POLICY-ENABLED CONTRACT-BASED MANAGEMENT OF NETWORK OPERATIONAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS

摘要

A method and apparatus is disclosed for policy-enabled, contract-based management of network operational support systems. A policy kernel (110) utilizes multiple policy access points (140) for interfacing to dedicated policy management systems (130). The policy kernel (110) uses policy views (210), containing a set of required policies (260), to request the policy view from the policy management system (130). The policy view (210) initiates a contract (250) for regulating the selection and import of executable policies (235) to the policy kernel (110). The contract (250) applies running components to the executable policies (235) to enable them to run on the policy kernel (110) and resolves any potential conflicts by applying a set of policy dependency rules (258) to any executable policies (235) that are in variance with one another. The executable policies (235) are imported into the policy kernel (110) through the policy access point (140). The policy kernel (110) may then implement the requested policy view (210) by executing the executable policies (235) thus imported.