Patent ID: 7975037

Claim:
A system comprising: a database to: store a plurality of associations of information, relating to subscribers, and policies relating to a communications network, the communications network providing at least one service to which the subscribers subscribe, the policies including a first type of policy and a second type of policy, the first type of policy being different than the second type of policy; a policy engine comprising: a processor to: receive an update to one association of the plurality of associations stored in the database, and forward the update in response to receiving the update; and a group of policy components, the group of policy components including a first policy component to enforce the first type of policy and a second policy component to enforce the second type of policy, at least one policy component, of the group of policy components, being to: receive the update from the policy engine, store the update, and process a received communication request based on the update, where the processor is further to: forward, to the first policy component and not to the second policy component, the first type of policy, and forward, to the second policy component and not to the first policy component, the second type of policy, where the processor is still further to: receive status information relating to the communications network, update, in response to receiving the status information, at least one policy of the policies, and forward, in response to updating the at least one policy, the update to the at least one policy to a policy component of the group of policy components, and where the policy component is to: receive the update to the at least one policy from the policy engine, store the received update to the at least one policy, and process a different communication request using the update to the at least one policy.