Policy Framework Working Group B. Moore
INTERNET-DRAFT L. Rafalow
Category: Standards Track IBM
Y. Ramberg
Y. Snir
J. Strassner
A. Westerinen
Cisco Systems
R. Chadha
Telcordia Technologies
M. Brunner
NEC
R. Cohen
Ntear LLC
February, 2001
Policy Core Information Model Extensions
<draft-ietf-policy-pcim-ext-00.txt>
Friday, February 23, 2001, 11:07 AM
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document proposes a number of changes to the Policy Core Information
Model (PCIM, RFC 3060). These changes include both extensions of PCIM
into areas that it did not previously cover, and changes to the existing
PCIM classes and associations. Both sets of changes are done in a way
that, to the extent possible, preserves interoperability with
implementations of the original PCIM model.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................4
2. Overview of the Changes...........................................4
2.1. How to Change an Information Model...........................4
2.2. List of Changes to the Model.................................5
2.2.1. Changes to PolicyRepository................................5
2.2.2. Additional Associations and Additional Reusable Elements...5
2.2.3. Priorities and Decision Strategies.........................5
2.2.4. Policy Roles...............................................6
2.2.5. CompoundPolicyConditions and CompoundPolicyActions.........6
2.2.6. Variables and Values.......................................7
2.2.7. Packet Filtering...........................................7
3. The Updated Class and Association Class Hierarchies...............7
4. Areas of Extension to PCIM.......................................11
4.1. Scope of Policies: Domain Policies and Device Policies.....11
4.2. Reusable Policy Elements....................................12
4.3. Policy Sets.................................................13
4.4. Nested Policy Rules.........................................13
4.4.1. Usage Rules for Nested Rules..............................13
4.4.2. Motivation................................................14
4.4.3. Usage Example.............................................15
4.5. Priorities and Decision Strategies..........................16
4.5.1. Structuring Decision Strategies...........................17
4.5.2. Deterministic Decisions...................................18
4.5.3. Multiple PolicySet Trees For a Resource...................19
4.6. Policy Roles................................................19
4.6.1. Comparison of Roles in PCIM with Roles in snmpconf........19
4.6.2. Addition of PolicyRoleCollection to PCIMe.................20
4.6.3. Roles for PolicyGroups....................................21
4.7. Compound Policy Conditions and Compound Policy Actions......22
4.7.1. Compound Policy Conditions................................23
4.7.2. Compound Policy Actions...................................23
4.8. Variables and Values........................................25
4.8.1. Simple Policy Conditions..................................25
4.8.2. Using Simple Policy Conditions............................26
4.8.3. The Simple Condition Operator.............................27
4.8.4. SimplePolicyActions.......................................28
4.8.5. Policy Variables..........................................30
4.8.6. Explicitly Bound Policy Variables.........................30
4.8.7. Implicitly Bound Policy Variables.........................31
4.8.8. Structure and Usage of Pre-Defined Variables..............32
4.8.9. Rationale for Modeling Implicit Variables as Classes......33
4.8.10. Policy Values............................................34
4.9. Packet Filtering............................................34
5. Class Definitions................................................36
5.1. The Abstract Class "PolicySet"..............................36
5.2. Updates to PCIM's Class "PolicyGroup".......................37
5.3. Updates to PCIM's Class "PolicyRule"........................37
5.4. The Class "SimplePolicyCondition"...........................38
5.5. The Class "CompoundPolicyCondition".........................38
5.6. The Class "CompoundFilterCondition".........................39
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5.7. The Class "SimplePolicyAction"..............................39
5.8. The Class "CompoundPolicyAction"............................40
5.9. The Abstract Class "PolicyVariable".........................41
5.10. The Class "PolicyExplicitVariable".........................41
5.10.1. The Single-Valued Property "ModelClass"..................42
5.10.2. The Single-Valued Property ModelProperty.................42
5.11. The Abstract Class "PolicyImplicitVariable"................42
5.11.1. The Multi-Valued Property "ValueTypes"...................42
5.12. Subclasses of "PolicyImplicitVariable" Specified in PCIMe..43
5.12.1. The Class "PolicySourceIPVariable".......................43
5.12.2. The Class "PolicyDestinationIPVariable"..................43
5.12.3. The Class "PolicySourcePortVariable".....................43
5.12.4. The Class "PolicyDestinationPortVariable"................44
5.12.5. The Class "PolicyIPProtocolVariable".....................44
5.12.6. The Class "PolicyIPVersionVariable"......................44
5.12.7. The Class "PolicyIPToSVariable"..........................44
5.12.8. The Class "PolicyDSCPVariable"...........................45
5.12.9. The Class "PolicySourceMACVariable"......................45
5.12.10. The Class "PolicyDestinationMACVariable"................45
5.12.11. The Class "PolicyVLANVariable"..........................45
5.12.12. The Class "PolicyCoSVariable"...........................46
5.12.13. The Class "PolicyEthertypeVariable".....................46
5.12.14. The Class "PolicySourceSAPVariable".....................46
5.12.15. The Class "PolicyDestinationSAPVariable"................46
5.12.16. The Class "PolicySNAPVariable"..........................47
5.12.17. The Class "PolicyFlowDirectionVariable".................47
5.13. The Abstract Class "PolicyValue"...........................47
5.14. Subclasses of "PolicyValue" Specified in PCIMe.............48
5.14.1. The Class "PolicyIPv4AddrValue"..........................48
5.14.2. The Class "PolicyIPv6AddrValue...........................49
5.14.3. The Class "PolicyMACAddrValue"...........................50
5.14.4. The Class "PolicyStringValue"............................50
5.14.5. The Class "PolicyBitStringValue".........................51
5.14.6. The Class "PolicyIntegerValue"...........................51
5.14.7. The Class "PolicyBooleanValue"...........................52
5.15. The Class "PolicyRoleCollection"...........................53
5.15.1. The Single-Valued Property "PolicyRole"..................53
5.16. The Class "ReusablePolicyContainer"........................53
5.17. Deprecation of PCIM's Class "PolicyRepository".............53
6. Association and Aggregation Definitions..........................54
6.1. The Abstract Aggregation "PolicySetComponent"...............54
6.2. Update to PCIM's Aggregation "PolicyGroupInPolicyGroup".....54
6.3. Update to PCIM's Aggregation "PolicyRuleInPolicyGroup"......55
6.4. The Aggregation "PolicyGroupInPolicyRule"...................55
6.5. The Aggregation "PolicyRuleInPolicyRule"....................56
6.6. The Abstract Aggregation "CompoundedPolicyCondition"........56
6.7. Update to PCIM's Aggregation "PolicyConditionInPolicyRule"..57
6.8. The Aggregation "PolicyConditionInPolicyCondition"..........57
6.9. The Abstract Aggregation "CompoundedPolicyAction"...........57
6.10. Update to PCIM's Aggregation "PolicyActionInPolicyRule"....57
6.11. The Aggregation "PolicyActionInPolicyAction"...............58
6.12. The Aggregation "PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition"....58
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6.13. The Aggregation "PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition".......59
6.14. The Aggregation "PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction".......59
6.15. The Aggregation "PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction"..........60
6.16. The Association "ReusablePolicy"...........................61
6.17. Deprecate PCIM's "PolicyConditionInPolicyRepository".......61
6.18. Deprecate PCIM's "PolicyActionInPolicyRepository"..........61
6.19. The Association PolicyValueConstraintInVariable............61
6.20. The Aggregation "PolicyContainerInPolicyContainer".........62
6.21. Deprecate PCIM's "PolicyRepositoryInPolicyRepository"......62
6.22. The Aggregation "ElementInPolicyRoleCollection"............63
6.22.1. The Weak Association "PolicyRoleCollectionInSystem"......63
7. Intellectual Property............................................64
8. Acknowledgements.................................................64
9. Security Considerations..........................................64
10. References......................................................64
11. Authors' Addresses..............................................65
12. Full Copyright Statement........................................67
13. Appendix A: Open Issues.........................................67
1. Introduction
This document (PCIM Extensions, abbreviated here to PCIMe) proposes a
number of changes to the Policy Core Information Model (PCIM, RFC 3060
[3]). These changes include both extensions of PCIM into areas that it
did not previously cover, and changes to the existing PCIM classes and
associations. Both sets of changes are done in a way that, to the extent
possible, preserves interoperability with implementations of the original
PCIM model.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119, reference [1].
2. Overview of the Changes
2.1. How to Change an Information Model
The Policy Core Information Model is closely aligned with the DMTF's CIM
Core Policy model. Since there is no separately documented set of rules
for specifying IETF information models such as PCIM, it is reasonable to
look to the CIM specifications for guidance on how to modify and extend
the model. Among the CIM rules for changing an information model are the
following. Note that everything said here about "classes" applies to
association classes (including aggregations) as well as to non-
association classes.
o Properties may be added to existing classes.
o Classes, and individual properties, may be marked as DEPRECATED.
If there is a replacement feature for the deprecated class or
property, it is identified explicitly. Otherwise the notation "No
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value" is used. In this document, the notation "DEPRECATED FOR
<feature-name>" is used to indicate that a feature has been
deprecated, and to identify its replacement feature.
o Classes may be inserted into the inheritance hierarchy above
existing classes, and properties from the existing classes may
then be "pulled up" into the new classes. The net effect is that
the existing classes have exactly the same properties they had
before, but the properties are inherited rather than defined
explicitly in the classes.
o New subclasses may be defined below existing classes.
2.2. List of Changes to the Model
The following subsections provide a very brief overview of the changes to
PCIM being proposed in PCIMe.
2.2.1. Changes to PolicyRepository
Because of the potential for confusion with the Policy Framework
component Policy Repository (from the four-box picture: Policy Management
Tool, Policy Repository, PDP, PEP), "PolicyRepository" is a bad name for
the PCIM class representing a container of reusable policy elements.
Thus the class PolicyRepository is being replaced with the class
ReusablePolicyContainer. To accomplish this change, it is necessary to
deprecate the PCIM class PolicyRepository and its three associations, and
replace them with a new class ReusablePolicyContainer and new
associations.
As a separate change, the associations for ReusablePolicyContainer are
being broadened, to allow a ReusablePolicyContainer to contain any
reusable policy elements. In PCIM, the only associations defined for a
PolicyRepository were for it to contain reusable policy conditions and
policy actions.
2.2.2. Additional Associations and Additional Reusable Elements
The PolicyRuleInPolicyRule and PolicyGroupInPolicyRule aggregations are
being imported from QPIM. These associations make it possible to define
larger "chunks" of reusable policy to place in a ReusablePolicyContainer.
These aggregations also introduce new semantics representing the
contextual implications of having one PolicyRule executing within the
scope of another PolicyRule.
2.2.3. Priorities and Decision Strategies
Drawing from both QPIM and ICIM, the Priority property is being
deprecated in PolicyRule, and placed instead on the aggregations
PolicyRuleInPolicyGroup, PolicyGroupInPolicyGroup,
PolicyGroupInPolicyRule, and PolicyRuleInPolicyRule. (This is
accomplished by placing the Priority property on the abstract aggregation
PolicySetComponent, from which these four aggregations are derived.) The
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QPIM rules for resolving relative priorities across nested PolicyGroups
and PolicyRules are being incorporated into PCIMe as well. With the
removal of the Priority property from PolicyRule, a new modeling
dependency is introduced: in order to prioritize a PolicyRule relative to
other PolicyRules, the rules must be placed in either a common
PolicyGroup or a common PolicyRule.
In the absence of any clear, general criterion for detecting policy
conflicts, the PCIM restriction stating that priorities are relevant only
in the case of conflicts is being removed. In its place, a
PolicyDecisionStrategy property is being added to the PolicyGroup and
PolicyRule classes, to allow the policy administrator to select one of
two behaviors with respect to rule evaluation: either perform the actions
for all PolicyRules whose conditions evaluate to TRUE, or perform the
actions only for the highest-priority PolicyRule whose conditions
evaluate to TRUE. (Once again this is accomplished by placing the
PolicyDecisionStrategy property in an abstract class PolicySet, from
which PolicyGroup and PolicyRule are derived.) The QPIM rules for
applying decision strategies to a nested set of PolicyGroups and
PolicyRules are also being imported.
2.2.4. Policy Roles
The concept of policy roles is added to PolicyGroups (being present
already in the PolicyRule class). This is accomplished via a new
superclass for both PolicyRules and PolicyGroups - PolicySets. For
nested PolicyRules and PolicyGroups, any roles associated with the outer
rule or group are automatically "inherited" by the nested one.
Additional roles may be added at the level of the nested rule or group.
It was also observed that there was no mechanism in PCIM for assigning
roles to resources. For example, while it was possible to associate a
PolicyRule with the role "FrameRelay&&WAN", there was no way to indicate
which interfaces matched this criterion. A new PolicyRoleCollection
class is defined in PCIMe, representing the collection of resources
associated with a particular role. The linkage between a PolicyRule or
PolicyGroup and a set of resources is then represented by an instance of
PolicyRoleCollection. Equivalent values should be defined in entries in
the PolicyRoles property, inherited by PolicyRules and PolicyGroups from
PolicySet, and in the PolicyRole property in PolicyRoleCollection.
2.2.5. CompoundPolicyConditions and CompoundPolicyActions
The concept of a CompoundPolicyCondition is also being imported into
PCIMe from QPIM, and broadened to include a parallel
CompoundPolicyAction. In both cases the idea is to create reusable
"chunks" of policy that can exist as named elements in a
ReusablePolicyContainer. The "Compound" classes and their associations
incorporate the condition and action semantics that PCIM defined at the
PolicyRule level: DNF/CNF for conditions, and ordering for actions.
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Compound conditions and actions are defined to work with any component
conditions and actions. In other words, while the components may be
instances, respectively, of SimplePolicyCondition and SimplePolicyAction
(discussed immediately below), they need not be.
2.2.6. Variables and Values
The SimplePolicyCondition / PolicyVariable / PolicyValue structure is
being imported into PCIMe from QPIM. A list of PCIMe-level variables is
defined, as well as a list of PCIMe-level values. Other variables and
values may, if necessary, be defined in submodels of PCIMe.
A corresponding SimplePolicyAction / PolicyVariable / PolicyValue
structure is also defined. While the semantics of a
SimplePolicyCondition are "variable matches value", a SimplePolicyAction
has the semantics "set variable to value".
2.2.7. Packet Filtering
For packet filtering done in the context of a PolicyCondition, a set of
PolicyVariables and PolicyValues are defined, corresponding to the fields
in an IP packet header plus the most common Layer 2 frame header fields.
