang, L., Berson, S., Herzog, S. and S.

            Jamin, "Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP) -- Version
            1 Functional Specification", RFC 2205, September 1997.

RFC2216 Shenker, S. and J. Wroclawski, "Network Element Service

            Specification Template", September 1997.

RFC2474 Nichols, K., Blake, S., Baker, F. and D. Black,

            "Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS
            Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers", RFC 2474, December
            1998.

RFC2475 Blake, S., Black, D., Carlson, M., Davies, E., Wang, Z.

            and W. Weiss, "An Architecture for Differentiated
            Service", RFC 2475, December 1998.

RFC2570 Case, J., Mundy, R., Partain, D. and B. Stewart,

            "Introduction to Version 3 of the Internet-standard
            Network Management Framework", RFC 2570, April 1999.

RFC2578 McCloghrie, K., Perkins, D., Schoenwaelder, J., Case,

            J., Rose, M. and S.Waldbusser, "Structure of Management
            Information Version 2 (SMIv2)", RFC 2578, April 1999.

RFC2702 Awduche, D., Malcolm, J., Agogbua, J., O'Dell, M. and J.

            McManus, "Requirements for Traffic Engineering Over
            MPLS", RFC 2702, September 1999.

RFC2748 Durham, D., Boyle, J., Cohen, R., Herzog, S., Rajan, R.

            and A. Sastry, "The COPS (Common Open Policy Service)
            Protocol", RFC 2748, January 2000.

RFC2749 Herzog, S., Boyle, J., Cohen, R., Durham, D., Rajan, R.

            and A. Sastry, "COPS Usage for RSVP", RFC 2749, January
            2000.

RFC2753 Yavatkar, R., Pendarakis, D. and R. Guerin, "A Framework

            for Policy-based Admission Control", RFC 2753, January
            2000.

RFC2828 Shirey, R., "Internet Security Glossary", FYI 36, RFC

            2828, May 2000.

RFC3060 Moore, B., Ellesson, E., Strassner, J. and A.

            Westerinen, "Policy Core Information Model -- Version 1
            Specification", RFC 3060, February 2001.

RFC3084 Chan, K., Seligson, J., Durham, D., Gai, S., McCloghrie,

            K., Herzog, S., Reichmeyer, F., Yavatkar, R. and A.
            Smith, "COPS Usage for Policy Provisioning (COPS-PR)",
            RFC 3084, February 2001.

RFC3159 McCloghrie, K., Fine, M., Seligson, J., Chan, K., Hahn,

            S., Sahita, R., Smith, A. and F. Reichmeyer, "Structure
            of Policy Provisioning Information," RFC 3159, August
            2001.

[UML] The Unified Modeling Language User Guide. G. Booch, J.

            Rumbaugh, and I. Jacobson.  Addison-Wesley, 1999.

[X.500] Data Communications Networks Directory, Recommendations

            X.500-X.521, Volume VIII - Fascicle VIII.8.  CCITT, IXth
            Plenary Assembly, Melbourne.  November 1988.

Authors' Addresses

Andrea Westerinen Cisco Systems, Bldg 20 725 Alder Drive Milpitas, CA 95035

EMail: [email protected]

John Schnizlein Cisco Systems 9123 Loughran Road Fort Washington, MD 20744

EMail: [email protected]

John Strassner Intelliden Corporation 90 South Cascade Avenue Colorado Springs, CO 80903 Phone: +1-719-785-0648

EMail: [email protected]

Mark Scherling Xcert International Inc. Suite 300 505 Burrard Street Vancouver, BC V7X 1M3

EMail: [email protected]

Bob Quinn Celox Networks 2 Park Central Drive Southborough, MA 01772

EMail: [email protected]

Jay Perry Network Appliance 495 East Java Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94089

EMail: [email protected]

Shai Herzog PolicyConsulting.com 200 Clove Rd. New Rochelle, NY 10801

EMail: [email protected]

An-Ni Huynh Lucent Technologies 2139 Route 35 Holmdel, NJ 07733

Mark Carlson Sun Microsystems, Inc. 500 Eldorado Boulevard Broomfield, CO 80021

EMail: [email protected]

Steve Waldbusser

Phone: +1-650-948-6500 Fax: +1-650-745-0671 EMail: [email protected]

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