Internet Draft
Internet Draft                                    Francis Reichmeyer
Expiration: December 1999                         Shai Herzog
File: draft-ietf-rap-pr-00.txt                         IPHighway
Updates RFC 2205                                  Kwok Ho Chan
                                                       Nortel Networks
                                                  David Durham
                                                  Raj Yavatkar
                                                       Intel
                                                  Silvano Gai
                                                  Keith McCloghrie
                                                       Cisco Systems
                                                  Andrew Smith
                                                       Extreme Networks


                  COPS Usage for Policy Provisioning


                             June 25, 1999



Status of this Memo

  This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
  all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

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  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.







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Abstract

  This document introduces a new client type for the COPS protocol to
  support policy provisioning.  This new client type uses is
  independent of the type of policy and it is based on the concept of
  named PIBs (Policy Information Bases).




















































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Table of Contents

Abstract.............................................................2
Table of Contents....................................................3
1  Introduction......................................................4
1.1  Why not SNMP?...................................................5
1.2  Interaction between the PEP and PDP.............................6
2  Policy Information Base (PIB).....................................6
2.1  A Description of the PIB........................................8
2.2  COPS Operations Supported for a Policy Rule Instance............8
3  Message Content...................................................9
3.1  Request (REQ)  PEP -> PDP.......................................9
3.2  Decision (DEC)  PDP -> PEP.....................................10
3.3  Report State (RPT)  PEP -> PDP.................................10
4  COPS-PR Protocol Objects.........................................11
4.1  Binding Count (BC).............................................12
4.2  Policy Rule Identifier (PRID)..................................12
4.3  BER Encoded Policy Instance Data (BPD).........................13
4.4  Provisioning Error Object (PERR)...............................13
5  COPS-PR Client-Specific Data Formats.............................13
5.1  Named Decision Data............................................14
5.2  ClientSI Request Data..........................................14
5.3  Policy Provisioning Report Data................................14
6  Common Operations................................................15
7  Fault Tolerance..................................................17
7.1  Security Considerations........................................17
8  References.......................................................18
9  Author Information...............................................19
10  Full Copyright Notice...........................................20
Appendix A : A DiffServ COPS-PR Example..............................21
























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1   Introduction

   The IETF RSVP Admission Policy (RAP) WG has defined the COPS (Common
   Open Policy Service) protocol [COPS] as a scalable protocol that
   allows policy servers (PDPs) to communicate policy decisions to
   network devices (PEP). COPS was designed to support multiple types
   of policy clients.

   COPS is a query/response protocol that supports two common models
   for policy control: Outsourcing and Provisioning.

   The Outsourcing model addresses the kind of events at the PEP that
   require instantaneous policy decision (authorization). The PEP,
   being aware that it must perform a policy decision. However, being
   unable to carry the task itself, the PEP delegates responsibility to
   an external policy server (PDP). For example, in [COPS-RSVP] when a
   reservation message arrives, the PEP is aware that it must decide
   whether to admit or reject the request. It sends a specific query to
   the PDP, and in most case, waits for a decision before admitting the
   outstanding reservation.

   The Provisioning model, on the other hand, makes no assumptions of
   such direct 1:1 correlation between PEP events and PDP decisions.
   The PDP may proactively provision the PEP reacting to external
   events (such as user input), PEP events, and any combination thereof
   (N:M correlation). Provisioning may be performed in bulk (e.g.,
   entire router QoS configuration) or in portions (e.g., updating a
   DiffServ marking filter).

   Network resources are provisioned based on relatively static SLAs
   (Service Level Agreements) at network boundaries. While the
   Outsourcing model is dynamically paced by the PEP in real-time, the
   Provisioning model is paced by the PDP in somewhat flexible timing
   over a wide range of configurable aspects of the PEP.


       Edge Device               Policy Server
       +--------------+          +-----------+     +-----------+
       |              |          |           |     | External  |
       |              |  COPS    |           |     | Events    |
       |   +-----+    |  REQ()   |  +-----+  |     +---+-------+
       |   |     |----|----------|->|     |  |         |
       |   | PEP |    |          |  | PDD<|--|---------+
       |   |     |<---|----------|--|     |  |
       |   +-----+    |   COPS   |  +-----+  |
       |              |   DEC()  |           |
       +--------------+          +-----------+

                    Figure 1: COPS Provisioning Model




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   In COPS-PR, policy requests describe the PEP and its configurable
   parameters (rather than an operational event). If a change occurs in
   these basic parameters, an updated request is sent. Hence, requests
   are issued quite infrequently. Decisions cannot be mapped directly
   to requests, and are issued mostly when the PDP responds to external
   events or PDP events (policy/SLA updates).

   This draft describes a new client type ("Provisioning") for COPS to
   support policy provisioning.  This new client type is independent of
   the type of policy (QoS, VPNs, Security, etc.) and it is based on
   the concept of PIBs (Policy Information Bases [PIB]).

   The Examples used in this document are biased toward QoS Policy
   Provisioning in a Differentiated Services (DiffServ) environment.
   However, the COPS-PR client type can be used for other types of
   provisioning policies under the same framework.

1.1   Why not SNMP?

   SNMP is a very popular network management protocol. One may question
   using COPS-PR, rather than extending SNMP for policy provisioning.

   There are several aspects intrinsic to SNMP that prevents it from
   being a successful policy protocol.

   SNMP uses a transactional model, and does not support the concept of
   long term Client/Server connection. As a by product, servers may not
   know that devices failed and vice versa. A hello polling may be a
   cumbersome replacement, however it may not solve the problem if a
   device may reboot in between polling messages.

   The SNMP transactional model allows multiple servers to
   simultaneously modify state of a network device. Given that SNMP
   does not have resource locking facilities, a policy server would
   have to constantly poll and verify that no other networking
   management software or humans changed ANY of the configured
   resources.

   SNMP is based on UDP and is thus unreliable. The lack of reliability
   is unacceptable for a policy protocol [RAP]. Provisioning policy is
   assumed quite large and diverse. It is desired that a provisioning
   protocol would be based on state sharing between client and server
   such that only differential updates are sent. Such state sharing
   requires a reliable transport mechanism.

   Last, SNMP was not designed as a real-time operations protocol. Its
   trap mechanism is inefficient and cumbersome and there is no
   performance guarantees.




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   COPS was designed to overcome these shortcomings, based on the
   requirements defined in [RAP]. It has a single connection between
   client and server, it guarantees only one server updates the policy
   configuration at any given time (and these are locked, even from
   console configuration, while COPS is connected to a server).
   COPS uses reliable TCP transport and thus uses a state
   sharing/synchronization mechanism and exchanges differential updates
   only. If either the server or client are rebooted (or restarted) the
   other would know about it quickly. Last, it is defined as high
   priority (real-time) mechanism for the PEP device.

   The COPS protocol is already used for policy control over RSVP. It
   is highly desirable to use a single policy control protocol for
   Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms (if possible), rather than
   invent a new one for each type of policy problem.

   At the same time, useful mechanisms from SNMP were adopted. COPS-PR
   uses a named Policy Information Base (PIB) which the model of SMI
   and MIB and BER [BER] data encoding. This allows reuse of
   experience, knowledge, tools and some code from the SNMP world.

1.2   Interaction between the PEP and PDP

   When a device boots, it opens a COPS connection to its Primary PDP.
   When the connection is established, the PEP sends information about
   itself to the PDP in the form of a configuration request. This
   information includes client specific information (e.g., hardware
   type, software release, configuration information). During this
   phase the client may also specify the maximum COPS-PR message size
   supported.

   In response, the PDP downloads all provisioned policies which are
   currently relevant to that device. On receiving the provisioned
   policies, the device maps them into its local QoS mechanisms, and
   installs them. If conditions change at the PDP such that the PDP
   detects that changes are required in the provisioned policies
   currently in effect, then the PDP sends the changes (installs and/or
   deletes) in policy to the PEP, and the PEP updates its local QoS
   mechanisms appropriately.

   If, subsequently, the configuration of the device changes (board
   removed, board added, new software installed, etc.) in ways not
   covered by policies already known to the PEP, then the PEP sends
   this unsolicited new information to the PDP. On receiving this new
   information, the PDP sends to the PEP any additional provisioned
   policies now needed by the PEP.

2   Policy Information Base (PIB)

   This section defines data format for Provisioning Named ClientSI
   objects (Named Client Specific Information). COPS-PR data is a

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   collection of policy-rules each identified by Policy Rule
   Identification (PRID). The PRID is a globally unique name (hence,
   "named ClientSI"), which describes the representation (format) and
   semantics of the policy rule.