It is expected that policy conditions that filter on these header fields
will be expressed in terms of CompoundPolicyConditions built up from
SimplePolicyConditions that use these variables and values. An
additional PolicyVariable, PacketDirection, is also defined, to indicate
whether a packet being filtered is traveling inbound or outbound on an
interface.
For packet filtering in other contexts (specifically, for the packet
classifier filters modeled in QDDIM), these variables and values need not
be used. Filter classes derived from the CIM FilterEntryBase class
hierarchy may still be used in these contexts.
3. The Updated Class and Association Class Hierarchies
The following figure shows the class inheritance hierarchy for PCIMe.
Changes from the PCIM hierarchy are noted parenthetically.
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ManagedElement (abstract)
|
+--Policy (abstract)
| |
| +---PolicySet (abstract -- new - 4.3)
| | |
| | +---PolicyGroup (moved - 4.3)
| | |
| | +---PolicyRule (moved - 4.3)
| |
| +---PolicyCondition (abstract)
| | |
| | +---PolicyTimePeriodCondition
| | |
| | +---VendorPolicyCondition
| | |
| | +---SimplePolicyCondition (new - 4.8.1)
| | |
| | +---CompoundPolicyCondition (new - 4.7.1)
| | |
| | +---CompoundFilterCondition (new - 4.9)
| |
| +---PolicyAction (abstract)
| | |
| | +---VendorPolicyAction
| | |
| | +---SimplePolicyAction (new - 4.8.4)
| | |
| | +---CompoundPolicyAction (new - 4.7.2)
| |
| +---PolicyVariable (abstract -- new - 4.8.5)
| | |
| | +---PolicyExplicitVariable (new - 4.8.6)
| | |
| | +---PolicyImplicitVariable (abstract -- new - 4.8.7)
| | |
| | +---(subtree of more specific classes -- new - 5.12)
| |
| +---PolicyValue (abstract -- new - 4.8.10)
| |
| +---(subtree of more specific classes -- new - 5.14)
|
+--Collection (abstract -- newly referenced)
|
+--PolicyRoleCollection (new - 4.6.2)
(continued on following page)
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(continued from previous page)
ManagedElement(abstract)
|
+--ManagedSystemElement (abstract)
|
+--LogicalElement (abstract)
|
+--System (abstract)
|
+--AdminDomain (abstract)
|
+---ReusablePolicyContainer (new - 4.2)
|
+---PolicyRepository (deprecated - 4.2)
Figure 1. Class Inheritance Hierarchy for PCIMe
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The following figure shows the association class hierarchy for PCIMe. As
before, changes from PCIM are noted parenthetically.
[unrooted]
|
+---PolicyComponent (abstract)
| |
| +---PolicySetComponent (abstract -- new - 4.3)
| | |
| | +---PolicyGroupInPolicyGroup (moved - 4.3)
| | |
| | +---PolicyRuleInPolicyGroup (moved - 4.3)
| | |
| | +---PolicyGroupInPolicyRule (new - 4.3)
| | |
| | +---PolicyRuleInPolicyRule (new - 4.3)
| |
| +---CompoundedPolicyCondition (abstract -- new - 4.7.1)
| | |
| | +---PolicyConditionInPolicyRule (moved - 4.7.1)
| | |
| | +---PolicyConditionInPolicyCondition (new - 4.7.1)
| |
| +---PolicyRuleValidityPeriod
| |
| +---CompoundedPolicyAction (abstract -- new - 4.7.2)
| | |
| | +---PolicyActionInPolicyRule (moved - 4.7.2)
| | |
| | +---PolicyActionInPolicyAction (new - 4.7.2)
| |
| +---PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition (new - 4.8.2)
| |
| +---PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition (new - 4.8.2)
| |
| +---PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction (new - 4.8.4)
| |
| +---PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction (new - 4.8.4)
(continued on following page)
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(continued from previous page)
[unrooted]
|
+---Dependency (abstract)
| |
| +---PolicyInSystem (abstract)
| | |
| | +---PolicyGroupInSystem
| | |
| | +---PolicyRuleInSystem
| | |
| | +---ReusablePolicy (new - 4.2)
| | |
| | +---PolicyConditionInPolicyRepository (deprecated - 4.2)
| | |
| | +---PolicyActionInPolicyRepository (deprecated - 4.2)
| |
| +---PolicyValueConstraintInVariable (new - 4.8)
| |
| +---PolicyRoleCollectionInSystem (new - 4.6.2)
|
+---Component (abstract)
| |
| +---SystemComponent
| |
| +---PolicyContainerInPolicyContainer (new - 4.2)
| |
| +---PolicyRepositoryInPolicyRepository (deprecated - 4.2)
|
+---MemberOfCollection (newly referenced)
|
+--- ElementInPolicyRoleCollection (new - 4.6.2)
Figure 2. Association Class Inheritance Hierarchy for PCIMe
In addition to these changes that show up at the class and association
class level, there are other changes from PCIM involving individual class
properties. In some cases new properties are introduced into existing
classes, and in other cases existing properties are deprecated (without
deprecating the classes that contain them).
4. Areas of Extension to PCIM
The following subsections describe each of the areas for which PCIM
extensions are being defined.
4.1. Scope of Policies: Domain Policies and Device Policies
Policies vary in level of abstraction, from the business-level expression
of service level agreements (SLAs) to the specification of a set of rules
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that apply to devices in a network. Those latter policies can,
themselves, be classified into at least two groups: those policies
consumed by a Policy Decision Point (PDP) that specify the rules for an
administrative and functional domain, and those policies consumed by a
Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) that specify the device-specific rules for
a functional domain. The higher-level rules consumed by a PDP may have
late binding variables unspecified, or specified by a classification,
whereas the device-level rules are likely to have fewer unresolved
bindings.
There is a relationship between these levels of policy specification that
is out of scope for this standards effort, but that is necessary in the
development and deployment of a usable policy-based configuration system.
An SLA-level policy transformation to the domain-level policy may be
thought of as analogous to a visual builder that takes human input and
develops a programmatic rule specification. The relationship between the
domain-level policy and the device-level policy may be thought of as
analogous to that of a compiler and linkage editor that translates the
rules into specific instructions that can be executed on a specific type
of platform.
The policy core information model may be used to specify rules at any and
all of these levels of abstraction. However, at different levels of
abstraction, different mechanisms may be more or less appropriate.
4.2. Reusable Policy Elements
In PCIM, a distinction was drawn between reusable PolicyConditions and
PolicyActions and rule-specific ones. The PolicyRepository class was
also defined, to serve as a container for these reusable elements. The
name "PolicyRepository" has proven to be an unfortunate choice for the
class that serves as a container for reusable policy elements. This term
is already used in documents like the Policy Framework, to denote the
location from which the PEP retrieves all policy specifications, and into
which the Policy Management Tool places all policy specifications.
Consequently, the PolicyRepository class is being deprecated, in favor of
a new class ReusablePolicyContainer.
When a class is deprecated, any associations that refer to it must also
be deprecated. So replacements are needed for the two associations
PolicyConditionInPolicyRepository and PolicyActionInPolicyRepository, as
well as for the aggregation PolicyRepositoryInPolicyRepository. In
addition to renaming the PolicyRepository class to
ReusablePolicyContainer, however, PCIMe is also broadening the types of
policy elements that can be reusable. Consequently, rather than
providing one-for-one replacements for the two associations, a single
higher-level association ReusablePolicy is defined. This new association
allows any policy element (that is, an instance of any subclass of the
abstract class Policy) to be placed in a ReusablePolicyContainer.
Summarizing, the following changes in Sections 5 and 6 are the result of
this item:
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o The class ReusablePolicyContainer is defined.
o PCIM's PolicyRepository class is deprecated.
o The association ReusablePolicy is defined.
o PCIM's PolicyConditionInPolicyRepository association is deprecated.
o PCIM's PolicyActionInPolicyRepository association is deprecated.
o The aggregation PolicyContainerInPolicyContainer is defined.
o PCIM's PolicyRepositoryInPolicyRepository aggregation is deprecated.
4.3. Policy Sets
A "policy" can be thought of as a coherent set of rules to administer,
manage, and control access to network resources (PolTerm, reference
[12]). The structuring of these coherent sets of rules into subsets is
enhanced in this document. In section 4.4, we discuss the new options
for the nesting of policy rules.
A new abstract class, PolicySet, is introduced to provide an abstraction
for a set of rules. It is derived from Policy, and it is inserted into
the inheritance hierarchy above both PolicyGroup and PolicyRule. This
reflects the additional structure flexibility and semantic capability of
both subclasses.
Two properties are defined in PolicySet: PolicyDecisionStrategy and
PolicyRoles. PolicyDecisionStrategy is added to PolicySet to define the
evaluation relationship between the rules in the policy set. See section
4.5 for more information. PolicyRoles is added to PolicySet to name the
retrieval sets. See section 4.6 for more information.
Along with the definition of the PolicySet class, a new abstract
aggregation class is defined that will also be discussed in the following
sections. PolicySetComponent is defined as a subclass of
PolicyComponent; it provides the containment relationship for a
PolicySet. PolicyGroupInPolicyGroup and PolicyRuleInPolicyGroup are
modified to subclass from PolicySetComponent. PolicyGroupInPolicyRule
and PolicyRuleInPolicyRule, discussed in the next section, are also
defined as subclasses of PolicySetComponent.
4.4. Nested Policy Rules
As previously discussed, policy is described by a set of policy rules
that may be grouped into subsets. In this section we introduce the
notion of nested rules, or the ability to define rules within rules.
Nested rules are also called sub-rules, and we use both terms in this
document interchangeably. Two new aggregations are defined for this
purpose: PolicyRuleInPolicyRule and PolicyGroupInPolicyRule.
4.4.1. Usage Rules for Nested Rules
The relationship between rules and sub-rules is defined as follows:
o The parent rule's condition clause is a pre-condition for
evaluation of all nested rules. If the parent rule's condition
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clause evaluates to FALSE, all sub-rules SHALL be skipped and
their condition clauses SHALL NOT be evaluated.
o If the parent rule's condition evaluates to TRUE, the set of sub-
rules SHALL BE executed according to the decision strategy and
priorities as discussed in Section 4.5.
o If the parent rule's condition evaluates to TRUE, the parent
rule's set of actions is executed BEFORE the evaluation and
execution of the sub-rules. The parent rule's actions are not to
be confused with default actions. A default action is one that is
to be executed only if none of the more specific sub-rules are
executed. If a default action needs to be specified, it needs to
be defined as an action that is part of a catchall sub-rule
associated with the parent rule. The association linking the
default action(s) in this special sub-rule should have the lowest
priority relative to all other sub-rule associations:
if precondition then parent rule's action
if condA then actA
if condB then ActB
if True then default action
Default actions have meaning when FirstMatching decision
strategies are in effect (see section 4.5).
o Policy rules have an implicit context in which they are executed.
For example, the context of a policy rule could be all packets
running on an interface or set of interfaces on which the rule is
applied. Similarly, a parent rule provides a context to all of
its sub-rules. The context of the sub-rules is the restriction of
the context of the parent rule to the set of cases that match the
parent rule's condition clause.
4.4.2. Motivation
The motivation for introducing nested rules includes enhancing the
definition of Policy, defining and reusing context hierarchies,
optimizing how a rule is evaluated, and providing finer-grained control
over condition evaluation.
Rule nesting enhances Policy readability, expressiveness and reusability.
The ability to nest policy rules and form sub-rules is important for
manageability and scalability, as it enables complex policy rules to be
constructed from multiple simpler policy rules. These enhancements ease
the policy management tools' task, allowing policy rules to be expressed
in a way closer to how humans think.
Sub-rules enable the policy designer to define a hierarchy of rules.
This hierarchy has the property that sub-rules can be scoped by their
parent rules. This scoping, or context of evaluation and execution, is a
powerful tool in enabling the policy designer to obtain the fine-grained
control needed to appropriately manage resources for certain
applications. The example in the following section demonstrates that
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expressing relative bandwidth allocation rules can be done very naturally
using a hierarchical rule structure.
Rule nesting can be used to optimize the way policy rules are evaluated
and executed. Once the parent rule's condition clause is evaluated to
FALSE, all sub-rules are skipped, optimizing the number of lookups
required. Note that this is not the prime reason for rule nesting, but
rather a side benefit. Optimization of rule execution can be done in the
PDP or in the PEP by dedicated code. This is similar to the relation
between a high level programming language like C and machine code. An
optimizer can create a more efficient machine code than any optimization
done by the programmer within the source code. Nevertheless, if the PEP
or PDP does not do optimization, the administrator writing the policy can
optimize the policy rules for execution using rule nesting.
In a model where condition evaluation may have side effects, nesting
rules allow control of condition evaluation, as sub-rule conditions SHALL
NOT be evaluated if the condition of the parent rule evaluates to FALSE.
Nested rules are not designed for policy repository retrieval
optimization. It is assumed that all rules and groups that are assigned
to a role are retrieved by the PDP or PEP from the policy repository and
enforced. Optimizing the number of rules retrieved should be done by
clever selection of roles.
4.4.3. Usage Example
This section provides a usage example that aims to clarify the motivation
for the definition of rule nesting and the use of the relative context.
Consider the following example, where a set of rules is used to specify
the minimal bandwidth allocations on an interface. The policy reads:
On any interface on which these rules apply, allocate at
least 30% of the interface bandwidth to UDP flows, and at
least 40% of the interface bandwidth to TCP flows.
This single rule is translated to a set of two rules:
If (IP protocol is UDP) THEN Set MinBW to 30% (1)
If (IP protocol is TCP) THEN Set MinBW to 40% (2)
Now, let's add some sub-rules to further differentiate how bandwidth
should be allocated to specific UDP and TCP applications (indentation
indicates rule nesting):
If (IP protocol is UDP) THEN Set MinBW to 30% (1)
If (protocol is TFTP) THEN Set MinBW to 10% (1a)
If (protocol is NFS) THEN Set MinBW to 40% (1b)
If (IP protocol is TCP) THEN Set MinBW to 40% (2)
If (protocol is HTTP) THEN Set MinBW to 20% (2a)
If (protocol is FTP) THEN Set MinBW to 30% (2b)
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This means that for UDP flows, TFTP should be allocated 10% of the
bandwidth while NFS should be allocated 40%. For TCP flows, HTTP should
be allocated 20% of the bandwidth while FTP should be allocated 30%.
The context of each of the two high-level rules (those marked (1) and (2)
above) is all flows running on an interface. The two sub-rules of the
UDP rule, marked (1a) and (1b) above specify a more granular context:
within UDP flows, TFTP should be allocated 10% of the bandwidth while NFS
should be allocated 40%. The context of these sub-rules is therefore UDP
flows only. Similar functionality applies for the hierarchy of rules
treating TCP flows.
