Policy transition mechanism: a new approach to multi-mode management

A policy management technology is one of promising technologies for the management of networking systems, which are getting complex and difficult to manage. Conventional policy languages provide a flat policy mechanism, under which all policy rules are always active. We argue that not all policy rules should be active in all situations. Some are defined for a certain situation and others for a different situation. For example, the set of active policy rules at office hours are different from those at off-time. We propose a policy transition mechanism, which modifies active policy groups, depending on a situation. As a result, we can achieve management depending on a change in the situation while the flat policy mechanism cannot.