SYMMETRIC COHERENT REQUEST/RESPONSE POLICY ENFORCEMENT

• US 20150229538A1
• Filed: 02/07/2014
• Published: 08/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Burke, Thomas C., De Armas, Mario E., Gago, Oswaldo, Spence, Ramon M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,379,998 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5006 Creating or negotiating SLA contracts, guarantees or penalties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5022 by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5093 wherein the managed service relates to messaging or chat services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/76 using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A set of service level agreement (SLA) policies and service level definition (SLD) policies that are applied to a request message of a correlated request/response message pair are tracked. A response message of the correlated request/response message pair is detected. A corresponding set of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules that are used to enforce the set of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message are identified using the tracked set of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message. The set of SLA policies and SLD policies are enforced on the response message using the identified corresponding set of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules.

Claims

1-7. -7. (canceled)

8. A system, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor programmed to;

track, within the memory, a plurality of service level agreement (SLA) policies and service level definition (SLD) policies applied to a request message of a correlated request/response message pair;

detect a response message of the correlated request/response message pair;

identify, using the tracked plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message, a corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message; and

enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules.

9. The system of claim 8, where, in being programmed to track, within the memory, the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message of the correlated request/response message pair, the processor is programmed to:

build a symmetric policy enforcement context structure during a request message policy enforcement flow of the request message that identifies each enforced SLA policy, each enforced SLD policy, and any enforced policy alternatives executed in association with each enforced SLA policy and enforced SLD policy; and

store the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within the memory.

10. The system of claim 9, where, in being programmed to build the symmetric policy enforcement context structure during the request message policy enforcement flow of the request message that identifies each enforced SLA policy, each enforced SLD policy, and any enforced policy alternatives executed in association with each enforced SLA policy and enforced SLD policy, the processor is programmed to:

for each policy enforced on the request message;

determine an executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule used to enforce the policy on the request message; and

capture from a name of the determined executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule within the symmetric policy enforcement context structure;

a platform-specific policy enforcement rule name prefix of the determined executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule that identifies the enforced policy, where the prefix is shared within names of a set of policy enforcement rules that implement an SLD policy, any associated SLA policies, and any policy alternatives available for the SLD policy and any associated SLA policies;

an indication that distinguishes an enforced SLD policy from an enforced SLA policy; and

an indication of whether a policy alternative was executed to enforce the respective policy, comprising an identifier of each executed policy alternative.

11. The system of claim 9, where:

in being programmed to store the symmetric policy enforcement context structure in the memory, the processor is programmed to;

store the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within a transactional context structure constructed for the correlated request/response message pair, where the transactional context structure comprises a transaction identifier assigned to the correlated request/response message pair; and

in being programmed to detect the response message of the correlated request/response message pair, the processor is programmed to;

detect the response message of the correlated request/response message pair using the transaction identifier of the transactional context structure.

12. The system of claim 8, where, in being programmed to track, within the memory, the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message of the correlated request/response message pair, the processor is programmed to:

capture, within a symmetric policy enforcement context structure, an execution sequence of a plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message, and any policy alternatives of the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies; and

store the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within the memory.

13. The system of claim 12, where, in being programmed to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules, the processor is programmed to:

execute, in a prescribed order relative to the captured execution sequence, a sequence of the corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and the SLD policies, and any policy alternatives of the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies, on the response message to symmetrically and coherently enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message on the response message.

14. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, where the computer readable program code when executed on a computer causes the computer to;

track a plurality of service level agreement (SLA) policies and service level definition (SLD) policies applied to a request message of a correlated request/response message pair;

detect a response message of the correlated request/response message pair;

identify, using the tracked plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message, a corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message; and

enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, where, in causing the computer to track the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message of the correlated request/response message pair, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to:

build a symmetric policy enforcement context structure during a request message policy enforcement flow of the request message that identifies each enforced SLA policy, each enforced SLD policy, and any enforced policy alternatives executed in association with each enforced SLA policy and enforced SLD policy; and

store the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within a memory.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, where, in causing the computer to build the symmetric policy enforcement context structure during the request message policy enforcement flow of the request message that identifies each enforced SLA policy, each enforced SLD policy, and any enforced policy alternatives executed in association with each enforced SLA policy and enforced SLD policy, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to:

for each policy enforced on the request message;

determine an executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule used to enforce the policy on the request message; and

capture from a name of the determined executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule within the symmetric policy enforcement context structure;

a platform-specific policy enforcement rule name prefix of the determined executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule that identifies the enforced policy, where the prefix is shared within names of a set of policy enforcement rules that implement an SLD policy, any associated SLA policies, and any policy alternatives available for the SLD policy and any associated SLA policies;

an indication that distinguishes an enforced SLD policy from an enforced SLA policy; and

an indication of whether a policy alternative was executed to enforce the respective policy, comprising an identifier of each executed policy alternative.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, where:

in causing the computer to store the symmetric policy enforcement context structure in the memory, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to;

store the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within a transactional context structure constructed for the correlated request/response message pair, where the transactional context structure comprises a transaction identifier assigned to the correlated request/response message pair; and

in causing the computer to detect the response message of the correlated request/response message pair, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to;

detect the response message of the correlated request/response message pair using the transaction identifier of the transactional context structure.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, where, in causing the computer to track, by the processor, the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message of the correlated request/response message pair the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to:

capture, within a symmetric policy enforcement context structure, an execution sequence of a plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message, and any policy alternatives of the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies; and

store the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within a memory.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, where, in causing the computer to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to:

execute, in a prescribed order relative to the captured execution sequence, a sequence of the corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and the SLD policies, and any policy alternatives of the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies, on the response message to symmetrically and coherently enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message on the response message.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, where:

SLA policies associated with an SLD policy are enforced on the request message prior to the associated SLD policy; and

in causing the computer to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules, the computer readable program code when executed on the computer causes the computer to;

enforce the associated SLD policy prior to enforcing the associated SLA policies on the response message in a prescribed order using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules.