Context Model Policy Engine for SOA Flexibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing business and application policy engines in SOA systems lack flexibility in enforcing various types of policies, particularly failing to adapt to XML format and being inflexible in policy reuse, with limited support for context-based reasoning and integration with SOA features.
Innovation Solution
A method and policy engine that gather instance documents, generate an instantiated context model, and determine an enforcement sequence for policies, allowing flexible policy enforcement across different scenarios and purposes, utilizing XML-based standards like SML, XPath, and Schematron for comprehensive policy application.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If existing business and application policy engines are used in SOA systems, then policy enforcement can be performed, but flexibility in enforcing various types of policies and adaptability to XML format is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a unified policy engine framework that can handle multiple types of SOA policies (business policies, application policies, governance policies) through a single system. The engine uses XML-based standards (SML, XPath, Schematron) as a universal language to enforce diverse policy types, eliminating the need for separate specialized engines for each policy category while maintaining flexibility through configurable policy definitions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If policy engines are designed to support multiple policy types, then policy versatility improves, but integration with SOA features and context-based reasoning becomes limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces XML-based intermediate representations (SML documents, XPath expressions, Schematron rules) as mediators between the policy engine and SOA context data. These intermediaries enable the engine to reason about complex SOA contexts by translating business rules into structured XML queries and validations, thereby improving context-based reasoning capability while maintaining broad policy type support.
3Productivity
If existing policy engines enforce policies, then policy execution is achieved, but policy reuse and adaptability across different scenarios are inflexible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-compiles policy definitions into XML-based formats (SML documents with XPath and Schematron rules) during system initialization or deployment. This preliminary action allows the policy engine to efficiently execute policies by using the pre-processed XML structures for rapid validation and reasoning, while the configurable XML nature of these definitions enables easy adaptation and reuse across different scenarios without requiring engine modifications.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for enforcing context model based Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) policies is provided, which includes: gathering instance documents related to policy enforcement according to a business requirement; generating an instantiated context model using the gathered instance documents; generating a policy set to be enforced according to the gathered instance documents; determining an enforcement sequence of policies in the policy set; and applying the policies to the instantiated context model according to the enforcement sequence. The method for enforcing context model based SOA policies may flexibly gather the instance documents according to scenarios and purposes of the policy enforcement to define the policy scope, such as project, application, service, etc., and may be applied to various types of the SOA policies. In addition, a policy engine for enforcing context model based SOA policies is provided.