   COPS-PR uses a named Policy Information Base (PIB) as its global
   name space of provisioning policy. The PIB name space is common to
   both the PEP and The PDP. The PIB can be described as a tree where
   the branches of the tree represent classes (types) of policy rules
   (PRC), while the leaves represent instances (contents) of policy
   rules (PRI). There may be multiple instances of rules (PRI) for any
   given rule type (PRC). For example, if one wanted to install
   multiple access control filters, the PRC would represent a generic
   access control filter type, and each PRI would represent an actual
   access control filter to be installed).

             -------+-------+----------+---PRC--+--PRI
                    |       |          |        +--PRI
                    |       |          |
                    |       |          +---PRC-----PRI
                    |       |
                    |       +---PRC--+--PRI
                    |                +--PRI
                    |                +--PRI
                    |                +--PRI
                    |                +--PRI
                    |
                    +---PRC---PRI

                          Figure 2: The PIB Tree

   The provisioning PIB is based on SMI and MIBs. The decision to use
   this format as a basis opens-up the possibility of reusing SMI and
   MIB knowledge, experience, and tools. Unlike COPS-RSVP its sibling,
   COPS-PR requires a named structure to identify the type and purpose
   of unsolicited policy information "pushed" to the client policy.

   PRIs and PRCs are uniquely identified by PRIDs. PRIDs have a
   hierarchical structure of the form 1.3.4.2.7, where the first part
   identifies the PRC (e.g., 1.3.4) and the last part identifies the
   instance (e.g. 2.7).

   The policy tree names all the policy rule classes and instances and
   this creates a common view of the policy organization between the
   client (PEP) and the server (PDP). The PIB data on its own is self-
   descriptive such that the receiving PEP understands the required
   provisioning.

   Consider the following example, of a set of FILTERs for marking
   traffic with a certain diff-serv code point (DSCP). Each filter has


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   the following attributes: Protocol number, source address, source
   port, destination address, destination port, and DSCP value to set.
   Lets assume that the class FILTER's PRID is "$.1", where $
   represents some prefix in the policy tree to which the class FILTER
   belongs. A first filter would have a PRID of $.1.1, the second
   $.1.2, etc.

   Given that most provisioning operations require multiple attributes,
   COPS-PR does not support operations on individual attributes within
   a PRC class (e.g., source port). Instead, updates and deletions are
   performed on PRC granularity.

2.1  A Description of the PIB

   The PIB is described using SMI and PIBs. SMI and PIBs are defined
   based on the ASN.1 data definition language [ASN1]. To simplify the
   implementation and re-use the SNMP encoding/decoding code, the wire
   representation of the policy information (PRIDs and BPDs) must
   follow BER encoding [BER].

   (1)      (1.1)
   If--+-General
       |
       | (1.2)    (1.2.1)  (1.2.1.1) (1.2.1.1.1)
       +-Input----Filter--+-Mark-----+-SrcIP
       |                  |          |
       |                  |          +-SrcPrt
       +-Output           +-Pol-Rtng |(1.2.1.1.3)
                          |          +-DstIP----+-D1 (1.2.1.1.3.1)
                          |          |          |
                          +-Access   +-DstPrt   +-D2
                                     |          |
                                     +-Prot#    +-D3
                                     |
                                     +-DSCP
   {__________________  _____________________}  {_______  _______}
                      \/                                \/
                  PRC Branches                       PRI leaves

           Figure 3: A PIB Example for DiffServ Marking Filter

   Figure 3 describes a simple example of a possible PIB tree for
   DiffServ Marking Filter. The numbers in brackets represent the
   location of the PRC or PRI in the tree. The PRID of Filter2 (which
   includes DstIP=D2) would be 1.2.1.1.2 (Notice that the last digit of
   the PRCs (which describes the rule attributes) is dropped since
   COPS-PR purposely blocks operations on individual attributes).

2.2  COPS Operations Supported for a Policy Rule Instance



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   A policy rule instance is made of multiple attributes (PRIs) and is
   identified by a PRID. The following COPS operations are supported on
   for a policy rule instance:

   o Install “ This operation creates or updates a named instance of a
     PRC. It accepts two parameters: a PRID to name the PRI, and a PBD
     with the new/updated values.

   o Remove - This operation is used to delete an instance of a PRC.
     It accepts one parameter, a PRID, to name the instance to be
     deleted.

