Chapter 1 - The Foundation of Policy Management

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief retrospective on how policy-based network management (PBNM) was designed. It outlines two fundamental problems—the lack of use of an information model and the inability to use business rules to drive configuration of devices, services, and networks. Quality of service (QoS) is one of the primary drivers for implementing PBNM solutions. PBNM solutions require information models that contain business and system entities that can be easily implemented. The chapter introduces a unique object-oriented information model, known as DEN-ng (Directory Enabled Networks-new generation). It is being developed in the TM Forum. An object-oriented information model is a means to represent various entities in a managed environment. An entity can be a person, a computer, a router, or even a protocol message—anything that needs a uniform and consistent representation for configuration and management is a possibility for definition and representation in DEN-ng. An object-oriented information model provides a common language in which different types of management entities can be represented.