Distributed Policy Store for Intent-Driven Network Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional network management approaches require comprehensive knowledge from highly specialized operators and are inflexible, making it difficult for application developers to implement and alter network policies using access control lists (ACLs), which are complex and lack tailored control over network traffic.
Innovation Solution
An intent-driven network management platform that translates user intent statements into network policies, allowing both application owners and network operators to define policies in a more understandable manner, with network agents enforcing these policies across network entities and data flows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional ACL-based network management is used, then network security control is achieved, but the complexity of policy management increases and requires highly specialized operators
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a policy store as an intermediary component that sits between the network entities and the management interface. This policy store stores network policies in a simplified format and provides an abstraction layer that translates high-level policy statements into low-level ACL rules, thereby reducing management complexity while maintaining security control
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the network policy management system into distinct components: a policy definition interface for users, a policy store for storage, and a policy enforcement mechanism. This segmentation allows each component to handle specific tasks independently, reducing the overall complexity that users would otherwise face when managing ACLs directly
2Ease of operation
If traditional ACL management is used, then network traffic control is achieved, but the ease of operation decreases due to lack of tailored control
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables local quality by allowing different parts of the network to have customized policies tailored to their specific needs. The policy store stores context-aware policies that can be customized for different network segments, applications, or entities, providing localized control rather than uniform ACL rules across the entire network
3Reliability
If comprehensive network knowledge is required for management, then network security is maintained, but the productivity of network management decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service capabilities where the policy store automatically manages policy storage, retrieval, and enforcement without requiring deep network expertise from users. The system handles the complex translations and enforcement automatically, allowing users to define policies in business terms rather than technical network terms, thereby improving management productivity while maintaining security
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed technology relates to a distributed policy store. A system is configured to locate, in an index, an entry for a network entity, determine, based on the entry, a file identifier for a file containing a record for the network entity and an offset indicating a location of the record in the file. The system is further configured to locate the file in a distributed file system using the file identifier, locate the record in the file using the offset, and retrieve the record.