    Message Content

   The COPS protocol provides for different COPS clients to define
   their own "named", i.e. client-specific, information for various
   messages. This section describes the messages exchanged between a
   COPS server (PDP) and COPS Policy Provisioning clients (PEP) that
   carry client-specific data objects.

     Request (REQ)  PEP -> PDP

   The REQ message is sent by policy provisioning clients to issue a
   'config request' to the PDP. The Client Handle associated with the
   REQ message originated by a provisioning client must be unique for
   that client but otherwise has no protocol significance at this time.

   The config request message serves as a request from the PEP to the
   PDP for provisioning policy data which the PDP may have for the PEP,
   such as access control lists, etc. This includes policy the PDP may
   have at the time the REQ is received as well as any future policy
   data or updates.

   The config request message may include provisioning client
   information to provide the PDP with client-specific configuration or
   capability information about the PEP. This information from the
   client assists the server in deciding what types of policy that the
   PEP can install and enforce. The format of the Provisioning ClientSI
   data is described in the policy information base (see below).

   The policy information supplied by the PDP must be consistent with
   the named decision data defined for the policy provisioning client.
   The PDP responds to the config request with a DEC message containing
   any available provisioning policy data.

   The REQ message has the following format:

                ::= 
                              
                              
                              []

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     Decision (DEC)  PDP -> PEP

   The DEC message is sent from the PDP to a policy provisioning client
   in response to the REQ message received from the PEP. The Client
   Handle must be the same Handle that was received in the REQ message.

   The DEC message is sent as an immediate response to a config request
   with the solicited decision flag set. Subsequent DEC messages may
   also be sent at any time after the original DEC message to supply
   the PEP with additional/updated policy information. Updated policy
   data carried in DEC message is correlated with the previous DEC by
   matching the policy ID information in the provisioning client
   decision data.

   Each DEC message may contain multiple decisions. This means a single
   message can install some policies and delete others. In general a
   COPS-PR decision message should contain at most one or more deletes
   followed by one or more install decisions. This is used to solve a
   precedence issue, not a timing issue: the delete decision deletes
   what it specifies, except those items that are installed in the same
   message.

   A COPS-PR DEC message contains a single "transaction", i.e. either
   all the decisions in a DEC message succeed or they all fail. This
   allows the PDP to delete some policies only if other policies can be
   installed in their place. The DEC message has the following format:

    ::= 
                          
                          []+ | 

    ::= 
                  
                  []

   For each decision on the DEC message, the PEP performs the operation
   specified in the Flags field on the Named decision data. For the
   policy provisioning clients, the format for this data is defined in
   the context of the Policy Information Base (see below). In response
   to a DEC message, the policy provisioning client sends a RPT message
   back to the PDP to inform the PDP of the action taken.


3.3  Report State (RPT)  PEP -> PDP

   The RPT message is sent from the policy provisioning clients to the
   PDP to report accounting information associated with the provisioned
   policy, or to notify the PDP of changes in the PEP (Report-Type =
   'Accounting') related the provisioning client.

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   RPT is also used as a mechanism to inform the PDP about the action
   taken at the PEP, in response to a DEC message. For example, in
   response to an 'Install' decision, the PEP informs the PDP if the
   policy data is installed (Report-Type = 'Installed') or not (Report-
   Type = 'Not Installed').

   The RPT message may contain provisioning client information such as
   accounting parameters or errors/warnings related to a decision. The
   data format for this information is defined in the context of the
   policy information base (see below). The RPT message has the
   following format:

                ::= 
                                 
                                 
                                 []



4   COPS-PR Protocol Objects

   We define a new COPS client type for the policy provisioning client:

               Client Type = 2; Policy Provisioning Client

   COPS messages sent between a Policy Provisioning client and a COPS
   server contain a COPS Common Header with this Policy Provisioning
   Client type specified:

           0                 1                2               3
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   | Version| Flag |    Op Code    |     Client Type = 0x02        |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |                        Message Length                         |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

   The COPS Policy Provisioning client uses several new COPS protocol
   objects that carry named client-specific information. This section
   defines those new objects.

   COPS-PR classifies policy data according to "bindings", where a
   binding consists of a Policy Rule Identifier and the Policy Rule
   Instance data, encoded within the context of the provisioning policy
   information base (see next section).







