System Architecture Design

pSHIELDSystem Architecture DesignPU3.4.3.1 Policy Management ToolDifferent terminologies are used to refer to PMT such as Policy Administration Point (PAP) for instance.PMT is mainly used by the administrator(s) in order to specify business-level (high-level) abstractions thatconstitute polices. A number of elements are needed at this point typically [21][22]:1) A user interface that could be graphical with command-line support. Used as a policy editor withsimple validation2) A resource discovery element that determines the network topology, its capabilities, constituents,users and running applications3) A policy translation (or transformation) element that transforms high-level policies into a lowerlevelconstituents-specific policies. It also ensures policies’ consistency, correctness anddistribution feasibility through a validation process4) A policy distributer/storage-retrieval element; as the name suggests, it interacts with the policyrepository (explained onward) to store low-level policies and allow for their retrievalAn example of policy translation as described in [21] would be; assume a high-level policy segment thatdefines "Premium Traffic between Point A and Point B". This can be translated into a low-level policy rule:“source = 10.24.195.x, dest = 10.101.227.x, any protocol, perform Premium Service action”. Indeed, avalidation check can only be carried out in an offline manner here where the syntactic and semanticintegrity of each policy must be preserved. Some semantic validation checks are defined by [22] as in:1) Bound checks: ensure that a given attribute value is within a predefined range2) Relation checks: ensure that any two values assigned to interrelated policy parameters aresatisfactory to their relationship3) Consistency checks: ensure a conflict-free set of policies4) Dominance checks: ensure that all specified policies are reachable and are to be active at somepoint during the system’s lifetime5) Feasibility checks: these are domain dependent checks that need to ensure that the underlyingenvironment can support the specified policiesMoreover, while consistency checks need to ensure that conflicts among policy rules are avoided andgiven that this is an offline stage, other checks should be carried out at runtime to avoid potentiallytriggered conflicts.3.4.3.1.1 Policy RepositoryA policy repository is mainly concerned with managing translated policies, e.g., Directory Server,Database. It should allow for the storage, search and retrieval of policies and interface with otherelements using for instance, a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) protocol.3.4.3.1.2 Policy Decision PointPDP is mainly a set of modules that are capable of examining applicable policies and consequentlydetermine the decisions required for the system to comply with that policy. PDP is responsible forcommunicating policy-inferred decisions/actions to the Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) that could resideon several physical devices. That channel of communication is governed by a protocol such as SNMP.PDP also needs to interact, (i.e., fetch policies) with the policy repository using a protocol such as LDAP.3.4.3.1.3 Policy Enforcement PointPEP is the final point in a typical IETF policy framework architecture. PEPs act as logical entities thatinterface between systems’ devices/resources such as sensors, where they are likely to reside, and thePDP by processing exchanged requests and responses. As the name suggests, PEP is responsible forPUD2.3.2Issue 5 Page 46 of 122