A context hierarchy enhances reusability. The rules that divide
bandwidth between TFTP and NFS can be re-used and associated to rules
that allocate different percentages of the bandwidth for different
interfaces (or even for the same interface, but under different
conditions) for UDP.
4.5. Priorities and Decision Strategies
A "decision strategy" is used to specify the evaluation method for the
policies in a PolicySet. Two decision strategies are defined:
"FirstMatching" and "AllMatching." The FirstMatching strategy is used to
cause the evaluation of the rules in a set such that the actions of only
the first rule that matches are enforced on a given examination of the
PolicySet. The AllMatching strategy is used to cause the evaluation of
all rules in a set; for all of the rules that match, the actions are
enforced. (Strawman: Implementations MUST support the FirstMatching
decision strategy; implementations MAY support the AllMatching decision
strategy.)
As previously discussed, the PolicySet subclasses are PolicyGroup and
PolicyRule, and either subclass may contain PolicySets of either
subclass. Loops, including the degenerate case of a PolicySet that
contains itself, are not allowed when PolicySets contain other
PolicySets. The containment relationship is specified using the
PolicySetComponent subclasses: PolicyGroupInPolicyGroup,
PolicyRuleInPolicyGroup, PolicyGroupInPolicyRule and
PolicyRuleInPolicyRule.
The order of evaluation within a PolicySet is established by the Priority
property of the PolicySetComponent aggregation. Instances of the
subclasses of PolicySetComponent specify the relative priority of the
contained policy groups and rules within the containing group or rule.
The use of PCIM's PolicyRule.Priority property is deprecated in favor of
this new property. The separation of the priority property from the rule
has two advantages. First, it generalizes the concept of priority, so it
can be used for both groups and rules; and, second, it places the
priority on the relationship between the parent policy set and the
subordinate policy group or rule. The assignment of a priority value,
then, becomes much easier in that the value is used only in relationship
to other priorities in the same set.
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Together, the PolicySet.PolicyDecisionStrategy and
PolicySetComponent.Priority determine the processing for the rules
contained in a PolicySet. As before, the larger priority value
represents the higher priority. Unlike the earlier definition,
PolicySetComponent.Priority MUST have a unique value when compared with
others defined for the aggregating PolicySet. Thus, the evaluation of
rules within a set is deterministically specified.
For a FirstMatching decision strategy, the order of evaluation, then, is
high to low priority. The first rule (i.e., the one with the highest
priority) in the set that evaluates to True, is the only rule whose
actions are enforced for a particular evaluation pass through the
PolicySet.
For an AllMatching decision strategy, the order of evaluation is also
from high priority to low priority; however, all of the matching rules
are executed. Although higher priority rules are evaluated first, lower
priority rules may get the "last word." So, for example, if two rules
both evaluate to True, and the higher priority rule sets the DSCP to 3
and the lower priority rule sets the DSCP to 4, the lower priority rule
will be evaluated later and, therefore, will "win," in this example,
setting the DSCP to 4. Thus, conflicts between rules are resolved by
this evaluation order.
4.5.1. Structuring Decision Strategies
When policy sets are nested, as shown in Figure 3, the decision
strategies may be nested arbitrarily. In this example, the evaluation
order for the nested rules is 1A, 1B1, 1X2, 1B3, 1C, 1C1, 1X2 and 1C3.
(Note that PolicyRule 1X2 is included in both PolicyGroup 1B and
PolicyRule 1C, but with different priorities.) Of course, the evaluation
order is also dependent on which rules, if any, match.
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PolicyGroup 1: FirstMatching
|
+-- Pri=6 -- PolicyRule 1A
|
+-- Pri=5 -- PolicyGroup 1B: AllMatching
| |
| +-- Pri=5 -- PolicyGroup 1B1: AllMatching
| | |
| | +---- etc.
| |
| +-- Pri=4 -- PolicyRule 1X2
| |
| +-- Pri=3 -- PolicyRule 1B3: FirstMatching
| |
| +---- etc.
|
+-- Pri=4 -- PolicyRule 1C: FirstMatching
|
+-- Pri=4 -- PolicyRule 1C1
|
+-- Pri=3 -- PolicyRule 1X2
|
+-- Pri=2 -- PolicyRule 1C3
Figure 3. Nested PolicySets with Different Decision Strategies
o Because PolicyGroup 1 has a FirstMatching decision strategy, if
the conditions of PolicyRule 1A match, its actions are enforced
and the evaluation stops.
o If it does not match, PolicyGroup 1B is evaluated using an
AllMatching strategy. Since PolicyGroup 1B1 also has an
AllMatching strategy all of the rules and groups of rules
contained in PolicyGroup 1B1 are evaluated and enforced as
appropriate. PolicyRule 1X2 and PolicyRule 1B3 are also evaluated
and enforced as appropriate. If any of the sub-rules in the
subtrees of PolicyGroup 1B evaluate to True, then PolicyRule 1C is
not evaluated because the FirstMatching strategy of PolicyGroup 1
has been satisfied.
o If neither PolicyRule 1A nor PolicyGroup 1B yield a match, then
PolicyRule 1C is evaluated. Since it is first matching, rules
1C1, 1X2, and 1C3 are evaluated until the first match, if any.
4.5.2. Deterministic Decisions
As mentioned above, we propose that Priority values are to be unique
within a containing PolicySet. Although there are certainly cases where
rules need not have a unique priority value (i.e., where evaluation and
execution order is not important), it is believed that the flexibility
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gained by this capability is not sufficiently beneficial to justify the
possible variations in implementation behavior and the resulting
confusion that might occur.
Therefore, all PolicySetComponent.Priority values MUST be unique among
the values in the aggregating PolicySet. Each PolicySet, then, has a
deterministic behavior based upon the decision strategy and uniquely
defined order of evaluation.
4.5.3. Multiple PolicySet Trees For a Resource
As shown in the example in Figure 3, PolicySet trees are defined by the
PolicySet subclass instances and the PolicySetComponent subclass
aggregation instances between them. Each PolicySet tree has a defined
set of decision strategies and evaluation orders. However, a given
resource may have multiple, disjoint PolicySet trees; we need a join
algorithm that describes the decision strategy and evaluation order among
the top-level (called "unrooted") PolicySet instances. (Note that an
unrooted PolicySet instance may only be unrooted in a given context.)
<<Solution under discussion - see Open Issue 9>>
4.6. Policy Roles
A policy role is defined in [12] as "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."
In PCIMe, PolicyRoles is defined as a property of PolicySet, which is
inherited by both PolicyRules and PolicyGroups. In this draft, we also
add PolicyRole as the identifying name of a collection of resources
(PolicyRoleCollection), where each element in the collection has the
specified role characteristic.
4.6.1. Comparison of Roles in PCIM with Roles in snmpconf
In the Configuration Management with SNMP (snmpconf) working group's
Policy Based Management MIB [13], policy rules are of the form
if <policyFilter> then <policyAction>
where <policyFilter> is a set of conditions that are used to determine
whether or not the policy applies to an object instance. The policy
filter can perform comparison operations on SNMP variables already
defined in MIBS (e.g., "ifType == ethernet").
The policy management MIB defined in [13] defines a Role table that
enables one to associate Roles with elements, where roles have the same
semantics as in PCIM. Then, since the policyFilter in a policy allows one
to define conditions based on the comparison of the values of SNMP
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variables, one can filter elements based on their roles as defined in the
Role group.
This approach differs from that adopted in PCIM in the following ways.
First, in PCIM, a set of role(s) is associated with a policy rule as the
values of the PolicyRoles property of a policy rule. The semantics of
role(s) are then expected to be implemented by the PDP (i.e. policies are
applied to the elements with the appropriate roles). In [draft-ietf-
snmpconf-pm-04], however, no special processing is required for realizing
the semantics of roles; roles are treated just as any other SNMP
variables and comparisons of role values can be included in the policy
filter of a policy rule.
Secondly, in PCIM, there is no formally defined way of associating a role
with an object instance, whereas in [13] this is done via the use of the
Role tables (pmRoleESTable and pmRoleSETable). The Role tables associate
Role values with elements.
4.6.2. Addition of PolicyRoleCollection to PCIMe
In order to remedy the latter shortcoming in PCIM (i.e. the lack of a way
of associating a role with an object instance), we define a new class
PolicyRoleCollection that subclasses from the CIM Collection class.
Resources that share a common role belong to a PolicyRoleCollection
instance. Membership in this collection is indicated using the
aggregation ElementInPolicyRoleCollection. The resource's role is
specified in the PolicyRole property of the PolicyRoleCollection class.
A PolicyRoleCollection always exists in the context of a system. As was
done in PCIM for PolicyRules and PolicyGroups, this is captured by an
association, PolicyRoleCollectionInSystem. Remember that in PCIM, a
System is a base class for describing network devices and administrative
domains.
When associating a PolicyRoleCollection with a System, this should be
done consistently with the system that scopes the policy rules/groups
that are applied to the resources in that collection. A
PolicyRoleCollection is associated with the same system as the applicable
PolicyRules and/or PolicyGroups, or to a System higher in the tree formed
by the SystemComponent association. When a PEP belongs to multiple
Systems (i.e., AdminDomains), and scoping by a single domain is
impractical, two alternatives exist. One is to arbitrarily limit domain
membership to one System/AdminDomain. The other option is to define a
more global AdminDomain that simply includes the others, and/or that
spans the business or enterprise.
As an example, suppose that there are 20 traffic trunks in a network, and
that an administrator would like to assign three of them to provide
"gold" service. Also, the administrator has defined several policy rules
which specify how the "gold" service is delivered. For these rules, the
PolicyRoles property (inherited from PolicySet) is set to "Gold Service".
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In order to associate three traffic trunks with "gold" service, an
instance of the PolicyRoleCollection class is created and its PolicyRole
property is also set to "Gold Service". Following this, the
administrator associates three traffic trunks with the new instance of
PolicyRoleCollection via the ElementInPolicyRoleCollection aggregation.
This enables a PDP to determine that the "Gold Service" policy rules
apply to the three aggregated traffic trunks.
Note that roles are used to optimize policy retrieval. It is not
mandatory to implement roles or, if they have been implemented, to group
elements in a PolicyRoleCollection. However, if roles are used, then
either the collection approach should be implemented, or elements should
be capable of reporting their "pre-programmed" roles (as is done in
COPS).
4.6.3. Roles for PolicyGroups
In PCIM, role(s) are only associated with policy rules. However, it may
be desirable to associate role(s) with groups of policy rules. For
example, a network administrator may want to define a group of rules that
apply only to Ethernet interfaces. A policy group can be defined with a
role-combination="Ethernet", and all the relevant policy rules can be
placed in this policy group. (Note that in PCIMe, role(s) are made
available to PolicyGroups as well as to PolicyRules by moving PCIM's
PolicyRoles property up from PolicyRule to the new abstract class
PolicySet. The property is then inherited by both PolicyGroup and
PolicyRule.) Then every policy rule in this policy group implicitly
inherits this role-combination from the containing policy group. A
similar implicit inheritance applies to nested policy groups.
Note that there is no explicit copying of role(s) from container to
contained entity. Obviously, this implicit inheritance of role(s) leads
to the possibility of defining inconsistent role(s) (as explained in the
example below); the handling of such inconsistencies is beyond the scope
of PCIMe.
As an example, suppose that there is a PolicyGroup PG1 that contains
three PolicyRules, PR1, PR2, and PR3. Assume that PG1 has the roles
"Ethernet" and "Fast". Also, assume that the contained policy rules have
the role(s) shown below:
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+------------------------------+
| PolicyGroup PG1 |
| PolicyRoles = Ethernet, Fast |
+------------------------------+
|
| +------------------------+
| | PolicyRule PR1 |
|--------| PolicyRoles = Ethernet |
| +------------------------+
|
| +--------------------------+
| | PolicyRule PR2 |
|--------| PolicyRoles = <undefined>|
| +--------------------------+
|
| +------------------------+
| | PolicyRule PR3 |
|--------| PolicyRoles = Slow |
+------------------------+
Figure 4. Inheritance of Roles
In this example, the PolicyRoles property value for PR1 is consistent
with the value in PG1, and in fact, did not need to be redefined. The
value of PolicyRoles for PR2 is undefined. Its roles are implicitly
inherited from PG1. Lastly, the value of PolicyRoles for PR3 is "Slow".
This appears to be in conflict with the role, "Fast," defined in PG1.
However, whether these roles are actually in conflict is not clear. In
one scenario, the policy administrator may have wanted only "Fast"-
"Ethernet" rules in the policy group. In another scenario, the
administrator may be indicating that PR3 applies to all "Ethernet"
interfaces regardless of whether they are "Fast" or "Slow." Only in the
former scenario (only "Fast"-"Ethernet" rules in the policy group) is
there a role conflict.
Note that it is possible to override implicitly inherited roles via
appropriate conditions on a PolicyRule. For example, suppose that PR3
above had defined the following conditions:
(interface is not "Fast") and (interface is "Slow")
This results in unambiguous semantics for PR3.
4.7. Compound Policy Conditions and Compound Policy Actions
Compound policy conditions and compound policy actions are introduced to
provide additional reusable "chunks" of policy.
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4.7.1. Compound Policy Conditions
A CompoundPolicyCondition is a PolicyCondition representing a Boolean
combination of simpler conditions. The conditions being combined may be
SimplePolicyConditions (discussed below in section 4.7), but the utility
of reusable combinations of policy conditions is not necessarily limited
to the case where the component conditions are simple ones.
The PCIM extensions to introduce compound policy conditions are
relatively straightforward. Since the purpose of the extension is to
apply the DNF / CNF logic from PCIM's PolicyConditionInPolicyRule
aggregation to a compound condition that aggregates simpler conditions,
the following changes are required:
o Create a new aggregation PolicyConditionInPolicyCondition, with the
same GroupNumber and ConditionNegated properties as
PolicyConditionInPolicyRule. The cleanest way to do this is to
move the properties up to a new abstract aggregation superclass
CompoundedPolicyCondition, from which the existing aggregation
PolicyConditionInPolicyRule and a new aggregation
PolicyConditionInPolicyCondition are derived. For now there is no
need to re-document the properties themselves, since they are
already documented in PCIM as part of the definition of the
PolicyConditionInPolicyRule aggregation.
o It is also necessary to define a concrete subclass
CompoundPolicyCondition of PolicyCondition, to introduce the
ConditionListType property. This property has the same function,
and works in exactly the same way, as the corresponding property
currently defined in PCIM for the PolicyRule class.
