(or the admission control module at the network element where PEP resides) to generate policy-related error messages. For example, in the case of RSVP, the PDP may accept a request and allow installation and forwarding of a reservation to a previous hop, but, at the same time, may wish to generate a warning/error message to a downstream node (NHOP) to warn about conditions such as "your request may have to be torn down in 10 mins, etc." Basically, an ability to create policy-related errors and/or warnings and to propagate them using the native QoS signaling protocol (such as RSVP) is needed. Such a policy error returned by the PDP must be able to also specify whether the
reservation request should still be accepted, installed, and forwarded to allow continued normal RSVP processing. In particular, when a PDP sends back an error, it specifies that:
1. the message that generated the admission control request should be processed further as usual, but an error message (or warning) be sent in the other direction and include the policy objects supplied in that error message
2. or, specifies that an error be returned, but the RSVP message should not be forwarded as usual.
4.3. Interactions between PEP, LPDP, and PDP at a RSVP router
All the details of RSVP message processing and associated interactions between different elements at an RSVP router (PEP, LPDP) and PDP are included in separate documents [3,8]. In the following, a few, salient points related to the framework are listed:
* LPDP is optional and may be used for making decisions based on policy elements handled locally. The LPDP, in turn, may have to go to external entities (such as a directory server or an authentication server, etc.) for making its decisions.
* PDP is stateful and may make decisions even if no policy objects are received (e.g., make decisions based on information such as flowspecs and session object in the RSVP messages). The PDP may consult other PDPs, but discussion of inter-PDP communication and coordination is outside the scope of this document.
* PDP sends asynchronous notifications to PEP whenever necessary to change earlier decisions, generate errors etc.
* PDP exports the information useful for usage monitoring and