Patent ID: 7734784

Claim:
A system comprising: a service activation engine (SAE) including: a policy information base (PIB) file that defines a plurality of attachments that correspond to a plurality of network policies; a server to: receive a request, using common open policy service for policy provisioning (COPS-PR), for a network service related to an interface handle associated with a network interface created for a subscriber device, determine which one or more of the network policies correspond to the network service, and send, using COPS-PR, a provisioning instance (PRI) including a first of the attachments to implement the one or more of the network policies to the interface handle based on the attachments; and a routing device including: network interface logic to apply the one or more of the network policies to data packets associated with the interface handle, policy management logic to maintain a shared configuration context, in which the one or more of the network policies are contained as a set of policies, between the network interface and at least one other network interface created for another subscriber device, and a service activation engine (SAE) interface module to communicate with the SAE.