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   The format for these new objects is as follows:

   0                1               2                 3
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |             Length            | S-Num = BC    |  S-Type = 1   |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |                   32 bit unsigned integer                     |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

   S-Num and S-Type are similar to the C-Num and C-Type used in the
   base COPS objects. The difference is that S-Num and S-Type are used
   only for ClientSI specific objects.

   Length is a two-octet value that describes the number of octets
   (including the header) that compose the object. If the length in
   octets does not fall on a 32-bit word boundary, padding must be
   added to the end of the object so that it is aligned to the next 32-
   bit boundary before the object can be sent on the wire. On the
   receiving side, a subsequent object boundary can be found by simply
   rounding up the previous stated object length to the next 32-bit
   boundary.

4.1  Binding Count (BC)

   S-Num = 1, S-Type = 1, Length = 8.

   This object specifies the number of Bindings that are contained in
   the message.

           0                1               2                 3
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |             Length            | S-Num = BC    |  S-Type = 1   |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |                   32 bit unsigned integer                     |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+


4.2  Policy Rule Identifier (PRID)

   S-Num = 2, S-Type = 1, Length = variable.

   This object is used to carry the identifier, or PRID, of a Policy
   Rule Instance.










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           0                1               2                 3
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |              Length           | S-Num = PRID  |  S-Type = 1   |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   ...                                                           ...
   |                     Policy Rule Identifier                    |
   ...                                                           ...
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+


4.3  BER Encoded Policy Instance Data (BPD)

   S-Num = 3, S-Type = 1, Length = variable.

   This object is used to carry the BER encoded value of a Policy Data
   Instance.

           0                1               2                 3
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |             Length            | S-Num = BPD   |  S-Type = 1   |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   ...                                                           ...
   |                     BER Encoded PRI Value                     |
   ...                                                           ...
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

4.4  Provisioning Error Object (PERR)

   S-Num = 4, S-Type = 1, Length = 8.

            0                1               2                 3
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |              Length           | S-Num = PERR  |  S-Type = 1   |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
   |           Error-Code          |       Error Sub-code          |
   +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

   The provisioning error object has the same format as the Error
   object in COPS [COPS], except with C-Num and C-Type replaced by the
   S-Num and S-Type values shown.

   The policy provisioning client also adds the following error code:

   Error Code 14 = Provisioning Error


5   COPS-PR Client-Specific Data Formats

   This section describes the format of the named client specific
   information for the COPS policy provisioning client. ClientSI
   formats are defined for named decision data, request data and report

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   data. The actual content of the data is defined by the policy
   information base for the provisioning client type (see below).

5.1  Named Decision Data

   The Named Decision Data for the policy provisioning client consists
   of two types of decisions: Install and Remove, used with the
   'Install' and 'Remove' Command-Code, respectively, in the COPS
   Decision Object. The data, in general, is composed of one or more
   bindings. Each binding associates a PRID object and a BPD object.
   The PRID object is always present in both install and remove
   decisions, the BPD object MUST be present in the case of an install
   decision and MUST NOT be present in the case of a remove decision.

   The format for the provisioning client named decision data is as
   follows:

     < Decision: Named Data> ::=  |
                                 

         ::=    [ ]+

          ::=   []+


5.2  ClientSI Request Data

   The provisioning client request data will use same bindings as
   described above. The format for this data is as follows:

    ::=    [ ]+

5.3  Policy Provisioning Report Data

   The provisioning client report data is used in the RPT message in
   conjunction with the accompanying COPS Report Type object. Report
   types can be 'Commit' or 'No-Commit' indicating to the PDP that a
   particular set of provisioning policies has been either successfully
   or unsuccessfully installed/removed on the PEP. The provisioning
   report data consists of the bindings described above and global and
   specific error/warning information.

   Specific errors are associated with a particular policy rule. In a
   'Commit' RPT message, a specific error is an indication of a warning
   related to a specific policy that has been installed, but that is
   not fully implemented (e.g., its parameters have been approximated).
   In a 'No Commit' RPT message, this is an error code specific to a
   binding.

   Global errors are not tied to a specific PRID. In a 'Commit' RPT
   message, a global error is an indication of a general warning at the

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   PEP level (e.g., memory low). In a 'No Commit' RPT message, this is
   an indication of a general error at the PEP level (e.g., memory
   exhausted).

