Bay Networks next week will divulge its strategy for enabling users to deploy policy-based networks.
Bay's plan is based on the company's Optivity network management product suite and NetID IP address management software. The company is focusing on provisioning, enforcing and verifying policies that allocate network resources to users, groups and applications.
The components of Optivity Policy Services are:
- Optivity Policy User Interface - Web-based user interface extends NetID address management software to allow administrators to configure application/user policies.
- Optivity Configuration - Deploys policy information by configuring application-intelligent devices with differentiated rules for access, security and service in multivendor networks.
- NetID - Provides IP address-to-user binding.
Enforcement
- Optivity Policy Server - Validates requests for access or service levels against policy information stored in directory. Pulls policy information from the directory and dynamically configures quality of service (QoS) and security on network devices.
- Application-Intelligent Infrastructure - Network devices receive policies
via SNMP, Common Open Policy Service (COPS) or Command Line Interface (CLI) and enforce QoS and access.
Verification
- Optivity Service Level Manager - Monitors application performance and service levels, from the user perspective, for compliance with policy rules and reports exceptions.
Provisioning
RELATED LINKS
Contact Senior Editor Jim Duffy.
3Com closing the gaps in product line
Includes information about 3Com's policy-based network plans.
Network World Fusion, 6/3/98
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