Distributed connectivity policy enforcement with ice

A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for enforcing policy restrictions for a conversation established over an Internet Protocol (IP) network, comprising:

• a caller determining caller candidates and a callee determining callee candidates for use in establishing a communication between the caller and the callee;
• wherein the callee is an endpoint of the communication;
• determining a policy restriction that specifies a restriction on a media flow for the communication between the caller and the callee;
• using the callee for removing any candidates from the caller candidates and the callee candidates that are restricted by the policy restriction;
• and
• establishing the conversation between the caller and the callee using the remaining candidates.

A system for enforcing policy restrictions for a conversation established over an Internet Protocol (IP) network, comprising:

• a network connection that is configured to connect to the IP network;
• a processor and a computer-readable medium;
• an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor;
• and
• a policy manager operating under the control of the operating environment and operative to:
• receive caller candidates from a caller;
• determine callee candidates for use in establishing a communication between the caller and the callee;
• determine a policy restriction that specifies a restriction on a media flow for the communication between the caller and the callee;
• removing any candidates from the caller candidates and the callee candidates that are restricted by the policy restriction;
• and
• establishing the conversation between the caller and the callee using the remaining candidates.