   In the case of a 'No Commit' the PEP MUST report at least the first
   error and should report as many errors as possible.

    ::= [] [report]+

    ::= 

    ::=  
   [[[]+]]

    ::= 


6   Common Operations

   This section describes, in general, typical exchanges between a PDP
   and Policy Provisioning COPS client.

   First, a TCP connection is established between the client and server
   and the PEP sends a Client-Open message with the Client-Type = 2,
   Policy Provisioning client. If the PDP supports the provisioning
   client type, the PDP responds with a Client-Accept (CAT) message. If
   the client type is not supported, a Client-Close (CC) message is
   returned by the PDP to the PEP, possibly identifying an alternate
   server that is known to support the policy for the provisioning
   client type.

   After receiving the CAT message, the PEP can send requests to the
   server. The REQ from a policy provisioning client contains a COPS
   'Configuration Request' context object with and, optionally, any
   relevant client specific information for the PEP. The config request
   message from a provisioning client serves two purposes. First, it is
   a request to the PDP for any provisioning configuration data which
   the PDP may currently have for the PEP, such as access control
   filters, etc. Also, the config request is a request to
   asynchronously send policy data to the PEP, as the PDP decides is
   necessary. This asynchronous data may be new policy data or an
   update to policy data sent previously.

   The PDP has Policy Provisioning policy configuration information for
   the client, that information is returned to the client in a DEC
   message containing the Policy Provisioning client policy data within
   the COPS Decision object. If no filters are defined, the DEC message
   will simply specify that there are no filters using the "NULL
   Decision" Decision Flags object. The PEP MUST specify a client
   handle in the request message. The PDP MUST process the client


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   handle and copy it in the decision message. This is to prevent the
   PEP from timing out the REQ and deleting the Client Handle.

   The PDP can then add new policy data or update existing state by
   sending subsequent DEC message(s) to the PEP, with the same Client
   Handle. The PEP is responsible for removing the Client handle when
   it is no longer needed, for example when the interface goes down,
   and informing the PDP that the handle is to be deleted.

   For Policy Provisioning purposes, access state, and access requests
   to the policy server can be initiated by other sources besides the
   PEP. Examples of other sources include attached users requesting
   network services via a web interface into a central management
   application, or H.323 servers requesting resources on behalf of a
   user for a video conferencing application. When such a request is
   accepted, the edge device affected by the decision (the point where
   the flow is to enter the network) must be informed of the decision.
   Since the PEP in the edge device did not initiate the request, the
   specifics of the request, e.g. flowspec, packet filter, and PHB to
   apply, must be communicated to the PEP by the PDP. This information
   is sent to the PEP using the Decision message containing Policy
   Provisioning client specific data objects in the COPS Decision
   object as specified. Any updates to the state information, for
   example in the case of a policy change or call tear down, is
   communicated to the PEP by subsequent DEC messages containing the
   same Client Handle and the updated Policy Provisioning request
   state. Updates can specify that policy data is to be deleted or
   installed.

   The PEP acknowledges the DEC message and action taken by sending a
   RPT message with a "Commit" or "No-Commit" Report-Type object. This
   serves as an indication to the PDP that the requestor (e.g. H.323
   server) can be notified that the request has been accepted by the
   network. If the PEP needs to reject the DEC operation for any
   reason, a RPT message is sent with a Report-Type of value "No-
   Commit" and optionally a Client Specific Information object
   specifying the policy data that was rejected. The PDP can then
   respond to the requestor accordingly.

   The PEP can report to the PDP the local status of any installed
   request state when appropriate. This information is sent in a
   Report-State (RPT) message with the "Accounting" flag set. The state
   being reported on is referenced by the Client Handle associated with
   the request state and the client specific data identifier.
   Finally, Client-Close (CC) messages are used to cancel the
   corresponding Client-Open message. The CC message informs the other
   side that the client type specified is no longer supported.





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7   Fault Tolerance

   When communication is lost between PEP and PDP, the PEP attempts to
   re-establish the TCP connection with the PDP it was last connected
   to. If that server cannot be reached, then the PEP attempts to
   connect to a secondary PDP, assumed at this time to be manually
   configured at the PEP.