The class and property definitions for representing compound policy
conditions are below, in Section 5.
4.7.2. Compound Policy Actions
A compound action is a convenient construct to represent a sequence of
actions to be applied as a single atomic action within a policy rule. In
many cases, actions are related to each other and should be looked upon
as sub-actions of one "logical" action. An example of such a logical
action is "shape & mark" (i.e., shape a certain stream to a set of
predefined bandwidth characteristics and then mark these packets with a
certain DSCP value). This logical action is actually composed of two
different QoS actions, which should be performed in a well-defined order
and as a complete set.
The CompoundPolicyAction construct allows one to create a logical
relationship between a number of actions, and to define the activation
logic associated with this logical action.
The CompoundPolicyAction construct allows the reusability of these
complex actions, by storing them in a ReusablePolicyContainer and reusing
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them in different policy rules. Note that a compound action may also be
aggregated by another compound action.
As was the case with CompoundPolicyCondition, the PCIM extensions to
introduce compound policy actions are relatively straightforward. This
time the goal is to apply the property ActionOrder from PCIM's
PolicyActionInPolicyRule aggregation to a compound action that aggregates
simpler actions. The following changes are required:
o Create a new aggregation PolicyActionInPolicyAction, with the same
ActionOrder property as PolicyActionInPolicyRule. The cleanest way
to do this is to move the property up to a new abstract aggregation
superclass CompoundedPolicyAction, from which the existing
aggregation PolicyActionInPolicyRule and a new aggregation
PolicyActionInPolicyAction are derived. For now there is no need
to re-document the ActionOrder property itself, since it is already
documented in PCIM as part of the definition of the
PolicyActionInPolicyRule aggregation.
o It is also necessary to define a concrete subclass
CompoundPolicyAction of PolicyAction, to introduce the
SequencedActions property. This property has the same function,
and works in exactly the same way, as the corresponding property
currently defined in PCIM for the PolicyRule class.
o Finally, a new property ExecutionStrategy is needed for both the
PCIM class PolicyRule and the new class CompoundPolicyAction. This
property allows the policy administrator to specify how the PEP
should behave in the case where there are multiple actions
aggregated by a PolicyRule or by a CompoundPolicyAction.
The class and property definitions for representing compound policy
actions are below, in Section 5.
Compound actions allow the definition of logically complex policy rules
and action behavior. The following example illustrates two advantages of
using compound actions.
A QoS policy domain may include a rule that defines the following
behavior:
If (CONDITION) Then Do:
"Shape traffic to <X> and Set DSCP to EF (high priority traffic);
if canÆt shape than Set DSCP to BE (best effort)."
This rule can be realized by defining two CompoundPolicyAction instances,
A and B. Two sub-actions are grouped into CompoundPolicyAction A:
Shape traffic to <X>
Mark to EF (DSCP).
The ExecutionStrategy property of CompoundPolicyAction A would be defined
as "Mandatory Do all". This means that if shaping or marking cannot both
be done, then nothing should be done.
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A second action, CompoundPolicyAction B, would hold the Mark to BE sub-
action.
CompoundPolicyAction A and CompoundPolicyAction B would be aggregated
into the policy rule using the PolicyActionInPolicyRule aggregation. The
CompoundPolicyAction A will be ordered for execution before the
CompoundPolicyAction B. The PolicyRule's ExecutionStrategy property
would be set to "Do until success". In this way, CompoundPolicyAction A
will be enforced on all PEPs that support shaping, while
CompoundPolicyAction B will be enforced otherwise.
4.8. Variables and Values
The following subsections introduce several related concepts, including
PolicyVariables and PolicyValues (and their numerous subclasses),
SimplePolicyConditions, and SimplePolicyActions.
4.8.1. Simple Policy Conditions
The SimplePolicyCondition class models elementary Boolean conditional
expressions of the form: "If (<variable> MATCH <value>)". The "If"
clause and the "MATCH" are implied in the formal notation. The
relationship is always 'MATCH' and is interpreted based on the variable
and the value. Section 4.8.3 explains the semantics of the operator and
how to extend them. Arbitrarily complex Boolean expressions can be
formed by chaining together any number of simple conditions using
relational operators. Individual simple conditions can be negated as
well. Arbitrarily complex Boolean expressions are modeled by the class
CompoundPolicyCondition (described in section 4.7.1).
For example, the expression "If SourcePort == 80" can be modeled by a
simple condition. In this example, 'SourcePort' is a variable, '==' is
the relational operator denoting the equality relationship (which is
generalized by PCIMe to a "match" relationship), and '80' is an integer
value. The complete interpretation of a simple condition depends on the
binding of the variable. Section 4.8.5 describes variables and their
binding rules.
The SimplePolicyCondition class refines the basic structure of the
PolicyCondition class defined in PCIM by using the pair <variable> and
<value> to form the condition. Note that the operator between the
variable and the value is always implied in PCIMe: it is not a part of
the formal notation.
The variable specifies the attribute of an object that should be matched
when evaluating the condition. For example, for a QoS derivation, this
object could represent the flow that is being conditioned. A set of
predefined variables that cover network attributes that are commonly used
for filtering is introduced here in PCIMe to encourage interoperability.
This list covers layer 3 IP attributes such as IP network addresses,
protocols and ports, as well as a set of layer 2 attributes (e.g., MAC
addresses).
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The PCIMe defines a single operator, "match", as explained in section
4.8.3.
The bound variable is matched against a value to produce the Boolean
result. For example, in the condition "If the source IP address of the
flow belongs to the 10.1.x.x subnet", a source IP address variable is
matched against a 10.1.x.x subnet value. The operator specifies the type
of relation between the variable and the value evaluated in the
condition.
4.8.2. Using Simple Policy Conditions
Simple conditions can be used in policy rules directly, or as building
blocks for creating compound policy conditions.
Simple condition composition MUST enforce the following data-type
conformance rule: The ValueTypes property of the variable must be
compatible with the type of the value class used. The simplest (and
friendliest, from a user point-of-view) is to equate the type of the
value class with the name of the class. By ensuring that the ValueTypes
property of the variable matches the name of the value class used, we
know that the variable and value instance values are compatible with each
other.
Composing a simple condition requires that an instance of the class
SimplePolicyCondition be created, and that instances of the variable and
value classes that it uses also exist. Note that the variable and/or
value instances may already exist as reusable objects in an appropriate
ReusablePolicyContainer.
Two aggregations are used in order to create the pair <variable>,
<value>. The aggregation PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition relates a
SimplePolicyCondition to a single variable instance. Similarly, the
aggregation PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition relates a
SimplePolicyCondition to a single value instance. Both aggregations are
defined in this document.
Figure 5 depicts a SimplePolicyCondition with its associated variable and
value.
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+-----------------------+
| SimplePolicyCondition |
+-----------------------+
* @
* @
+------------------+ * @ +---------------+
| (PolicyVariable) |*** @@@| (PolicyValue) |
+------------------+ +---------------+
# #
# ooo #
# #
+---------------+ +---------------+
| (PolicyValue) | ooo | (PolicyValue) |
+---------------+ +---------------+
Aggregation Legend:
**** PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition
@@@@ PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition
#### PolicyValueConstraintInVariable
Figure 5. SimplePolicyCondition
Note: The class names in parenthesis denote subclasses. The named
classes in the figure are abstract and cannot, therefore, be
instantiated.
4.8.3. The Simple Condition Operator
A simple condition models an elementary Boolean expression conditional
clause of the form "If variable MATCHes value". However, the formal
notation of the SimplePolicyCondition, together with its associations,
models only a pair, {variable, value}. The "If" term and the "MATCH"
operator are not directly modeled -- they are implied.
The implied MATCH operator carries an overloaded semantics. For example,
in the simple condition "If DestinationPort MATCH '80'" the
interpretation of the MATCH operator is equality (the 'equal' operator).
Clearly, a different interpretation is needed in the following cases:
o "If DestinationPort MATCH {'80', '8080'}" -- operator is 'IS SET
MEMBER'
o "If DestinationPort MATCH {'1 to 255'}" -- operator is 'IN INTEGER
RANGE'
o "If SourceIPAddress MATCH 'MyCompany.com'" -- operator is 'IP
ADDRESS AS RESOLVED BY DNS'
The examples above illustrate the implicit, context dependant nature of
the interpretation of the MATCH operator. The interpretation depends on
the actual variable and value instances in the simple condition. PCIMe
does not contain text to explicitly detail the possible interpretations
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of MATCH operations. The interpretation is always derived from the value
instance associated with the simple condition. Text accompanying the
value class definition SHOULD be used as a guideline for interpreting the
semantics of the MATCH relationship.
The PolicyValueConstraintInVariable association specifies additional
constraints on the possible values that can be matched with a variable
within a simple condition. Using this association a source or
destination port can be constrained to be matched against integer values
in the range 0-65535. A source or destination IP address can be
constrained to be matched against a specified list of IPv4 address
values, etc. In order to check whether a value X can be used with a
variable A constrained by value Y, the following conformance test should
be made. If all events for which the SimplePolicyCondition (A match X)
evaluates to TRUE also evaluate to TRUE for the SimplePolicyCondition (A
match Y), than X conforms to the constraint Y. If multiple values Y1,
Y2, ..., Yn constrain a variable, then the conformance test involves
checking against the condition (A match Y1) OR (A match Y2) OR ... OR (A
match Yn).
4.8.4. SimplePolicyActions
The SimplePolicyAction class models the elementary set operation. "SET
<variable> TO <value>". The set operator MUST overwrite an old value of
the variable.
For example, the action "set DSCP to EF" can be modeled by a simple
action. In this example, 'DSCP' is an implicit variable referring to the
IP packet header DSCP field. 'EF' is an integer or bit string value (6
bits). The complete interpretation of a simple action depends on the
binding of the variable. Section [4.8.4] describes variables and their
binding rules for conditions.
The SimplePolicyAction class refines the basic structure of the
PolicyAction class defined in PCIM, by specifying the contents of the
action using the <variable> <value> pair to form the action. The
variable specifies the attribute of an object that has passed the
condition by evaluating to true. This means the binding of the variable
is delayed until the condition evaluates to true for one or more objects.
The value of the object's attribute is set to <value>.
SimplePolicyActions can be used in policy rules directly, or as building
blocks for creating CompoundPolicyActions.
SimplePolicyAction execution MUST enforce the following data type
conformance and translation rule: The ValueTypes property of the variable
must be compatible with the type of the value class used. The following
table shows the compatibility and transformation rules. 'ND' means the
transformation is not defined.
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+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|variable | value type |
|type | |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |String |Integer|BitString| IPv4Addr | IPv6Addr |MACAddr|
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| String | X |to text| [0|1] | A.B.C.D | dotted | X:X.. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Integer |"atoi" | X |BinaryVal| 32bit int| ND | ND |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BitString|convert|convert| X | ND | ND | ND |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IPv4Addr |convert|convert| ND | X | ND | ND
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IPv6Addr |convert| ND | ND | v4 format| X | ND |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MACAddr | ND | ND | ND | ND | ND | X |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
Composing a simple action requires that an instance of the class
SimplePolicyAction be created, and that instances of the variable and
value classes that it uses also exist. Note that the variable and/or
value instances may already exist as reusable objects in an appropriate
ReusablePolicyContainer.
Two aggregations are used in order to create the pair <variable> <value>.
The aggregation PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction relates a
SimplePolicyAction to a single variable instance. Similarly, the
aggregation PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction relates a SimplePolicyAction
to a single value instance. Both aggregations are defined in this
document.
Figure 6 depicts a SimplePolicyAction with its associated variable and
value.
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+-----------------------+
| SimplePolicyAction |
| |
+-----------------------+
* @
* @
+------------------+ * @ +---------------+
| (PolicyVariable) |*** @@@| (PolicyValue) |
+------------------+ +---------------+
# #
# ooo #
# #
+---------------+ +---------------+
| (PolicyValue) | ooo | (PolicyValue) |
+---------------+ +---------------+
Aggregation Legend:
**** PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction
@@@@ PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction
#### PolicyValueConstraintInVariable
Figure 6. SimplePolicyAction
4.8.5. Policy Variables
A variable generically represents information that changes (or "varies"),
and that is set or evaluated by software. In policy, conditions and
actions can abstract information as "policy variables" to be evaluated in
logical expressions, or set by actions.
PCIMe defines two types of PolicyVariables, a PolicyImplicitVariable and
a PolicyExplicitVariable. The semantic difference between these classes
is based on modeling context. Explicit variables are bound to exact
model constructs, while implicit variables are defined and evaluated
outside of a model, in a more subjective context. For example, one can
imagine a PolicyCondition testing for a CIM ManagedSystemElement's Status
property set to "Error." The Status property is an explicitly defined
PolicyVariable (i.e., it is defined in the context of the CIM Schema and
evaluated in the context of a specific instance). On the other hand,
network packets are not explicitly modeled or instantiated, since there
is no perceived value (at this time) in managing at the packet level.
Therefore, a PolicyCondition can make no explicit reference to a model
construct that represents a network packet's source address. In this
case, an implicit PolicyVariable is defined to allow evaluation of a
packet's source address.
4.8.6. Explicitly Bound Policy Variables
Explicitly bound policy variables indicate the class and property names
of the model construct to be evaluated or set. The CIM Schema defines
and constrains "appropriate" values for the variable (i.e., model
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property) using data types and other information such as class/property
qualifiers.
A PolicyExplicitVariable is "explicit" because its model semantics are
exactly defined. It is NOT explicit due to an exact binding to a
particular object. If PolicyExplicitVariable is only tied to instances
(either via association or by a object identification property in the
class itself), then we are forcing element-specific rules. On the other
hand, if we only specify the object's model context (class and property
name), but leave the binding to the policy framework (for example, using
policy roles), then greater flexibility results for either general or
element-specific rules.
For example, an element-specific rule is obtained by a condition
(variable/operator/value triplet) that defines, for example, CIM
LogicalDevice DeviceID="12345". Alternately, if a PolicyRule's
PolicyRoles is "edge device" and your condition (variable/operator/value
triplet) is Status="Error", then a general rule results for all edge
devices in error.
Refer to Section 5.10 for the formal definition of the class
PolicyExplicitVariable.
4.8.7. Implicitly Bound Policy Variables
Implicitly bound policy variables define the data type and semantics of a
variable. This determines how the variable is bound to a value in a
condition clause. Further instructions are provided for specifying data
type and/or value constraints for implicitly bound variables.
