Composite Network Policy Metadata for Conflict Resolution
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Solution Overview
Problem
In large networks, manually managing and merging multiple network policies to resolve connectivity issues is time-consuming and prone to inaccuracies due to potential conflicts between policies, making it challenging to diagnose and troubleshoot communication problems.
Innovation Solution
Automated composition of network policies into a composite policy, with the ability to add metadata for troubleshooting, which resolves conflicts and provides insights into communication flows and service function applications, allowing for dynamic endpoint policy assignment and efficient issue resolution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple network policies are manually managed and merged, then network communication control is achieved, but time consumption and error rate increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically composes network policies by having the policy composer autonomously merge individual network policies into a composite network policy without requiring manual intervention. The system self-manages the composition process, conflict detection, and metadata generation, eliminating the need for manual policy management while improving accuracy and reducing time consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The policy composer acts as an intermediary component that receives individual network policies, composes them into a composite policy, and resolves conflicts between policies. This intermediary automatically manages the complex interactions between multiple policies, providing clear metadata about communication flows and service function applications, thereby reducing troubleshooting time and improving reliability.
2Productivity
If automated policy composition is implemented, then troubleshooting efficiency improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the network policy management functionality into distinct components: individual network policies that can be independently defined, a policy composer that handles composition and conflict resolution, and a troubleshooting program that utilizes metadata for diagnostics. This segmentation allows automated composition to improve productivity while managing complexity through modular design, where each component has a specific responsibility.
Data Source
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AI summary
In some examples, input network policies are combined to form a composite network policy, each input network policy of the input network policies specifying at least one characteristic of communications allowed between endpoint groups in a network. Metadata associated with the composite network policy is added, the metadata including information regarding a reason for disallowance of a communication between endpoint groups.