Patent ID: 8191107

Claim:
A method for changing one or more policies and/or one or more policy enforcement rules of one or more of a plurality of packet forwarding devices of a network system including a plurality of network infrastructure devices, the method comprising the steps of: a. pre-installing on one or more of the plurality of packet forwarding devices one or more policy sets, one or more policy enforcement rule (PER) sets, or a combination of policy and PER sets, associated with usage of the network system, wherein each of the one or more policy sets, PER sets or combination of policy and PER sets is associated with a unique identifier; b. monitoring the network system for one or more lost contact triggers by monitoring for responses to one or more contact messages from at least one of: 1) the plurality of network infrastructure devices; and 2) one or more attached functions of the network system; c. upon detection of one or more lost contact triggers, determining for which of the one or more packet forwarding devices to change one or more policy sets and/or PER sets deemed responsive to the detected one or more lost contact triggers; d. selecting one or more policy sets and/or PER sets deemed responsive to the detected one or more lost contact triggers, wherein the selected one or more policy sets and/or PER sets may include one or more of the pre-installed policy sets and/or PER sets; e. implementing on one or more of the determined one or more packet forwarding devices the selected one or more policy sets and/or PER sets deemed responsive; and f. reporting the one or more lost contact triggers detected, the determined one or more packet forwarding devices and the policy sets and/or PER sets selected for implementation to a central repository.