By: Christine Martz
Meaning of PDP - "Policy Enforcement Point", is the
logical entity or place on a server that makes admission control
and policy decisions in response to a request from a user wanting
to access a resource on a computer or network server.
PDP is a component of policy-based management.
When a user tries to access a file or other resource on a computer
network or server that uses policy-based access management, the (PEP) will
describe the user's attributes to other entities on the system. The PEP
will give the PDP the job of deciding whether
or not to authorize the user based on the description of the user's attributes.
Applicable policies are stored on the system and are analyzed by
the PDP. The PDP makes it's decision and returns the decision.
The PEP will let the user know whether or not he has been authorized to
access the requested resource.
“…Decision Point is separate functional entity that may
reside within a separate Policy Server, for example, on an application
server. The Policy Decision Point will make decisions based on the policy
information held within the Policy Repository.” [3gpp.org]
“…The place where a decision is arrived at as a result
of evaluating the requester's authorization attributes, the requested
operation, and the requested resource in light of applicable
authorization policy.”[CoverPages.org]
“…The policy selection mechanism must "know" how to choose the
correct policies to be evaluated. Policy selection is distinct
from policy enforcement. Selection occurs at a policy decision
point. Software at the decision point "knows" the subject, the
object, and the operation, and uses this information to select
candidate policies to evaluate.” [Microsoft Corporation]
“…A Policy Decision Point (PDP) is the technical entity capable
of taking a Policy Decision based on a set of policies that an
administrative domain has defined. The administrative domain
does the translation of policies defined by business rules into
technical policy rules that is understood by the PDP. The PDP stores
the technical policy rules in a repository.” [Gridform.org]