Implicitly bound variables can be interpreted by different sub-models to
mean different things, depending on the particular context in which they
are used. For example, an implicitly bound variable named "SourceIP" may
be interpreted by a QoS policy information model to denote the source
address field in the IP header of a packet if a device is configured to
select certain packets for particular treatment. The same variable may
be bound to the sender address delivered by a RSVP PATH message for a
decision by a policy server. It is incumbent upon the particular domain-
specific information model to provide full and unambiguous interpretation
details (binding rules, type and value constraints) for the implicitly
bound variables it uses.
PCIMe introduces an abstract class, PolicyImplicitVariable, to model
implicitly bound variables. This class is derived from the abstract
class PolicyVariable also defined in PCIMe. Each of the implicitly bound
variables introduced by PCIMe (and those that are introduced by domain-
specific sub-models) MUST be derived from the PolicyImplicitVariable
class. The rationale for using this mechanism for modeling is explained
below in Section 4.8.9.
A domain-specific policy information model that extends PCIMe may define
additional implicitly bound variables either by deriving them directly
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from the class PolicyImplicitVariable, or by further refining an existing
variable class such as SourcePort. When refining a class such as
SourcePort, existing binding rules, type or value constraints may be
narrowed.
4.8.8. Structure and Usage of Pre-Defined Variables
A class derived from PolicyImplicitVariable to model a particular
implicitly bound variable SHOULD be constructed so that its name depicts
the meaning of the variable. For example, a class defined to model the
source port of a TCP/UDP flow SHOULD be named 'SourcePort'.
PCIMe defines one association and one general-purpose mechanism that
together characterize each of the implicitly bound variables that it
introduces:
1. The PolicyValueConstraintInVariable association defines the set of
value classes that could be matched to this variable.
2. The list of constraints on the values that the PolicyVariable can
hold (i.e., values that the variable must match) are defined by
the appropriate properties of an associated PolicyValue class.
In the example presented above, a PolicyImplicitVariable represents the
SourcePort of incoming traffic. The ValueTypes property of an instance
of this class will hold the class name PolicyIntegerValue. This by
itself constrains the data type of the SourcePort instance to be an
integer. However, we can further constrain the particular values that
the SourcePort variable can hold by entering valid ranges in the
IntegerList property of the PolicyIntegerValue instance (0 - 65535 in
this document).
The combination of the VariableName and the
PolicyValueConstraintInVariable association provide a consistent and
extensible set of metadata that define the semantics of variables that
are used to form policy conditions. Since the
PolicyValueConstraintInVariable association points to another class, any
of the properties in the PolicyValue class can be used to constrain
values that the PolicyImplicitVariable can hold. For example:
o The ValueTypes property can be used to ensure that only proper
classes are used in the expression. For example, the SourcePort
variable will not be allowed to ever be of type
PolicyIPv4AddrValue, since source ports have different semantics
than IP addresses and may not be matched. However, integer value
types are allowed as the property ValueTypes holds the string
"PolicyIntegerValue", which is the class name for integer values.
o The PolicyValueConstraintInVariable association also ensures that
variable-specific semantics are enforced (e.g., the SourcePort
variable may include a constraint association to a value object
defining a specific integer range that should be matched).
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4.8.9. Rationale for Modeling Implicit Variables as Classes
An implicitly bound variable can be modeled in one of several ways,
including a single class with an enumerator for each individual implicitly
bound variable and an abstract class extended for each individual variable.
The reasons for using a class inheritance mechanism for specifying
individual implicitly bound variables are these:
1. It is easy to extend. A domain-specific information model can
easily extend the PolicyImplicitVariable class or its subclasses
to define domain-specific and context-specific variables. For
example, a domain-specific QoS policy information model may
introduce an implicitly bound variable class to model applications
by deriving a qosApplicationVariable class from the
PolicyImplicitVariable abstract class.
2. Introduction of a single structural class for implicitly bound
variables would have to include an enumerator property that
contains all possible individual implicitly bound variables. This
means that a domain-specific information model wishing to
introduce an implicitly bound variable must extend the enumerator
itself. This results in multiple definitions of the same class,
differing in the values available in the enumerator class. One
definition, in this document, would include the common implicitly
bound variables' names, while a second definition, in the domain-
specific information model document, may include additional values
('qosApplicationVariable' in the example above). It wouldnÆt even
be obvious to the application developer that multiple class
definitions existed. It would be harder still for the application
developer to actually find the correct class to use.
3. In addition, an enumerator-based definition would require each
additional value to be registered with IANA to ascertain adherence
to standards. This would make the process cumbersome.
4. A possible argument against the inheritance mechanism would cite
the fact that this approach results in an explosion of class
definitions compared to an enumerator class, which only introduces
a single class. While, by itself, this is not a strike against
the approach, it may be argued that data models implemented, which
are mapped to this information model, may be more difficult to
optimize for applications. This argument is rejected on the
grounds that application optimization is of lesser value for an
information model than clarity and ease of extension. In
addition, it is hard to claim that the inheritance model places an
absolute burden on the optimization. For example, a data model
may still use enumeration to denote instances of pre-defined
variables and claim PCIMe compliance, as long as the data moel can
be mapped correctly to the definitions specified in this document.
Furthermore, the very nature of implicitly bound variables is to
be interpreted in context. This means that unless an additional
variable is required by a sub-model (in which case both approaches
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result in some overhead), there's an upper limit on the class
explosion. After all, once properly documented, no need exists
for a sub-model to add a class definition. The implementation
needs only to cite and use the PCIMe variable, but impose the
documented context-dependent semantics.
4.8.10. Policy Values
The abstract class PolicyValue is used for modeling values and constants
used in policy conditions. Different value types are derived from this
class, to represent the various attributes required. Extensions of the
abstract class PolicyValue, defined in this document, provide a list of
values for representing basic network attributes. Values can be used to
represent constants as named values. Named values can be kept in a
reusable policy container to be reused by multiple conditions. Examples
of constants include well-known ports, well-known protocols, server
addresses, and other similar concepts.
The PolicyValue subclasses define three basic types of values: scalars,
ranges and sets. For example, a well-known port number could be defined
using the PolicyIntegerValue class, defining a single value (80 for
HTTP), a range (80-88), or a set (80, 82, 8080) of ports, respectively.
For details, please see the class definition for each value type in
Section 5.12 of this document.
PCIMe defines the following subclasses of the abstract class PolicyValue:
Classes for general use:
- PolicyStringValue,
- PolicyIntegerValue,
- PolicyBitStringValue
- PolicyBooleanValue.
Classes for layer 3 Network values:
- PolicyIPv4AddrValue,
- PolicyIPv6AddrValue.
Classes for layer 2 Network values:
- PolicyMACAddrValue.
For details, please see the class definition section of each class in
Section 5.14 of this document.
4.9. Packet Filtering
In addition to filling in the holes in the overall Policy infrastructure,
PCIMe proposes a single mechanism for expressing packet filters in policy
conditions. This is being done in response to concerns that even though
the initial "wave" of submodels derived from PCIM were all filtering on
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IP packets, each was doing it in a slightly different way. PCIMe
proposes a common way to express IP packet filters. The following figure
illustrates how packet-filtering conditions are expressed in PCIMe.
+---------------------------------+
| CompoundFilterCondition |
| - IsMirrored boolean |
| - ConditionListType (DNF|CNF) |
+---------------------------------+
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
SimplePC SimplePC SimplePC
* @ * @ * @
* @ * @ * @
* @ * @ * @
FlowDirection "In" SrcIP <addr1> DstIP <addr2>
Aggregation Legend:
++++ PolicyConditionInPolicyCondition
**** PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition
@@@@ PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition
Figure 7. Packet Filtering in Policy Conditions
In Figure 7, each SimplePolicyCondition represents a single field to be
filtered on: Source IP address, Destination IP address, Source port, etc.
An additional SimplePolicyCondition indicates the direction that a packet
is traveling on an interface: inbound or outbound. Because of the
FlowDirection condition, care must be taken in aggregating a set of
SimplePolicyConditions into a CompoundFilterCondition. Otherwise, the
resulting CompoundPolicyCondition may match all inbound packets, or all
outbound packets, when this is probably not what was intended.
Individual SimplePolicyConditions may be negated when they are aggregated
by a CompoundFilterCondition.
CompoundFilterCondition is a subclass of CompoundPolicyCondition. It
introduces one additional property, the Boolean property IsMirrored. The
purpose of this property is to allow a single CompoundFilterCondition to
match packets traveling in both directions on a higher-level connection
such as a TCP session. When this property is TRUE, additional packets
match a filter, beyond those that would ordinarily match it. An example
will illustrate how this property works.
Suppose we have a CompoundFilterCondition that aggregates the following
three filters, which are ANDed together:
o FlowDirection = "In"
o Source IP = 9.1.1.1
o Source Port = 80
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Regardless of whether IsMirrored is TRUE or FALSE, inbound packets will
match this CompoundFilterCondition if their Source IP address = 9.1.1.1
and their Source port = 80. If IsMirrored is TRUE, however, an outbound
packet will also match the CompoundFilterCondition if its Destination IP
address = 9.1.1.1 and its Destination port = 80.
IsMirrored "flips" the following Source/Destination packet header fields:
o FlowDirection "In" / FlowDirection "Out"
o Source IP address / Destination IP address
o Source port / Destination port
o Source MAC address / Destination MAC address
o Source [layer-2] SAP / Destination [layer-2] SAP.
5. Class Definitions
The following definitions supplement those in PCIM itself. PCIM
definitions that are not DEPRECATED here are still current parts of the
overall Policy Core Information Model.
5.1. The Abstract Class "PolicySet"
PolicySet is an abstract class that may group policies into a structured
set of policies.
NAME PolicySet
DESCRIPTION An abstract class that represents a set of policies
that form a coherent set. The set of contained
policies has a common decision strategy and a common
set of policy roles. Subclasses include PolicyGroup
and PolicyRule.
DERIVED FROM Policy
ABSTRACT TRUE
PROPERTIES PolicyDecisionStrategy
PolicyRoles
The PolicyDecisionStrategy property specifies the evaluation method for
policy groups and rules contained within the policy set.
NAME PolicyDecisionStrategy
DESCRIPTION The evaluation method used for policies contained in
the PolicySet. FirstMatching enforces the actions of
the first rule that evaluates to TRUE; AllMatching
enforces the actions of all rules that evaluate to
TRUE.
SYNTAX uint16
VALUES 1 [FirstMatching], 2 [AllMatching]
DEFAULT VALUE 1 [FirstMatching]
The definition of PolicyRoles is unchanged from PCIM. It is, however,
moved from the class Policy up to the superclass PolicySet.
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5.2. Updates to PCIM's Class "PolicyGroup"
The PolicyGroup class is modified to be derived from PolicySet.
NAME PolicyGroup
DESCRIPTION A container for a set of related PolicyRules and
PolicyGroups.
DERIVED FROM PolicySet
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.3. Updates to PCIM's Class "PolicyRule"
The PolicyRule class is modified to be derived from PolicySet, and to
deprecate the use of Priority in the rule. PolicyRoles is now inherited
from the parent class PolicySet. Finally, a new property
ExecutionStrategy is introduced, paralleling the property of the same
name in the class CompoundPolicyAction.
NAME PolicyRule
DESCRIPTION The central class for representing the "If Condition
then Action" semantics associated with a policy rule.
DERIVED FROM PolicySet
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES Enabled
ConditionListType
RuleUsage
Priority DEPRECATED FOR PolicySetComponent.Priority
Mandatory
SequencedActions
ExecutionStrategy
The property ExecutionStrategy defines the execution strategy to be used
upon the sequenced actions aggregated by this PolicyRule. (An equivalent
ExecutionStrategy property is also defined for the CompoundPolicyAction
class, to provide the same indication for the sequenced actions
aggregated by a CompoundPolicyAction.) This draft defines four execution
strategies:
Mandatory Do all û execute ALL actions that are part of the modeled
set. If one or more of the actions cannot be
executed, none of the actions should be executed.
Do until success û execute actions according to predefined order, until
successful execution of a single action.
Do All - execute ALL actions which are part of the modeled
set, according to their predefined order. Continue
doing this, even if one or more of the actions
fails.
Do until Failure - execute actions according to predefined order, until
the first failure in execution of a single sub-
action.
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The property definition is as follows:
NAME ExecutionStrategy
DESCRIPTION An enumeration indicating how to interpret the action
ordering for the actions aggregated by this
PolicyRule.
SYNTAX uint16 (ENUM, {1=Mandatory Do All, 2=Do Until Success,
3=Do All, 4=Do Until Failure} )
DEFAULT VALUE Do All (3)
5.4. The Class "SimplePolicyCondition"
A simple policy condition is composed of an ordered triplet:
<Variable> MATCH <Value>
No formal modeling of the MATCH operator is provided. The 'match'
relationship is implied. Such simple conditions are evaluated by
answering the question:
Does <variable> match <value>?
The 'match' relationship is to be interpreted by analyzing the variable
and value instances associated with the simple condition.
Simple conditions are building blocks for more complex Boolean
Conditions, modeled by the CompoundPolicyCondition class.
The SimplePolicyCondition class is derived from the PolicyCondition class
defined in PCIM.
A variable and a value must be associated with a simple condition to make
it a meaningful condition, using, respectively, the aggregations
PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition and
PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition.
The class definition is as follows:
NAME SimplePolicyCondition
DERIVED FROM PolicyCondition
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES (none)
5.5. The Class "CompoundPolicyCondition"
This class represents a compound policy condition, formed by aggregation
of simpler policy conditions.
NAME CompoundPolicyCondition
DESCRIPTION A subclass of PolicyCondition that introduces the
ConditionListType property, used for assigning DNF /
CNF semantics to subordinate policy conditions.
DERIVED FROM PolicyCondition
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ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES ConditionListType
The ConditionListType property is used to specify whether the list of
policy conditions associated with this compound policy condition is in
disjunctive normal form (DNF) or conjunctive normal form (CNF). If this
property is not present, the list type defaults to DNF. The property
definition is as follows:
NAME ConditionListType
DESCRIPTION Indicates whether the list of policy conditions
associated with this policy rule is in disjunctive
normal form (DNF) or conjunctive normal form (CNF).
SYNTAX uint16
VALUES DNF(1), CNF(2)
DEFAULT VALUE DNF(1)
5.6. The Class "CompoundFilterCondition"
This subclass of CompoundPolicyCondition introduces one additional
property, the boolean IsMirrored. This property turns on or off the
"flipping" of corresponding source and destination fields in a filter
specification.
NAME CompoundFilterCondition
DESCRIPTION A subclass of CompoundPolicyCondition that introduces
the IsMirrored property.
