WS-Policy
Encyclopedia
WS-Policy is a specification that allows web services to use XML to advertise their policies (on security
, Quality of Service
, etc.) and for web service consumers to specify their policy requirements.
WS-Policy is a W3C recommendation as of September 2007.
WS-Policy represents a set of specifications that describe the capabilities and constraints of the security (and other business) policies on intermediaries and end points (for example, required security tokens, supported encryption algorithms, and privacy rules) and how to associate policies with services and end points.
Logically, an empty wsp:All tag makes no assertions.
The policy intersection is a semantic (as opposed to syntactic) intersection
of two policies. The intersection is a new policy that complies with both their requirements/capabilities - or, if the policies are incompatible, this is discovered by both parties.
Often synonymous assertions are considered incompatible by an policy intersection. This can easily be explained by the fact that policy intersection is a syntactic approach, which does not incorporate semantics of the assertions. Furthermore it ignores the assertions parameters.
Opposed to what the name might suggest, it is (although quite similar) not a set-intersection.
WS-SecurityPolicy
is a WS* specification, created by IBM and 12 co-authors, that has become an OASIS standard as of version 1.2. It extends the fundamental security protocols specified by the WS-Security, WS-Trust and WS-SecureConversation by offering mechanisms to represent the capabilities and requirements of web...
, Quality of Service
Quality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
, etc.) and for web service consumers to specify their policy requirements.
WS-Policy is a W3C recommendation as of September 2007.
WS-Policy represents a set of specifications that describe the capabilities and constraints of the security (and other business) policies on intermediaries and end points (for example, required security tokens, supported encryption algorithms, and privacy rules) and how to associate policies with services and end points.
Policy Assertion
Assertions can either be requirements put upon a web service or an advertisement of the policies of a web service.Operator tags
Two "operators" (XML tags) are used to make statements about policy combinations:- wsp:ExactlyOne - asserts that only one child node must be satisfied.
- wsp:All - asserts that all child nodes must be satisfied.
Logically, an empty wsp:All tag makes no assertions.
Policy Intersection
Intersection (set theory)
In mathematics, the intersection of two sets A and B is the set that contains all elements of A that also belong to B , but no other elements....
of two policies. The intersection is a new policy that complies with both their requirements/capabilities - or, if the policies are incompatible, this is discovered by both parties.
Often synonymous assertions are considered incompatible by an policy intersection. This can easily be explained by the fact that policy intersection is a syntactic approach, which does not incorporate semantics of the assertions. Furthermore it ignores the assertions parameters.
Opposed to what the name might suggest, it is (although quite similar) not a set-intersection.
Associated specifications
- WS-Policy - Attachment specifies how to add policies to WSDL and UDDI.
- WS-SecurityPolicyWS-SecurityPolicyis a WS* specification, created by IBM and 12 co-authors, that has become an OASIS standard as of version 1.2. It extends the fundamental security protocols specified by the WS-Security, WS-Trust and WS-SecureConversation by offering mechanisms to represent the capabilities and requirements of web...
specifies security policy assertions for WS-SecurityWS-SecurityWS-Security is a flexible and feature-rich extension to SOAP to apply security to web services. It is a member of the WS-* family of web service specifications and was published by OASIS....
, WS-TrustWS-TrustWS-Trust is a WS-* specification and OASIS standard that provides extensions to WS-Security, specifically dealing with the issuing, renewing, and validating of security tokens, as well as with ways to establish, assess the presence of, and broker trust relationships between participants in a secure...
and WS-SecureConversationWS-SecureConversationWS-SecureConversation is a Web Services specification, created by IBM and others, that works in conjunction with WS-Security, WS-Trust and WS-Policy to allow the creation and sharing of security contexts...
. - WS-Policy4MASCWS-Policy4MASCWS-Policy4MASC is a policy language for managing Web services and their composition.WS-Policy4MASC extends a widely-used industrial standard, WS-Policy, with information necessary for run-time management, including the unique support for autonomic business-driven IT management...
specifies management policies for Web services and their compositions.
External links
- The latest Web Services Policy - Framework recommendation at W3C
- The latest Web Services Policy - Primer introduction at W3C
- The Web Services Policy Working Group page at W3C
- WS-Policy specification