Patent ID: 8499331
Filing Date: 2013-07-30
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of policy-based testing of network resource compliance at a node in a network, the method comprising: maintaining a set of network resource compliance policies, each network resource compliance policy in the set including: i) a set of network resource compliance rules and corresponding network resource compliance violation criteria for each of the network resource compliance rules within the set of network resource compliance rules; ii) a network resource compliance policy scope that indicates what resources from a network environment the network resource compliance rules in the network resource compliance policy are to be applied; iii) a network resource compliance policy compliance statement that defines a set of network resource compliance rule violations of varying severity that determine overall network resource compliance policy violation; defining a range of network resource compliance violation severity levels, each of the network resource compliance rules having a network resource compliance violation severity level selected from the range of network resource compliance violation severity levels; defining a sliding severity score for policy violation, comprising: defining, for each severity level, a score value; defining, for a particular policy, a compliance score value; aggregating, for each of the rule violations, the score values corresponding to the severity level of the violated rule; and determining noncompliance of the policy if the aggregate score value for each rule violation exceeds the compliance score value defined for the policy; identifying, for each network resource compliance violation severity level, a threshold indicative of a number of violations of network resource compliance rules in the set of network resource compliance rules included in the network resource compliance policy; gathering network resource compliance data from observed network activity, the network resource compliance data indicative of network resources; applying the set of network resource compliance policies and associated sets of network resource compliance rules to the gathered network resource compliance data to calculate network resource compliance results indicating compliance of those network resources represented by the network resource compliance data; and outputting the network resource compliance results of network resources represented in the network resource compliance data from the node in the network.