RE: COPS - Query PEP for policy detail?

["Durham, David" <david.durham@intel.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Man.M.Li@nokia.com [mailto:Man.M.Li@nokia.com]
> 
> In SNMP, we may use "get" to query the values of attributes 
> on PEP. It seems
> to me that we cannot do the same thing with COPS and COPS-PR. 
> For example,
> can a PDP ask a PEP to send back its current policy in PIB 
> format (PRID +
> data)? 
> 

[Dave] Well, COPS was optimized to do device provisioning/configuration and
event-driven accounting, where SNMP is better at polling and getting data
from a device. PIBs are algorithmically convertible to MIBs so that you can
use SNMP to actually "get" the policies installed on a device (SNMP should
already be on the device anyway). 

If one wanted to do it all with COPS, that's possible too. All you would
need is a PIB PRC called "resynch" (or whatever you like) that the PDP can
update (via DEC message). When the PDP wants to get a policy or all policies
on a device, it can simply trigger the PEP's resynch variable, which would
cause the PEP to send select policies via a Report message. No such standard
resynch PIB exists today, however.

-Dave