SMARTER POLICY DECISIONS BASED ON METADATA IN DATA FLOWS

摘要

Modern day user applications leverages new communication technologies such as WebRTC, WebEx, and Jabber allow devices to connect and exchange media content including audio streams, video streams, and data stream/channels. The present disclosure describes mechanisms for a Port Control Protocol (PCP) server to provide feedback to PCP clients to enforce certain policies on the transport of such media content for a network. A policy may include a traffic handling policy for enforcing differentiated quality of service characteristics for different types of media streams. Another policy may include a security policy ensuring a data files being transmitted over a data channel from one endpoint travels to a security application via a relay element before the packets reaches another endpoint. The mechanisms are transparent to the endpoints, and advantageously preserve the user experience for these user applications.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving, from a Port Control Protocol (PCP) client of a first device at a PCP server of a network, a query whether the PCP client can bundle a plurality of streams into a flow; determining, by the PCP server using a policy application, whether at least one of the plurality of streams is to be provided to a security application through a relay element; and in response to determining the PCP client must transmit at least one of the plurality of streams separately from the rest of the plurality of streams, transmitting, from the PCP server to the PCP client, a response indicating to the PCP client that the at least one of the plurality of streams is to be provided to the security application through a relay element.