   When a connection is finally re-established, either with the primary
   PDP or a secondary PDP, the PEP should provide the last PDP address
   of the PDP for which it is still caching decisions. Based on this
   information, the PDP may request the PEP to re-synch its current
   state information (SSQ message). If no decisions are being cached on
   the PEP (due to reboot or TTL timeout of state) the PEP must not
   included the last PDP address information. If after re-connecting,
   the PDP does not request the synchronization, the client can assume
   the server recognizes it and the current state at the PEP is
   correct. Any changes state changes which occurred at the PEP while
   connection was lost must be reported to the PDP in a RPT message. If
   re-synchronization is requested, the PEP should reissue its
   configuration requests and the PDP should delete the appropriate
   PRCs on the PEP (thus, removing all previous decisions below the
   PRC, effectively resetting all state, and reverting to some static
   or preconfigured decisions).

   While the PEP is disconnected from the PDP, the request state at the
   PEP is to be used for policy decisions. If the PEP cannot re-connect
   in some pre-specified period of time (TTL: Time To Live, see Section
   3.3), the request state is to be deleted and the associated Handles
   removed. The same holds true for the PDP; upon detecting a failed
   TCP connection, the time-out timer is started for the request state
   associated with the PEP and the state is removed after the specified
   period without a connection.

7.1  Security Considerations

   The use of COPS for Policy Provisioning introduces no new security
   issues over the base COPS protocol. The use of IPSEC between PDP and
   PEP, as described in [COPS] is sufficient.














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8   References

[COPS]    Boyle, J., Cohen, R., Durham, D., Herzog, S., Raja, R.,
          Sastry, A., "The COPS (Common Open Policy Service)
          Protocol", IETF , December 1998.

[RAP]     Yavatkar, R., et al., "A Framework for Policy Based
          Admission Control",IETF ,
          November, 1998.

[E2E]     Bernet, Y., Yavatka,r R., Ford, P., Baker, F., Nichols, K.,
          Speer, M., "A Framework for End-to-End QoS Combining
          RSVP/Intserv and Differentiated Services", IETF , November 1998.

[RSVP]    Braden, R., Zhang, L., Berson, S., Herzog, S., and Jamin,
          S., "Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) Version 1
          Functional Specification", IETF RFC 2205, Proposed Standard,
          September 1997.

[ASN1]    Information processing systems - Open Systems
          Interconnection, "Specification of Abstract Syntax Notation
          One (ASN.1)", International Organization for
          Standardization, International Standard 8824, December 1987.

[BER]     Information processing systems - Open Systems
          Interconnection - Specification of Basic Encoding Rules for
          Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1), International
          Organization for Standardization. International Standard
          8825, (December, 1987).

[RFC2475] S. Blake, D. Black, M. Carlson, E. Davies, Z. Wang, W.
          Weiss, "An Architecture for Differentiated Service," RFC
          2475, December 1998.

[PIB]     M. Fine, K. McCloghrie, S. Hahn, K. Chan, A. Smith, "An
          Initial Quality of Service Policy Information Base for COPS-
          PR Clients and Servers", draft-mfine-cops-pib-00.txt,
          February 1999.














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9   Author Information

Francis Reichmeyer                  IPHighway Inc.
Phone: (201) 585-0800               Parker Plaza, 16th Floor
Email: FranR@iphighway.com          400 Kelby St.
                                    Fort-Lee, NJ 07024
Shai Herzog
Phone: (201) 585-0800
Email: Herzog@iphighway.com


Kwok Ho Chan                        Nortel Networks, Inc.
Phone: (978) 916-8175               600 Technology Park Drive
Email: khchan@nortelnetworks.com    Billerica, MA 01821


David Durham                        Intel                                              t                                                   hPhone: (503) 264-6232               2111 NE 25                                                       A                                                      v                                                       enue
Email: david.durham@intel.com       Hillsboro, OR 97124

Raj Yavatkar
Phone: (503) 264-9077
Email: raj.yavatkar@.intel.com


Silvano Gai                         Cisco Systems, Inc.
Phone: (408) 527-2690               170 Tasman Dr.
Email: sgai@cisco.com               San Jose, CA 95134-1706

Keith McCloghrie
Phone: (408) 526-5260
Email: kzm@cisco.com


Andrew Smith                        Extreme Networks
Phone: (408) 342-0999               10460 Bandley Drive
Email: andrew@extremenetworks.com   Cupertino, CA 95014















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10  Full Copyright Notice

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1997).  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.





























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Appendix A : A DiffServ COPS-PR Example

   TBD























































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