Method and apparatus for communicating network quality of service policy information to a plurality of policy enforcement points

• US 6,988,133 B1
• Filed: 10/31/2000
• Issued: 01/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zavalkovsky, Arthur, Elfassy, Nitsan
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Assistant Examiner(s): BAYARD, DJENANE M
• Application Number:
  US09/703,504
• Time in Patent Office: 1,904 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/221, 709/204, 709/219, 709/232, 370/230, 455/406, 455/422
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

A method is disclosed for communicating network quality of service policy information to a plurality of policy enforcement points. Active QoS configuration information is created and stored at a policy enforcement point, such as a router in a network. New configuration information is received and stored as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point. The policy enforcement point determines whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information. The new configuration information is made active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message. An inactive configuration may be signaled by a COPS protocol decision message from the policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message. Using the method, network quality of service policy information may be communicated to a plurality of policy enforcement points, with assurance that all receiving policy enforcement points can successfully deploy the configuration information. As a result, new QoS policy configuration information can be deployed to an entire network or to a large plurality of devices with assurance that all such information is received and deployed without adverse effects on the network or enforcement of policy information.

Claims

1. A method of enforcing network quality of service policy information at one or more policy enforcement points, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving active QoS configuration information at a policy enforcement point;

receiving new configuration information and storing the new configuration information as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point;

storing the active QoS configuration information and the inactive configuration in logically separate areas of memory of a network device that serves as the policy enforcement point;

determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information;

making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message;

wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving a decision message from a policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving the decision message from the policy decision point and determining whether the decision message identifies an inactive configuration.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving a COPS decision message from the policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional comprises the steps of combining the inactive configuration information with the active QoS configuration to result in creating a combined configuration and carrying out one or more consistency checks using the combined configuration without actually deploying the combined configuration to the policy enforcement point.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message comprises the steps of:

receiving an empty install decision message from the policy decision point;

updating the active QoS configuration information using the inactive configuration and thereby deploying the inactive configuration as a new active configuration;

copying the active configuration to the inactive configuration.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message comprises the steps of:

receiving an install named object decision message from the policy decision point;

installing the object named in the decision message as the active QoS configuration information;

deleting the inactive configuration;

copying the active configuration to the inactive configuration.

7. A method of enforcing network quality of service policy information from a policy server acting as a policy decision point at one or more routers that are acting as policy enforcement points, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving active QoS configuration information;

receiving a COPS protocol decision message from the policy decision point that identifies new configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message;

storing the new configuration information as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point;

determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information;

making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message.

8. An apparatus for enforcing network quality of service policy information at one of a plurality of policy enforcement points, comprising:

means for creating and storing active QoS configuration information at one of the plurality of policy enforcement points;

means for receiving new configuration information and storing the new configuration information as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point, wherein the active QoS configuration information and the inactive configuration are stored in logically separate areas of memory of a network device that serves as the policy enforcement point;

wherein the means for receiving new configuration information is for receiving a decision message from a policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message;

means for determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information;

means for making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message.

9. An apparatus for enforcing network quality of service policy information at one of a plurality of policy enforcement points, comprising:

one or more network interfaces;

one or more processors coupled to the one or more network interfaces for receiving network information therefrom and enforcing one or more network quality of service policies thereon;

one or more stored sequences of instructions accessible to the one or more processors and which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of;

creating and storing active QoS configuration information at one of the plurality of policy enforcement points;

receiving new configuration information and storing the new configuration information as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point;

wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving a decision message from a policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message;

storing the active QoS configuration information and the inactive configuration in logically separate areas of memory of a network device that serves as the policy enforcement point;

determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information;

making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message.

10. A router acting as a policy enforcement point for enforcing one or more network quality of service policies received from a policy server acting as a policy decision point for a network that includes the router and one or more other policy enforcement points, the router comprising:

one or more network interfaces;

one or more processors coupled to the one or more network interfaces for receiving network information therefrom and enforcing one or more network quality of service policies thereon;

one or more stored sequences of instructions accessible to the one or more processors and which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of;

receiving active QoS configuration information;

receiving a COPS protocol decision message from the policy decision point that identifies new configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message;

storing the new configuration information as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point;

determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information;

making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message.

11. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for enforcing network quality of service policy information at one or more policy enforcement points, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

receiving active QoS configuration information at a policy enforcement point;

receiving new configuration information and storing the new configuration information as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point;

storing the active QoS configuration information and the inactive configuration in logically separate areas of memory of a network device that serves as the policy enforcement point;

determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information;

making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message;

wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving a decision message from a policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message.

12. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving a COPS decision message from the policy decision point and determining whether the decision message identifies an inactive configuration.

13. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving a decision message from the policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message.

14. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 13, wherein determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional comprises the steps of combining the inactive configuration information with the active QoS configuration to result in creating a combined configuration and carrying out one or more consistency checks using the combined configuration without actually deploying the combined configuration to the policy enforcement point.

15. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message comprises the steps of:

receiving an empty install decision message from the policy decision point;

updating the active QoS configuration information using the inactive configuration and thereby deploying the inactive configuration as a new active configuration;

copying the active configuration to the inactive configuration.

16. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message comprises the steps of:

receiving an install named object decision message from the policy decision point;

installing the object named in the decision message as the active QoS configuration information;

deleting the inactive configuration;

copying the active configuration to the inactive configuration.

17. A method of enforcing network quality of service policy information at a plurality of policy enforcement points, the method comprising at each of the plurality of policy enforcement points performing the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving active QoS configuration information at a policy enforcement point;

receiving new configuration information and storing the new configuration information as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point;

wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving a decision message from a policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message;

storing the active QoS configuration information and the inactive configuration in logically separate areas of memory of a network device that serves as the policy enforcement point;

determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information;

making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message.

18. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for enforcing network quality of service policy information at a plurality of policy enforcement points, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out, at each of the plurality of policy enforcement points, the steps of:

receiving active QoS configuration information at a policy enforcement point;

receiving new configuration information and storing the new configuration information as an inactive configuration of the policy enforcement point;

wherein the step of receiving new configuration information further comprises the steps of receiving a decision message from a policy decision point that identifies the configuration information as an inactive configuration by a specified flag bit in a message type value in a Context object that forms part of the decision message;

storing the active QoS configuration information and the inactive configuration in logically separate areas of memory of a network device that serves as the policy enforcement point;

determining whether the inactive configuration information is properly functional in combination with the active QoS configuration information;

making the new configuration information active in place of the active QoS configuration information only in response to receiving an activation message.