Subject: framework-pib-04: Pib Incarnations "Activation" and "De-activati on" Clarification Needed

From: "Iliff, Tina" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 22:42:49 +0000

All,

One item in the framework-pib-04 draft seems a little ambiguous to me.
Please let me know if I am missing something.  Specifically, how should one
interpret the below RFC 3084 excerpts regarding Pib Incarnations:

Multiple PIB Instances 
    
   [COPS-PR] supports multiple, disjoint, independent instances of the 
   PIB to represent multiple instances of configured policy.  The 
   intent is to allow for the pre-provisioning of policy that can then 
   be made active by a single, short decision from the PDP. 
    
   A COPS context can be defined as an independent COPS request state 
   for a particular subject category (client-type).  
 
   With the COPS-PR protocol, each of these states is identified by a 
   unique client handle.  The creation and deletion of these PIB 
   instances is controlled by the PDP as described in [COPS-PR]. 
    
   Although many PIB instances may be configured on a device (the 
   maximum number of these instances being determined by the device 
   itself) only one of them can be active at any given time, the active 
   one being selected by the PDP.  To facilitate this selection, the 
   Framework PIB supports an attribute to make a PIB instance the 
   active one and, similarly, to report the active PIB instance to the 
 
   PDP in a COPS request message. This attribute is in the Incarnation 
   Table described below. 
    
   Setting the attribute frwkPibIncarnationActive to 'true' in one PIB 
   instance MUST ensure that the attribute is 'false' in all other 
   contexts. 

frwkPibIncarnationActive OBJECT-TYPE 
       SYNTAX         TruthValue 
       STATUS         current 
       DESCRIPTION 
           "If this attribute is set to TRUE, then the PIB instance 
           to which this PRI belongs becomes the active PIB instance. 
           The previous active instance MUST become inactive and the 
           frwkPibIncarnationActive attribute in that PIB instance  
           MUST be set to false." 

Specifically, based on this excerpt which endpoint (PEP or PDP) is
responsible for setting a Pib Incarnation to "inactive"; i.e. setting its
Active attribute to 'False'?  It explicitly states that the PDP is
responsible for selecting the Active incarnation.  My interpretation is that
all policy will be sent and indicated as inactive, then the PDP will send
just a frwkPibIncarnation instance to "activate" one incarnation identified
by its Id.  However, who is responsible for "de-activating" currently
installed "activated" policy when a new incarnation is sent by the PDP with
the Active attribute set to 'True'?

Also, please let me know if I am interpreting words incorrectly.

Regards,
Tina Iliff