Policy-Based Networking: Architecture and Algorithms

Policy and Network Management

A network policy is a statement defining which traffic should be treated differently in the network, and how so. It is defined by an administrator and specifies the rules related to handling different types of traffic within the network. An example of a policy might be as follows: "All development engineers are permitted access to the servers which support the development applications, and no one else." Another policy might state that "Email traffic is only allowed from outside the company's servers only from a special mail gateway." Yet another policy might state: "All traffic between the accounting and finance divisions must be encrypted." Some other examples of policies can be found in Chapter 9, "Policy Application ...