In policy-based networking , a policy is a formal set of statements that define how the network's resources are to be allocated among its clients.
Clients can be individual users, departments, host computers, or applications.
Resources can be allocated based on time of day, client authorization priorities, availability of resources, and other factors. Policies and policy statements are created by network managers and stored in a policy repository . During network operation, the policies are retrieved and used by network management software to make decisions. Give teleconference users the next highest priority. In practice, most policy-based networking software today requires specific knowledge of the network configuration and the use of a more artificial language.