DERIVED FROM CompoundPolicyCondition
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES IsMirrored
The IsMirrored property indicates whether packets that "mirror" a
compound filter condition should be treated as matching the filter. The
property definition is as follows:
NAME IsMirrored
DESCRIPTION Indicates whether packets that mirror the specified
filter are to be treated as matching the filter.
SYNTAX boolean
DEFAULT VALUE FALSE
5.7. The Class "SimplePolicyAction"
The SimplePolicyAction class models the elementary set operation. "SET
<variable> TO <value>". The set operator MUST overwrite an old value of
the variable.
Two aggregations are used in order to create the pair <variable> <value>.
The aggregation PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction relates a
SimplePolicyAction to a single variable instance. Similarly, the
aggregation PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction relates a SimplePolicyAction
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to a single value instance. Both aggregations are defined in this
document.
NAME SimplePolicyAction
DESCRIPTION A subclass of PolicyAction that introduces the notion
of "SET variable TO value".
DERIVED FROM PolicyAction
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.8. The Class "CompoundPolicyAction"
The CompoundPolicyAction class is used to represent an expression
consisting of an ordered sequence of action terms. Each action term is
represented as a subclass of the PolicyAction class, defined in [PCIM].
Compound actions are constructed by associating dependent action terms
together using the PolicyActionInPolicyAction aggregation.
The class definition is as follows:
NAME CompoundPolicyAction
DESCRIPTION A class for representing sequenced action terms. Each
action term is defined to be a subclass of the
PolicyAction class.
DERIVED FROM PolicyAction
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES SequencedActions
ExecutionStrategy
This is a concrete class, and is therefore directly instantiable.
The Property SequencedActions is identical to the SequencedActions
property defined in PCIM for the class PolicyRule.
The property ExecutionStrategy defines the execution strategy to be used
upon the sequenced actions associated with this compound action. (An
equivalent ExecutionStrategy property is also defined for the PolicyRule
class, to provide the same indication for the sequenced actions
associated with a PolicyRule.) This draft defines four execution
strategies:
Mandatory Do all û execute ALL actions that are part of the modeled
set. If one or more of the sub-actions cannot be
executed, none of the actions should be executed.
Do until success û execute actions according to predefined order, until
successful execution of a single sub-action.
Do All - execute ALL actions which are part of the modeled
set, according to their predefined order. Continue
doing this, even if one or more of the sub-actions
fails.
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Do until Failure - execute actions according to predefined order, until
the first failure in execution of a single sub-
action.
The property definition is as follows:
NAME ExecutionStrategy
DESCRIPTION An enumeration indicating how to interpret the action
ordering for the actions aggregated by this
CompoundPolicyAction.
SYNTAX uint16 (ENUM, {1=Mandatory Do All, 2=Do Until Success,
3=Do All, 4=Do Until Failure} )
DEFAULT VALUE Do All (3)
5.9. The Abstract Class "PolicyVariable"
Variables are used for building individual conditions. The variable
specifies the property of a flow or an event that should be matched when
evaluating the condition. However, not every combination of a variable
and a value creates a meaningful condition. For example, a source IP
address variable can not be matched against a value that specifies a port
number. A given variable selects the set of matchable value types.
A variable can have constraints that limit the set of values within a
particular value type that can be matched against it in a condition. For
example, a source-port variable limits the set of values to represent
integers to the range of 0-65535. Integers outside this range cannot be
matched to the source-port variable, even though they are of the correct
data type. Constraints for a given variable are indicated through the
PolicyValueConstraintInVariable association.
The PolicyVariable is an abstract class. Implicit and explicit context
variable classes are defined as sub classes of the PolicyVariable class.
A set of implicit variables is defined in this document as well.
The class definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyVariable
DERIVED FROM Policy
ABSTRACT TRUE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.10. The Class "PolicyExplicitVariable"
Explicitly defined policy variables are evaluated within the context of
the CIM Schema and its modeling constructs. The PolicyExplicitVariable
class indicates the exact model property to be evaluated or manipulated.
The class definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyExplicitVariable
DERIVED FROM PolicyVariable
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ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES ModelClass, ModelProperty
5.10.1. The Single-Valued Property "ModelClass"
This property is a string specifying the class name whose property is
evaluated or set as a PolicyVariable. The property is defined as
follows:
NAME ModelClass
SYNTAX String
5.10.2. The Single-Valued Property ModelProperty
This property is a string specifying the property name, within the
ModelClass, which is evaluated or set as a PolicyVariable. The property
is defined as follows:
NAME ModelProperty
SYNTAX String
5.11. The Abstract Class "PolicyImplicitVariable"
Implicitly defined policy variables are evaluated outside of the context
of the CIM Schema and its modeling constructs. Subclasses specify the
data type and semantics of the PolicyVariables.
Interpretation and evaluation of a PolicyImplicitVariable can vary,
depending on the particular context in which it is used. For example, a
"SourceIP" address may denote the source address field of an IP packet
header, or the sender address delivered by an RSVP PATH message.
The class definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyImplicitVariable
DERIVED FROM PolicyVariable
ABSTRACT True
PROPERTIES ValueTypes[ ]
5.11.1. The Multi-Valued Property "ValueTypes"
This property is a set of strings specifying an unordered list of
possible value/data types that can be used in simple conditions and
actions, with this variable. The value types are specified by their
class names (subclasses of PolicyValue such as PolicyStringValue). The
list of class names enables an application to search on a specific name,
as well as to ensure that the data type of the variable is of the correct
type.
The list of default ValueTypes for each subclass of
PolicyImplicitVariable is specified within that variable's definition.
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The property is defined as follows:
NAME ValueTypes
SYNTAX String
5.12. Subclasses of "PolicyImplicitVariable" Specified in PCIMe
The following subclasses of PolicyImplicitVariable are defined in PCIMe.
5.12.1. The Class "PolicySourceIPVariable"
NAME PolicySourceIPVariable
DESCRIPTION The source IP address.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIPv4AddrValue
- PolicyIPv6AddrValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.2. The Class "PolicyDestinationIPVariable"
NAME PolicyDestinationIPVariable
DESCRIPTION The destination IP address.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIPv4AddrValue
- PolicyIPv6AddrValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.3. The Class "PolicySourcePortVariable"
NAME PolicySourcePortVariable
DESCRIPTION Ports are defined as the abstraction that transport
protocols use to distinguish among multiple
destinations within a given host computer. For TCP
and UDP flows, the PolicySourcePortVariable is
logically bound to the source port field.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
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5.12.4. The Class "PolicyDestinationPortVariable"
NAME PolicyDestinationPortVariable
DESCRIPTION Ports are defined as the abstraction that transport
protocols use to distinguish among multiple
destinations within a given host computer. For TCP
and UDP flows, the PolicyDestinationPortVariable is
logically bound to the destination port field.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.5. The Class "PolicyIPProtocolVariable"
NAME PolicyIPProtocolVariable
DESCRIPTION The IP protocol number.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.6. The Class "PolicyIPVersionVariable"
NAME PolicyIPVersionVariable
DESCRIPTION The IP version number. The well-known values are 4
and 6.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.7. The Class "PolicyIPToSVariable"
NAME PolicyIPToSVariable
DESCRIPTION The IP TOS octet.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
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DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.8. The Class "PolicyDSCPVariable"
NAME PolicyDSCPVariable
DESCRIPTION The 6 bit Differentiated Service Code Point.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.9. The Class "PolicySourceMACVariable"
NAME PolicySourceMACVariable
DESCRIPTION The source MAC address.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyMACAddrValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.10. The Class "PolicyDestinationMACVariable"
NAME PolicyDestinationMACVariable
DESCRIPTION The destination MAC address.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyMACAddrValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.11. The Class "PolicyVLANVariable"
NAME PolicyVLANVariable
DESCRIPTION The virtual Bridged Local Area Network Identifier, a
12-bit field as defined in the IEEE 802.1q standard.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
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DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.12. The Class "PolicyCoSVariable"
NAME PolicyCoSVariable
DESCRIPTION Class of Service, a 3-bit field, used in the layer 2
header to select the forwarding treatment. Bound to
the IEEE 802.1q user-priority field.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.13. The Class "PolicyEthertypeVariable"
NAME PolicyEthertypeVariable
DESCRIPTION The Ethertype protocol number of Ethernet frames.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.14. The Class "PolicySourceSAPVariable"
NAME PolicySourceSAPVariable
DESCRIPTION The Source SAP number.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.15. The Class "PolicyDestinationSAPVariable"
NAME PolicyDestinationSAPVariable
DESCRIPTION The Destination SAP number.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
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- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.16. The Class "PolicySNAPVariable"
NAME PolicySNAPVariable
DESCRIPTION The protocol number over a SNAP SAP encapsulation.
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyIntegerValue
- PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.12.17. The Class "PolicyFlowDirectionVariable"
NAME PolicyFlowDirectionVariable
DESCRIPTION The direction of a flow relative to a network element.
Direction may be "IN" and/or "OUT".
ALLOWED VALUE TYPES:
- PolicyStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyImplicitVariable
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
To match on both inbound and outbound flows, the associated
PolicyStringValue object has two entries in its StringList property: "IN"
and "OUT".
5.13. The Abstract Class "PolicyValue"
This is an abstract class that serves as the base class for all
subclasses that are used to define value objects in the PCIMe. It is
used for defining values and constants used in policy conditions. The
class definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyValue
DERIVED FROM Policy
ABSTRACT True
PROPERTIES (none)
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5.14. Subclasses of "PolicyValue" Specified in PCIMe
The following subsections contain the PolicyValue subclasses defined in
PCIMe. Additional subclasses may be defined in models derived from
PCIMe.
5.14.1. The Class "PolicyIPv4AddrValue"
This class is used to provide a list of IPv4Addresses, hostnames and
address range values to be matched against in a policy condition. The
class definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyIPv4AddrValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyValue
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES IPv4AddrList[ ]
The IPv4AddrList property provides an unordered list of strings, each
specifying a single IPv4 address, a hostname, or a range of IPv4
addresses, according to the ABNF definition [8] of an IPv4 address, as
specified below:
IPv4address = 1*3DIGIT "." 1*3DIGIT "." 1*3DIGIT "." 1*3DIGIT
IPv4prefix = IPv4address "/" 1*2DIGIT
IPv4range = IPv4address"-"IPv4address
IPv4maskedaddress = IPv4address","IPv4address
Hostname (as defined in [9])
In the above definition, each string entry is either:
1. A single Ipv4address in dot notation, as defined above. Example:
121.1.1.2
2. An IPv4prefix address range, as defined above, specified by an
address and a prefix length, separated by "/". Example:
2.3.128.0/15
3. An IPv4range address range defined above, specified by a starting
address in dot notation and an ending address in dot notation,
separated by "-". The range includes all addresses between the
range's starting and ending addresses, including these two
addresses. Example: 1.1.22.1-1.1.22.5
4. An IPv4maskedaddress address range, as defined above, specified by
an address and mask. The address and mask are represented in dot
notation, separated by a comma ",". The masked address appears
before the comma, and the mask appears after the comma. Example:
2.3.128.0,255.255.248.0.
5. A single Hostname. The Hostname format follows the guidelines and
restrictions specified in [9]. Example: www.bigcompany.com.
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The property definition is as follows:
NAME IPv4AddrList
SYNTAX String
FORMAT IPv4address | IPv4prefix | IPv4range |
IPv4maskedaddress | hostname
5.14.2. The Class "PolicyIPv6AddrValue
This class is used to define a list of IPv6 addresses, hostnames, and
address range values. The class definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyIPv6AddrValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyValue
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES IPv6AddrList[ ]
The property IPv6AddrList provides an unordered list of strings, each
specifying an IPv6 address, a hostname, or a range of IPv6 addresses.
IPv6 address format definition uses the standard address format defined
in [10]. The ABNF definition [8] as specified in [10] is:
IPv6address = hexpart [ ":" IPv4address ]
IPv4address = 1*3DIGIT "." 1*3DIGIT "." 1*3DIGIT "." 1*3DIGIT
IPv6prefix = hexpart "/" 1*2DIGIT
hexpart = hexseq | hexseq "::" [ hexseq ] | "::" [ hexseq ]
hexseq = hex4 *( ":" hex4)
hex4 = 1*4HEXDIG
IPv6range = IPv6address"-"IPv6address
IPv6maskedaddress = IPv6address","IPv6address
Hostname (as defines in [NAMES])
Each string entry is either:
1. A single IPv6address as defined above.
2. A single Hostname. Hostname format follows guidelines and
restrictions specified in [9].
3. An IPv6range address range, specified by a starting address in dot
notation and an ending address in dot notation, separated by "-".
The range includes all addresses between the range's starting and
ending addresses, including these two addresses.
4. An IPv4maskedaddress address range defined above specified by an
address and mask. The address and mask are represented in dot
notation separated by a comma ",".
5. A single IPv6prefix as defined above.
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5.14.3. The Class "PolicyMACAddrValue"
This class is used to define a list of MAC addresses and MAC address
range values. The class definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyMACAddrValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyValue
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES MACAddrList[ ]
The property MACAddrList provides an unordered list of strings, each
specifying a MAC address or a range of MAC addresses. The 802 MAC
address canonical format is used. The ABNF definition [8] is:
MACaddress = 1*4HEXDIG ":" 1*4HEXDIG ":" 1*4HEXDIG
MACmaskedaddress = MACaddress","MACaddress
Each string entry is either:
1. A single MAC address. Example: 0000:00A5:0000
2. A MACmaskedaddress address range defined specified by an address
and mask. The mask specifies the relevant bits in the address.
Example: 0000:00A5:0000,FFFF:FFFF:0000 defines a range of MAC
addresses in which the first four octets are equal to 0000:00A5.
The property definition is as follows:
NAME MACAddrList
SYNTAX String
FORMAT MACaddress | MACmaskedaddress
5.14.4. The Class "PolicyStringValue"
This class is used to represent a single string value, or a set of string
values. Each value can have wildcards. The class definition is as
follows:
NAME PolicyStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyValue
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES StringList[ ]
The property StringList provides an unordered list of strings, each
representing a single string with wildcards. The asterisk character "*"
is used as a wildcard, and represents an arbitrary substring replacement.
For example, the value "abc*def" matches the string "abcxyzdef", and the
value "abc*def*" matches the string "abcxxxdefyyyzzz". The syntax
definition is identical to the substring assertion syntax defined in
[11]. If the asterisk character is required as part of the string value
itself, it MUST be quoted as described in section 4.3 of [11].
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The property definition is as follows:
NAME StringList
SYNTAX String
5.14.5. The Class "PolicyBitStringValue"
This class is used to represent a single bit string value, or a set of
bit string values. The class definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyBitStringValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyValue
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES BitStringList[ ]
The property BitStringList provides an unordered list of strings, each
representing a single bit string or a set of bit strings. The number of
bits specified SHOULD equal the number of bits of the expected variable.
