A logic-based policy definition language for network management

Abstract

Policies are increasingly used to manage large-scale distributed systems. They usually adopt ECA rules that cannot express system state transitions, enable policy servers to perform flexible actions or cooperate efficiently. A logic-based policy definition language, LPDL, is proposed. We define LPDL's syntax, execution model and its semantic that provides a formal framework for policy-based network management. LPDL is proved to have Petri net's expressive power and Turing machine computing power. An administrator can use LPDL to describe a system's analysis and decision functions or encapsulate them into physical codes flexibly based on actual need. Finally, a cooperative network management framework (CNMF), its prototype and application are presented to show that LPDL can meet the requirements of network management's dynamic growth.