Policy Framework (policy)

NOTE: This charter is a snapshot of the . It may now be out-of-date.

Last Modified: 2004-06-07

Chair(s):

Joel Halpern <joel@stevecrocker.com>
Ed Ellesson <ellesson@mindspring.com>

Operations and Management Area Director(s):

Bert Wijnen <bwijnen@lucent.com>
David Kessens <david.kessens@nokia.com>

Operations and Management Area Advisor:

Bert Wijnen <bwijnen@lucent.com>

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion: policy@ietf.org
To Subscribe: policy-request@ietf.org
In Body: subscribe your_email_address
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/policy/index.html

Description of Working Group:

Note: Russ Mundy <mundy@tislabs.com> is the Security Technical
      advisor for this WG.


Problem Statement:

There is a need to represent, manage, share, and reuse policies
and policy information in a vendor-independent, interoperable,
and scalable manner. This working group has three main goals.
First, to provide a framework that will meet these needs. Second,
to define an extensible information model and specific schemata
compliant with that framework that can be used for general policy
representation (called the core information model and schema).
For now, only a directory schema will be defined. Third, to
extend the core information model and schema to address the needs of
QoS traffic management (called the QoS information model and
schemata).

The viability of the framework will be proven by demonstrating
that high-level policy information can be translated into device
configuration information for network QoS applications. This
requires the coordination of the core and QoS schemata, the
PIB and MIB being developed in DiffServ, and possibly
extensions to COPS provisioning, which is being developed
in RAP. A secondary goal of this framework is to show that this
general development process can be extended to other
application domains.

Objectives:

The objectives of this working group are to:

1. Identify a set of representative use cases to guide us in
  defining a policy framework, information model, and schemata
  to store, retrieve, distribute and process policies. These use
  cases should map to a set of policy rules, and aid us in defining
  the composition of policies.

2. Define a framework for intra-domain policy definition and
  administration for a heterogeneous set of Policy Decision and
  Enforcement Points. Here, "intra-domain" refers to policy
  components that are all under the same (and exclusive)
  administrative control. The framework will be shown to be able
  to be used to represent, distribute, and manage policies and
  policy information in an unambiguous, interoperable manner in
  a single administrative domain. This framework will be applied
  to network QoS.

3. A general information model, derived from the CIM/DEN
  policy model, will be produced. This is intended to serve as a
  generic means for representing policies and policy information.
  In addition, a mapping of this information model to a form that
  can be implemented in a directory that uses LDAPv3 as its
  access protocol will also be done.

4. Refinements to the above, for representing signaled and
  provisioned QoS, will be done. That is, both the information
  model as well as the schema will be extended to focus on
  network QoS. This will also be used to prove the general
  extensibility of the model.

5. A key part of demonstrating that this model can provide
  end-to-end translation of high-level policy specifications to
  device configurations is to ensure that the information
  model and schemata are compatible with and can use the
  information contained in the PIB(s) and MIB(s) being
  developed in the Differentiated Services WG. To this end,
  the Policy Framework WG will supply input to the
  development of the PIBs, and include all applicable PIBs
  and MIBs in its development considerations for the
  framework, information model, and schemata.

6. Policy information may be communicated using several
  protocols. The COPS protocol, being developed in the RAP
  WG, is an example of one such protocol. The Policy
  Framework WG will work with the RAP WG to define usage
  directives for use of the COPS base protocol to support
  policy information exchange transactions within the
  framework being standardized in the Policy Framework WG.

7. The Policy Framework WG will work closely with the
  IPSP WG to ensure that the IPsec data model fits and can
  be supported within the general framework defined by the
  Policy Framework WG.

8. The Policy Framework WG will work with other WGs as
  needed to ensure that the framework, information model,
  and specific schemata produced meet the needs of these
  WGs.

9. The charter specifically excludes:

    -protocol definition

    -schema attributes or classes that are vendor-specific
    (although the schema defined in this group will be defined
    in a way that is extensible by specific vendors)

Goals and Milestones:

Done  PCIM submittal for Proposed Std Status
Done  PCLS working group last call
Done  Terminology draft wg last call (fyi track)
Done  PCIM Extensions Final Draft, and wg last call
Done  QPIM Final Draft, and wg last call
Done  QDDIM Final Draft and wg last call
Aug 01  QPLS Final Draft, and wg last call

No Current Internet-Drafts

Request For Comments:

RFCStatusTitle
RFC3060 PS Policy Core Information Model - Version 1 Specification
RFC3198 I Terminology for Policy-Based Management
RFC3460 PS Policy Core Information Model Extensions
RFC3644 Standard Policy QoS Information Model
RFC3670 Standard Information Model for Describing Network Device QoS Datapath Mechanisms
RFC3703 Standard Policy Core LDAP Schema