For example, for a one-octet variable, 8 bits should be specified. If
the variable does not have a fixed length, the bit string should be
matched against the variable's most significant bit string. The formal
definition of a bit string is:
binary-digit = "0" / "1"
bitString = 1*binary-digit
maskedBitString = bitString","bitString
Each string entry is either:
1. A single bit string. Example: 00111010
2. A range of bit strings specified using a bit string and a bit
mask. The bit string and mask fields have the same number of bits
specified. The mask bit string specifies the significant bits in
the bit string value. For example, 110110, 100110 and 110111
would match the maskedBitString 100110,101110 but 100100 would
not.
The property definition is as follows:
NAME BitStringList
SYNTAX String
FORMAT bitString | maskedBitString
5.14.6. The Class "PolicyIntegerValue"
This class provides a list of integer and integer range values. Integers
of arbitrary sizes can be represented. The class definition is as
follows:
NAME PolicyIntegerValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyValue
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ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES IntegerList[ ]
The property IntegerList provides an unordered list of integers and
integer range values, represented as strings. The format of this
property takes one of the following forms:
1. An integer value.
2. A range of integers. The range is specified by a starting integer
and an ending integer, separated by '-'. The starting integer
MUST be less than or equal to the ending integer. The range
includes all integers between the starting and ending integers,
including these two integers. Care must be taken in reading
integer ranges involving negative integers, since the unary minus
and the range indicator are the same character '-'.
To represent a range of integers that is not bounded, the reserved words
-INFINITY and/or INFINITY can be used in place of the starting and ending
integers.
The ABNF definition [8] is:
integer = [-]1*DIGIT | "INFINITY" | "-INFINITY"
integerrange = integer"-"integer
Using ranges, the operators greater-than, greater-than-or-equal-to, less-
than, and less-than-or-equal-to can be expressed. For example, "X is-
greater-than 5" (where X is an integer) can be translated to "X matches
6-INFINITY". This enables the match condition semantics of the operator
for the SimplePolicyCondition class to be kept simple (i.e., just the
value "match").
The property definition is as follows:
NAME IntegerList
SYNTAX String
FORMAT integer | integerrange
5.14.7. The Class "PolicyBooleanValue"
This class is used to represent a Boolean (TRUE/FALSE) value. The class
definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyBooleanValue
DERIVED FROM PolicyValue
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES BooleanValue
The property definition is as follows:
NAME BooleanValue
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SYNTAX boolean
5.15. The Class "PolicyRoleCollection"
This class represents a collection of managed elements that share a
common role. The PolicyRoleCollection always exists in the context of a
system, specified using the PolicyRoleCollectionInSystem association.
The value of the PolicyRole property in this class specifies the role,
and can be matched with the value(s) in the PolicyRoles array in
PolicyRules and PolicyGroups. ManagedElements that share the role
defined in this collection are aggregated into the collection via the
association ElementInPolicyRoleCollection.
NAME PolicyRoleCollection
DESCRIPTION A subclass of the CIM Collection class used to group
together managed elements that share a role.
DERIVED FROM Collection
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES PolicyRole
5.15.1. The Single-Valued Property "PolicyRole"
This property represents the role associated with a PolicyRoleCollection.
The property definition is as follows:
NAME PolicyRole
DESCRIPTION A string representing the role associated with a
PolicyRoleCollection.
SYNTAX string
5.16. The Class "ReusablePolicyContainer"
The new class ReusablePolicyContainer is defined as follows:
NAME ReusablePolicyContainer
DESCRIPTION A class representing an administratively defined
container for reusable policy-related information.
This class does not introduce any additional
properties beyond those in its superclass AdminDomain.
It does, however, participate in a number of unique
associations.
DERIVED FROM AdminDomain
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
5.17. Deprecation of PCIM's Class "PolicyRepository"
The class definition of PolicyRepository (from PCIM) is updated as
follows, with an indication that the class has been deprecated. Note
that when an element of the model is deprecated, its replacement element
is identified explicitly.
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NAME PolicyRepository
DEPRECATED FOR ReusablePolicyContainer
DESCRIPTION A class representing an administratively defined
container for reusable policy-related information.
This class does not introduce any additional
properties beyond those in its superclass AdminDomain.
It does, however, participate in a number of unique
associations.
DERIVED FROM AdminDomain
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES (none)
6. Association and Aggregation Definitions
The following definitions supplement those in PCIM itself. PCIM
definitions that are not DEPRECATED here are still current parts of the
overall Policy Core Information Model.
6.1. The Abstract Aggregation "PolicySetComponent"
PolicySetComponent is a new abstract aggregation class that collects
instances of PolicySet subclasses (PolicyGroups and PolicyRules) into
coherent sets of policies.
NAME PolicySetComponent
DESCRIPTION An abstract class representing the components of a
policy set that have the same decision strategy, and
are prioritized within the set.
DERIVED FROM PolicyComponent
ABSTRACT TRUE
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicySet[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicySet[0..n]]
Priority
The definition of the Priority property is unchanged from its previous
definition in [PCIM].
NAME Priority
DESCRIPTION A non-negative integer for prioritizing this PolicySet
component relative to other components of the same
PolicySet. A larger value indicates a higher
priority.
SYNTAX uint16
DEFAULT VALUE 0
6.2. Update to PCIM's Aggregation "PolicyGroupInPolicyGroup"
The PolicyGroupInPolicyGroup aggregation class is modified to be derived
from PolicySetComponent.
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NAME PolicyGroupInPolicyGroup
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of PolicyGroups
by a higher-level PolicyGroup.
DERIVED FROM PolicySetComponent
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyGroup[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyGroup[0..n]]
6.3. Update to PCIM's Aggregation "PolicyRuleInPolicyGroup"
The PolicyRuleInPolicyGroup aggregation class is modified to be derived
from PolicySetComponent.
NAME PolicyRuleInPolicyGroup
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of PolicyRules by
a PolicyGroup.
DERIVED FROM PolicySetComponent
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyGroup[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyRule[0..n]]
6.4. The Aggregation "PolicyGroupInPolicyRule"
A policy rule may aggregate one or more policy groups, via the
PolicyGroupInPolicyRule aggregation. Grouping of policy groups and their
subclasses into a policy rule is for administrative convenience,
scalability and manageability, as it enables more complex policies to be
constructed from multiple simpler policies.
Policy rules do not have to contain policy groups. In addition, a policy
group may also be used by itself, without belonging to a policy rule, and
policy rules may be individually aggregated by other policy rules by the
PolicyRuleInPolicyRule aggregation. Note that it is assumed that this
aggregation is used to form directed acyclic graphs and NOT ring
structures.
The class definition for this aggregation is as follows:
NAME PolicyGroupInPolicyRule
DERIVED FROM PolicySetComponent
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyRule[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyGroup[0..n]]
The reference property "GroupComponent" is inherited from
PolicySetComponent, and overridden to become an object reference to a
PolicyRule that contains one or more PolicyGroups. Note that for any
single instance of the aggregation class PolicyGroupInPolicyRule, this
property (like all reference properties) is single-valued. The [0..n]
cardinality indicates that there may be 0, 1 or more than one PolicyRules
that contain any given PolicyGroup.
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The reference property "PartComponent" is inherited from
PolicySetComponent, and overridden to become an object reference to a
PolicyGroup contained by one or more PolicyRules. Note that for any
single instance of the aggregation class PolicyGroupInPolicyRule, this
property (like all reference properties) is single-valued. The [0..n]
cardinality indicates that a given PolicyRule may contain 0, 1, or more
than one PolicyGroup.
6.5. The Aggregation "PolicyRuleInPolicyRule"
A policy rule may aggregate one or more policy rules, via the
PolicyRuleInPolicyRule aggregation. The ability to nest policy rules and
form sub-rules is important for manageability and scalability, as it
enables complex policy rules to be constructed from multiple simpler
policy rules.
A policy rule does not have to contain sub-rules. A policy rule may
contain a group of sub-rules using the PolicyGroupInPolicyRule
aggregation. Note that it is assumed that this aggregation is used to
form directed a-cyclic graphs and NOT ring structures.
The class definition for this aggregation is as follows:
NAME PolicyRuleInPolicyRule
DERIVED FROM PolicySetComponent
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyRule[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyRule[0..n]]
The reference property "GroupComponent" is inherited from
PolicySetComponent, and overridden to become an object reference to a
PolicyRule that contains one or more PolicyRules. Each contained
PolicyRule can be conceptualized as a sub-rule of the containing
PolicyRule. This nesting can be done to any desired level. However, the
deeper the nesting, the more complex the results of the decisions taken
by the nested rules.
Note that for any single instance of the aggregation class
PolicyRuleInPolicyRule, this property is single-valued. The [0..n]
cardinality indicates that there may be 0, 1 or more than one
PolicyRules that contain any given PolicyRule.
The reference property "PartComponent" is inherited from
PolicySetComponent, and overridden to become an object reference to a
PolicyRule contained by a PolicyRule. Note that for any single instance
of the aggregation class PolicyRuleInPolicyRule, this property is single-
valued. The [0..n] cardinality indicates that a given PolicyRule may
contain 0, 1, or more than one other PolicyRules.
6.6. The Abstract Aggregation "CompoundedPolicyCondition"
NAME CompoundedPolicyCondition
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DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of
PolicyConditions by an aggregating instance.
DERIVED FROM PolicyComponent
ABSTRACT TRUE
PROPERTIES PartComponent[ref PolicyCondition[0..n]]
GroupNumber
ConditionNegated
6.7. Update to PCIM's Aggregation "PolicyConditionInPolicyRule"
The PCIM aggregation "PolicyConditionInPolicyRule" is updated, to make it
a subclass of the new abstract aggregation CompoundedPolicyCondition.
The properties GroupNumber and ConditionNegated are now inherited, rather
than specified explicitly as they were in PCIM.
NAME PolicyConditionInPolicyRule
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of
PolicyConditions by a PolicyRule.
DERIVED FROM CompoundedPolicyCondition
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyRule[0..n]]
6.8. The Aggregation "PolicyConditionInPolicyCondition"
A second subclass of CompoundedPolicyCondition is defined, representing
the compounding of policy conditions into a higher-level policy
condition.
NAME PolicyConditionInPolicyCondition
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of
PolicyConditions by another PolicyCondition.
DERIVED FROM CompoundedPolicyCondition
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyCondition[0..n]]
6.9. The Abstract Aggregation "CompoundedPolicyAction"
NAME CompoundedPolicyAction
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of PolicyActions
by an aggregating instance.
DERIVED FROM PolicyComponent
ABSTRACT TRUE
PROPERTIES PartComponent[ref PolicyAction[0..n]]
ActionOrder
6.10. Update to PCIM's Aggregation "PolicyActionInPolicyRule"
The PCIM aggregation "PolicyActionInPolicyRule" is updated, to make it a
subclass of the new abstract aggregation CompoundedPolicyAction. The
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property ActionOrder is now inherited, rather than specified explicitly
as it was in PCIM.
NAME PolicyActionInPolicyRule
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of PolicyActions
by a PolicyRule.
DERIVED FROM CompoundedPolicyAction
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyRule[0..n]]
6.11. The Aggregation "PolicyActionInPolicyAction"
A second subclass of CompoundedPolicyAction is defined, representing the
compounding of policy actions into a higher-level policy action.
NAME PolicyActionInPolicyAction
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of PolicyActions
by another PolicyAction.
DERIVED FROM CompoundedPolicyAction
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyAction[0..n]]
6.12. The Aggregation "PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition"
A simple policy condition is represented as an ordered triplet {variable,
operator, value}. This aggregation provides the linkage between a
SimplePolicyCondition instance and a single PolicyVariable. The
aggregation PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition links the
SimplePolicyCondition to a single PolicyValue. The Operator property of
SimplePolicyCondition represents the third element of the triplet, the
operator.
The class definition for this aggregation is as follows:
NAME PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition
DERIVED FROM PolicyComponent
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref SimplePolicyCondition[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyVariable[1..1] ]
The reference property "GroupComponent" is inherited from
PolicyComponent, and overridden to become an object reference to a
SimplePolicyCondition that contains exactly one PolicyVariable. Note
that for any single instance of the aggregation class
PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition, this property is single-valued.
The [0..n] cardinality indicates that there may be 0, 1, or more
SimplePolicyCondition objects that contain any given policy variable
object.
The reference property "PartComponent" is inherited from PolicyComponent,
and overridden to become an object reference to a PolicyVariable that is
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defined within the scope of a SimplePolicyCondition. Note that for any
single instance of the association class
PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition, this property (like all reference
properties) is single-valued. The [1..1] cardinality indicates that a
SimplePolicyCondition must have exactly one policy variable defined
within its scope in order to be meaningful.
6.13. The Aggregation "PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition"
A simple policy condition is represented as an ordered triplet {variable,
operator, value}. This aggregation provides the linkage between a
SimplePolicyCondition instance and a single PolicyValue. The aggregation
PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyCondition links the SimplePolicyCondition to
a single PolicyVariable. The Operator property of SimplePolicyCondition
represents the third element of the triplet, the operator.
The class definition for this aggregation is as follows:
NAME PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition
DERIVED FROM PolicyComponent
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref SimplePolicyCondition[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyValue[1..1] ]
The reference property "GroupComponent" is inherited from
PolicyComponent, and overridden to become an object reference to a
SimplePolicyCondition that contains exactly one PolicyValue. Note that
for any single instance of the aggregation class
PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition, this property is single-valued. The
[0..n] cardinality indicates that there may be 0, 1, or more
SimplePolicyCondition objects that contain any given policy value object.
The reference property "PartComponent" is inherited from PolicyComponent,
and overridden to become an object reference to a PolicyValue that is
defined within the scope of a SimplePolicyCondition. Note that for any
single instance of the association class
PolicyValueInSimplePolicyCondition, this property (like all reference
properties) is single-valued. The [1..1] cardinality indicates that a
SimplePolicyCondition must have exactly one policy value defined within
its scope in order to be meaningful.
6.14. The Aggregation "PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction"
A simple policy action is represented as a pair {variable, value}. This
aggregation provides the linkage between a SimplePolicyAction instance
and a single PolicyVariable. The aggregation
PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction links the SimplePolicyAction to a single
PolicyValue.
