System and method for policy-enabled, contract-based management of network operational support systems

A method for policy-enabled, contract-based management of an operational support system that comprises a set of programs designed to support various network management functions, the method implemented by a policy kernel in the operational support system that is communicatively coupled to one or more policy management systems, comprising the steps of:

• in response to a network system state change, receiving one or more conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• determining whether native policies within the operational support system address the one or more conditions;
• in response to determining that the native policies do not address the one or more conditions,
• comparing the one or more conditions to one or more conditions addressed by one or more policy views of respective one or more policy management systems that are logically separate from the operational support system;
• based on comparing, determining at least one particular policy management system that addresses the one or more conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• requesting a policy view from the at least one particular management system, wherein the policy view comprises a set of required policies that address one or more of the conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• receiving one or more executable policies, from the at least one particular policy management system, capable of supporting the required policies of the requested policy view, wherein selection of the one or more executable policies is based on a contract that defines one or more criteria that the selected executable policies must satisfy;
• and
• implementing the requested policy view by executing the selected executable policies.

A method for policy-enabled, contract-based management of an operational support system that comprises a set of programs designed to support various network management functions, the method implemented by a policy kernel, wherein the policy kernel comprises one or more policy access points and each policy access point is associated with a particular policy management system, the method comprising the steps of:

• inventorying the policy access points of the policy kernel;
• inventorying one or more policy views from one or more of the policy management systems, wherein the policy view comprises a set of required policies that address one or more conditions that represent the state of a network system;
• requesting one of the policy views from the inventory of policy views based on which policy view comprises one or more policies that address the current state of the network system being supported by the operational support system;
• enabling the policy access point corresponding to the associated policy management system capable of supporting the requested policy view;
• causing a contract of the requested policy view to be initiated for the selection of executable policies from an external policy engine of the policy management system;
• causing the contract to apply environmental requirements to the selected executable policies to enable the selected executable policies to execute on the policy kernel;
• causing the contract to apply dependency rules to two or more of the selected executable policies when the behaviors of the two or more selected executable policies are in conflict with one another;
• importing the selected executable policies from a policy export engine of the policy management system;
• and
• implementing the requested policy view by executing the selected executable policies.

A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for policy-enabled, contract-based management of a network operational support system that comprises a set of programs designed to support various network management functions, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

• in response to a network system state change, receiving one or more conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• determining whether native policies within the operational support system address the one or more conditions;
• in response to determining that the native policies do not address the one or more conditions,
• comparing the one or more conditions to one or more conditions addressed by one or more policy views of respective one or more policy management systems that are logically separate from the operational support system;
• based on comparing, determining at least one particular policy management system that addresses the one or more conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• requesting a policy view from the at least one particular policy management system, wherein the policy view comprises a set of required policies that address one or more of the conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• receiving one or more executable policies, from the at least one particular policy management system, capable of supporting the required policies of the requested policy view, wherein selection of the one or more executable policies is based on a contract that defines one or more criteria that the selected executable policies must satisfy;
• and
• implementing the requested policy view by executing the selected executable policies.

A system for policy-enabled, contract-based management of operational support systems that comprise a set of programs designed to support various network management functions, comprising:

• means for receiving, in response to a network system state change, one or more conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• means for determining whether native policies within the operational support system address the one or more conditions;
• means for comparing the one or more conditions to one or more conditions addressed by one or more policy views of respective one or more policy management systems that are logically separate from the operational support system;
• means for determining at least one particular policy management system that addresses the one or more conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• means for requesting a policy view from the at least one particular policy management system, wherein the policy view comprises a set of required policies that address one or more of the conditions that represent the current state of the network system;
• means for receiving one or more executable policies, from the at least one particular policy management system, capable of supporting the required policies of the requested policy view, wherein selection of the one or more executable policies is based on a contract that defines one or more criteria that the selected executable policies must satisfy;
• and
• means for implementing the requested policy view by executing the selected executable policies.