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Abstract

A method and apparatus for creating policies for use in policy-based management of quality of service treatments of network data traffic flows are described. The policies are defined based on information about types of network traffic flows generated by an application program, and information about quality of service functions that are available in devices of the network. In one embodiment, application information is received that defines one or more traffic flows generated by an application program, including information identifying one or more points at which an application generates the traffic flows, from a first individual having responsibility for managing enterprise applications in the network. Further, QoS information is received that defines one of more quality of service treatments that the network device may apply to data processed by the network device, from a second individual having responsibility for managing the network. Based on the device QoS information and the application information, one or more processing policies that associate the traffic flows with the quality of service treatments are determined. Mappings of the application information to the quality of service treatments, which may be used to generate the quality of service value when the application program generates traffic flows, are created and stored. As a result, the policies are informed both by application program expertise and network expertise. Methods and mechanisms of integrating the policies into a directory are described.

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