Chapter 6. Complex Network Examples

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With your newly acquired Policy Routing Black Belt you feel you can take on the world. So you decide you want to try some of the outer limits of Policy Routing structures. You start from the consideration of the Triad: Address, Route, and Rule. The definitions of the basic elements of Policy Routing are broad statements of use. You wonder what hidden assumptions and applications are covered within those definitions.

You start by considering how services define addressing and how to manipulate those services from the origin. You look at the service structure of an individual host as it relates to the overall provision of services within the network, then to how those network services are interoperative under the same set of rules.

This leads you into the complex interactions between routes and rules. How you ensure that the multiple priorities and structures are implemented within the host defines the implementation of the security and network policies. Making sure that services within a host are integrated into the network structure leads you to consider the network scopes.

Considering where your host's services fit into the larger network structures brings up the question of packet-level functions. You want to ensure that the core packet considerations are driven by the security and network policies and are not limited by the hosts providing the services. This drives the mechanism of network-level Policy Routing structures.

Finally, looking at the full scope of the network-level Policy Routing structures you ponder the function of the interface between your network and the greater conglomeration of networks of which your network is a member. As with star clusters and galaxies, the interactions function on a basic level and how you define those interactions at the border interfaces drives the usage of the internetwork. This brings you full circle to considering that the implementation of Policy Routing, as with any fractal feature set, is scaleless in the viewing. At any level, the same principles and operations function. Whether you consider the internal services within a host system or the Internet itself, the same ruleset and application structure define your Policy Routing.

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