The class definition for this aggregation is as follows:
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NAME PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction
DERIVED FROM PolicyComponent
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref SimplePolicyAction[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyVariable[1..1] ]
The reference property "GroupComponent" is inherited from
PolicyComponent, and overridden to become an object reference to a
SimplePolicyAction that contains exactly one PolicyVariable. Note that
for any single instance of the aggregation class
PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction, this property is single-valued. The
[0..n] cardinality indicates that there may be 0, 1, or more
SimplePolicyAction objects that contain any given policy variable object.
The reference property "PartComponent" is inherited from PolicyComponent,
and overridden to become an object reference to a PolicyVariable that is
defined within the scope of a SimplePolicyAction. Note that for any
single instance of the association class
PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction, this property (like all reference
properties) is single-valued. The [1..1] cardinality indicates that a
SimplePolicyAction must have exactly one policy variable defined within
its scope in order to be meaningful.
6.15. The Aggregation "PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction"
A simple policy action is represented as a pair {variable, value}. This
aggregation provides the linkage between a SimplePolicyAction instance
and a single PolicyValue. The aggregation
PolicyVariableInSimplePolicyAction links the SimplePolicyAction to a
single PolicyVariable.
The class definition for this aggregation is as follows:
NAME PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction
DERIVED FROM PolicyComponent
ABSTRACT False
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref SimplePolicyAction[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyValue[1..1] ]
The reference property "GroupComponent" is inherited from
PolicyComponent, and overridden to become an object reference to a
SimplePolicyAction that contains exactly one PolicyValue. Note that for
any single instance of the aggregation class
PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction, this property is single-valued. The
[0..n] cardinality indicates that there may be 0, 1, or more
SimplePolicyAction objects that contain any given policy value object.
The reference property "PartComponent" is inherited from PolicyComponent,
and overridden to become an object reference to a PolicyValue that is
defined within the scope of a SimplePolicyAction. Note that for any
single instance of the association class PolicyValueInSimplePolicyAction,
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this property (like all reference properties) is single-valued. The
[1..1] cardinality indicates that a SimplePolicyAction must have exactly
one policy value defined within its scope in order to be meaningful.
6.16. The Association "ReusablePolicy"
The association ReusablePolicy makes it possible to include any subclass
of the abstract class "Policy" in a ReusablePolicyContainer.
NAME ReusablePolicy
DESCRIPTION A class representing the inclusion of a reusable
policy element in a ReusablePolicyContainer. Reusable
elements may be PolicyGroups, PolicyRules,
PolicyConditions, PolicyActions, PolicyVariables,
PolicyValues, or instances of any other subclasses of
the abstract class Policy.
DERIVED FROM PolicyInSystem
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES Antecedent[ref ReusablePolicyContainer[0..1]]
6.17. Deprecate PCIM's "PolicyConditionInPolicyRepository"
NAME PolicyConditionInPolicyRepository
DEPRECATED FOR ReusablePolicy
DESCRIPTION A class representing the inclusion of a reusable
PolicyCondition in a PolicyRepository.
DERIVED FROM PolicyInSystem
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES Antecedent[ref PolicyRepository[0..1]]
Dependent[ref PolicyCondition[0..n]]
6.18. Deprecate PCIM's "PolicyActionInPolicyRepository"
NAME PolicyActionInPolicyRepository
DEPRECATED FOR ReusablePolicy
DESCRIPTION A class representing the inclusion of a reusable
PolicyAction in a PolicyRepository.
DERIVED FROM PolicyInSystem
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES Antecedent[ref PolicyRepository[0..1]]
Dependent[ref PolicyAction[0..n]]
6.19. The Association PolicyValueConstraintInVariable
This association links a PolicyValue object to a PolicyVariable object,
modeling specific value constraints. Using this association, a variable
(instance) may be constrained to be bound-to/assigned only a set of
allowed values. For example, modeling an enumerated source port
variable, one creates an instance of the PolicySourcePortVariable class
and associates it with the set of values (integers) representing the
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allowed enumeration, using appropriate number of instances of the
PolicyValueConstraintInVariable association.
Note that a single variable instance may be constrained by any number of
values and a single value may be used to constrain any number of
variables. These relationships are manifested by the n-to-m cardinality
of the association.
The class definition for the association is as follows:
NAME PolicyValueConstraintInVariable
DESCRIPTION A class representing the association of a constraints
object to a variable object.
DERIVED FROM Dependency
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES Antecedent [ref PolicyVariable[0..n]]
Dependent [ref PolicyValue [0..n]]
The reference property Antecedent is inherited from Dependency. Its type
and cardinality are overridden to provide the semantics of a variable
optionally having value constraints. The [0..n] cardinality indicates
that any number of variables may be constrained by a given value.
The reference property "Dependent" is inherited from Dependency, and
overridden to become an object reference to a PolicyValue that is used to
constrain the values that a particular PolicyVariable can have. The
[0..n] cardinality indicates that a given policy variable may have 0, 1
or more than one PolicyValues defined to model the constraints on the
values that the policy variable can take.
6.20. The Aggregation "PolicyContainerInPolicyContainer"
The aggregation PolicyContainerInPolicyContainer provides for nesting of
one ReusablePolicyContainer inside another one.
NAME PolicyContainerInPolicyContainer
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of
ReusablePolicyContainers by a higher-level
ReusablePolicyContainer.
DERIVED FROM SystemComponent
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref ReusablePolicyContainer [0..n]]
PartComponent[ref ReusablePolicyContainer [0..n]]
6.21. Deprecate PCIM's "PolicyRepositoryInPolicyRepository"
NAME PolicyRepositoryInPolicyRepository
DEPRECATED FOR PolicyContainerInPolicyContainer
DESCRIPTION A class representing the aggregation of
PolicyRepositories by a higher-level PolicyRepository.
DERIVED FROM SystemComponent
ABSTRACT FALSE
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PROPERTIES GroupComponent[ref PolicyRepository[0..n]]
PartComponent[ref PolicyRepository[0..n]]
6.22. The Aggregation "ElementInPolicyRoleCollection"
The following aggregation is used to associate ManagedElements with a
PolicyRoleCollection object that represents a role played by these
ManagedElements.
NAME ElementInPolicyRoleCollection
DESCRIPTION A class representing the inclusion of a ManagedElement
in a collection, specified as having a given role.
All the managed elements in the collection share the
same role.
DERIVED FROM MemberOfCollection
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES Collection[ref PolicyRoleCollection [0..n]]
Member[ref ManagedElement [0..n]]
6.22.1. The Weak Association "PolicyRoleCollectionInSystem"
A PolicyRoleCollection is defined within the scope of a System. This
association links a PolicyRoleCollection to the System in whose scope it
is defined.
When associating a PolicyRoleCollection with a System, this should be
done consistently with the system that scopes the policy rules/groups
that are applied to the resources in that collection. A
PolicyRoleCollection is associated with the same system as the applicable
PolicyRules and/or PolicyGroups, or to a System higher in the tree formed
by the SystemComponent association.
The class definition for the association is as follows:
NAME PolicyRoleCollectionInSystem
DESCRIPTION A class representing the fact that a
PolicyRoleCollection is defined within the scope of a
System.
DERIVED FROM Dependency
ABSTRACT FALSE
PROPERTIES Antecedent[ref System[1..1]]
Dependent[ref PolicyRoleCollection[weak]]
The reference property Antecedent is inherited from Dependency, and
overridden to restrict its cardinality to [1..1]. It serves as an object
reference to a System that provides a scope for one or more
PolicyRoleCollections. Since this is a weak association, the cardinality
for this object reference is always 1, that is, a PolicyRoleCollection is
always defined within the scope of exactly one System.
The reference property Dependent is inherited from Dependency, and
overridden to become an object reference to a PolicyRoleCollection
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defined within the scope of a System. Note that for any single instance
of the association class PolicyRoleCollectionInSystem, this property
(like all Reference properties) is single-valued. The [0..n] cardinality
indicates that a given System may have 0, 1, or more than one
PolicyRoleCollections defined within its scope.
7. Intellectual Property
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to
the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or
the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be
available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to
identify any such rights. Information on the IETF's procedures with
respect to rights in standards-track and standards-related documentation
can be found in BCP-11.
Copies of claims of rights made available for publication and any
assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt
made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such
proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be
obtained from the IETF Secretariat.
The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights
which may cover technology that may be required to practice this
standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive Director.
8. Acknowledgements
The starting point for this document was PCIM itself [3], and the first
three submodels derived from it [5], [6], [7]. The authors of these
documents created the extensions to PCIM, and asked the questions about
PCIM, that are reflected in PCIMe.
9. Security Considerations
The Policy Core Information Model (PCIM) [3] describes the general
security considerations related to the general core policy model. The
extensions defined in this document do not introduce any additional
considerations related to security.
10. References
[1] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[2] Hovey, R., and S. Bradner, "The Organizations Involved in the IETF
Standards Process", BCP 11, RFC 2028, October 1996.
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[3] Strassner, J., and E. Ellesson, B. Moore, A. Westerinen, "Policy Core
Information Model -- Version 1 Specification", RFC 3060, February
2001.
[4] Distributed Management Task Force, Inc., "DMTF Technologies: CIM
Standards û CIM Schema: Version 2.5", available via links on the
following DMTF web page: http://www.dmtf.org/spec/cim_schema_v25.html.
[5] Snir, Y., and Y. Ramberg, J. Strassner, R. Cohen, "Policy Framework
QoS Information Model", work in progress, draft-ietf-policy-qos-info-
model-02.txt, November 2000.
[6] Jason, J., and L. Rafalow, E. Vyncke, "IPsec Configuration Policy
Model", work in progress, draft-ietf-ipsp-config-policy-model-02.txt,
March 2001.
[7] Chadha, R., and M. Brunner, M. Yoshida, J. Quittek, G. Mykoniatis, A.
Poylisher, R. Vaidyanathan, A. Kind, F. Reichmeyer, "Policy Framework
MPLS Information Model for QoS and TE", work in progress, draft-
chadha-policy-mpls-te-01.txt, December 2000.
[8] Crocker, D., and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications:
ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
[9] P. Mockapetris, "DOMAIN NAMES - IMPLEMENTATION AND SPECIFICATION",
RFC1035, November 1987.
[10] R. Hinden, S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture",
RFC2373, July 1998.
[11] M. Wahl, A. Coulbeck, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3):
Attribute Syntax Definitions", RFC 2252.
[12] A. Westerinen, et al., "Policy Terminology", <draft-ietf-policy-
terminology-01.txt>, November 2000.
[13] S. Waldbusser, and J. Saperia, T. Hongal, "Policy Based Management
MIB", <draft-ietf-snmpconf-pm-04.txt>, November 2000.
11. Authors' Addresses
Bob Moore
IBM Corporation, BRQA/502
4205 S. Miami Blvd.
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Phone: +1 919-254-4436
Fax: +1 919-254-6243
E-mail: remoore@us.ibm.com
Lee Rafalow
IBM Corporation, BRQA/502
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4205 S. Miami Blvd.
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Phone: +1 919-254-4455
Fax: +1 919-254-6243
E-mail: rafalow@us.ibm.com
Yoram Ramberg
Cisco Systems
4 Maskit Street
Herzliya Pituach, Israel 46766
Phone: +972-9-970-0081
Fax: +972-9-970-0219
E-mail: yramberg@cisco.com
Yoram Snir
Cisco Systems
4 Maskit Street
Herzliya Pituach, Israel 46766
Phone: +972-9-970-0085
Fax: +972-9-970-0366
E-mail: ysnir@cisco.com
John Strassner
Cisco Systems
Building 20
725 Alder Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
Phone: +1-408-527-1069
Fax: +1-408-527-2477
E-mail: johns@cisco.com
Andrea Westerinen
Cisco Systems
Building 20
725 Alder Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
Phone: +1-408-853-8294
Fax: +1-408-527-6351
E-mail: andreaw@cisco.com
Ritu Chadha
Telcordia Technologies
MCC 1J-218R
445 South Street
Morristown NJ 07960.
Phone: +1-973-829-4869
Fax: +1-973-829-5889
E-mail: chadha@research.telcordia.com
Marcus Brunner
NEC Europe Ltd.
C&C Research Laboratories
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Adenauerplatz 6
D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)6221 9051129
Fax: +49 (0)6221 9051155
E-mail: brunner@ccrle.nec.de
Ron Cohen
Ntear LLC
Phone:
Fax:
E-mail: ronc@ntear.com
12. Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or
assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included
on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself
may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice
or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations,
except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in
which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet
Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into
languages other than English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS
IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK
FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT
INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
13. Appendix A: Open Issues
The PCIMe authors do not all agree with everything included in the -00
draft of the document. Input is solicited from the working group as a
whole on the following open issues:
1. Unrestricted use of DNF/CNF for CompoundPolicyConditions.
Alternative: for the conditions aggregated by a
CompoundPolicyCondition, allow only ANDing, with negation of
individual conditions. Note that this is sufficient to build
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multi-field packet filters from single-field
SimplePolicyConditions.
2. For a PolicyVariable in a SimplePolicyCondition, restrict the set
of possible values both via associated PolicyValue objects (tied
in with the PolicyValueConstraintInVariable association) and via
the ValueTypes property in the PolicyVariable class. Alternative:
restrict values only via associated PolicyValue objects.
3. Transactional semantics, including rollback, for the
ExecutionStrategy property in PolicyRule and in
CompoundPolicyAction. Alternative: have only 'Do until success'
and 'Do all'.
4. Stating that CompoundFilterConditions are the preferred way to do
packet filtering in a PolicyCondition. Alternative: make
CompoundFilterConditions and FilterEntries available to submodels,
with no stated (or implied) preference.
5. Prohibiting equal values for Priority within a PolicySet.
Alternative: allow equal values, with resulting indeterminacy in
PEP behavior.
6. Modeling a SimplePolicyAction with just a related PolicyVariable
and PolicyValue -- the "set" or "apply" operation is implicit.
Alternative: include an Operation property in SimplePolicyAction,
similar to the Operation property in SimplePolicyCondition.
7. Representation of PolicyValues: should values like IPv4 addresses
be represented only as strings (as in LDAP), or natively (e.g., an
IPv4 address would be a four-octet field) with mappings to other
representations such as strings?
8. The nesting of rules and groups within rules introduces
significant change and complexity in the model. This nesting
introduces program state (procedural language) into the model
(heretofore a declarative model) as well as implicit hierarchical
contexts on which the rules operate. These require a much more
sophisticated rule-evaluation engine than in the past.
Alternative: Maintain the declarative model, by prohibiting
program state in rule evaluation (i.e., no rules within rules).
9. Need to specify a join algorithm for disjoint rule sets.
10. Clarify PolicyImplicitVariables.
11. Clarify PolicyExplicitVariables.
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