RFC 2872 (rfc2872) - Page 2 of 6


Application and Sub Application Identity Policy Element for Use with RSVP



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



RFC 2872            Application Identifiers for RSVP           June 2000


   One type of policy information describes the application on behalf of
   which an RSVP signaling request is generated. When application policy
   information is available, network administrators are able to manage
   QoS based on application type. So, for example, a network
   administrator may establish a policy that prioritizes known mission-
   critical applications over games.

   This memo describes a structure for a policy element that can be used
   to identify application traffic flows. The policy element includes a
   number of attributes, one of which is a policy locator. This policy
   locator includes the following hierarchically ordered sub-elements
   (in descending levels of hierarchy):

      1. identifier that uniquely identifies the application vendor
      2. identifier of the application
      3. version number of the application
      4. sub-application identifier

   An arbitrary number of sub-application identifiers may be included in
   the policy locator. An example of such an identifier is 'print
   transaction'.

   This memo specifies the structure of the application policy element
   and proposes keywords for the sub-elements at each level of the
   hierarchy. It does not enumerate specific values for the sub-
   elements: such an enumeration is beyond the scope of this memo.

2. Simple Application Identity Policy Element Structure

   General application identity policy elements are defined in
   [RFC 2752]. These are policy elements with a P-type of AUTH_APP.
   Following the policy element header is a list of authentication
   attributes.

   The first authentication attribute is of the A-type POLICY_LOCATOR.
   The sub-type of the POLICY_LOCATOR attribute is of type ASCII_DN
   [RFC 1779] or UNICODE_DN. The actual attribute data is formatted as an
   X.500 distinguished name (DN), representing a globally unique
   identifier, the application, version number and sub-application in a
   hierarchical structure. The POLICY_LOCATOR attribute contains
   keywords as described in section 2. For further details on the format
   of the POLICY_LOCATOR attribute, see [RFC 2752].

   The second authentication attribute is of the A-type CREDENTIAL. The
   sub-type of the CREDENTIAL attribute is of type ASCII_ID or
   UNICODE_ID. The actual attribute data is an ASCII or Unicode string
   representing the application name. This structure is illustrated in
   the following diagram:



Bernet & Pabbati            Standards Track