The Common Open Policy Service (COPS) Protocol is part of the
internet protocol suite
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...
as defined by the . COPS specifies a simple client/server model for supporting policy control over
quality of service
Quality of service (QoS) is the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network, or a cloud computing service, particularly the performance seen by the users of the network. To quantitat ...
(QoS) signaling protocols (e.g.
RSVP
RSVP is an initialism derived from the French phrase ''Répondez s'il vous plaît'', literally meaning "Respond, if you please", or just "Please respond", to require confirmation of an invitation. The initialism "RSVP" is no longer used much in ...
). Policies are stored on servers, and acted upon by Policy Decision Points (PDP), and are enforced on clients, also known as Policy Enforcement Points (PEP). There are two models of COPS: The Outsourcing Model and the Provisioning Model, considered from the view of the client or PEP.
The Outsourcing Model is the simplest COPS implementation. In this model, all policies are stored at the PDP. Whenever the PEP needs to make a decision, it sends all relevant information to the PDP. The PDP analyzes the information, makes the decision, and relays it to the PEP. The PEP then simply enforces the decision.
In the Provisioning Model, see COPS Usage for Policy Provisioning (COPS-PR), the PEP reports its decision-making capabilities to the PDP. The PDP then downloads relevant policies on to the PEP. The PEP can then make its own decisions based on these policies. The Provisioning Model uses the Policy Information Base as a repository of the policies.
External links
* Th
COPS-MAIDInternet Draft introduces QoS extensions to the protocol for Multi-Access environment.
Open source COPS client
Internet protocols
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ja:ポリシーベース・ネットワーク管理#ポリシーにもとづく決定の要求・配布方式