Symmetric coherent request/response policy enforcement

1. A method, comprising:

tracking, by a processor, a plurality of service level agreement (SLA) policies and service level definition (SLD) policies applied to a request message of a correlated request/response message pair, comprising:

building a symmetric policy enforcement context structure during a request message policy enforcement flow of the request message that identifies each enforced SLA policy, each enforced SLD policy, and any enforced policy alternatives executed in association with each enforced SLA policy and enforced SLD policy; and

storing the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within a memory; and

where the method further comprises:

detecting a response message of the correlated request/response message pair;

identifying, using the tracked plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message, a corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message; and

enforcing the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules.

2. The method of claim 1 , where building the symmetric policy enforcement context structure during the request message policy enforcement flow of the request message that identifies each enforced SLA policy, each enforced SLD policy, and any enforced policy alternatives executed in association with each enforced SLA policy and enforced SLD policy comprises:

for each policy enforced on the request message:

determining an executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule used to enforce the policy on the request message; and

capturing from a name of the determined executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule within the symmetric policy enforcement context structure:

a platform-specific policy enforcement rule name prefix of the determined executed platform-specific policy enforcement rule that identifies the enforced policy, where the prefix is shared within names of a set of policy enforcement rules that implement an SLD policy, any associated SLA policies, and any policy alternatives available for the SLD policy and any associated SLA policies;

an indication that distinguishes an enforced SLD policy from an enforced SLA policy; and

an indication of whether a policy alternative was executed to enforce the respective policy, comprising an identifier of each executed policy alternative.

3. The method of claim 1 , where:

storing the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within the memory comprises:

storing the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within a transactional context structure constructed for the correlated request/response message pair, where the transactional context structure comprises a transaction identifier assigned to the correlated request/response message pair; and

detecting the response message of the correlated request/response message pair comprises:

detecting the response message of the correlated request/response message pair using the transaction identifier of the transactional context structure.

4. The method of claim 1 , where:

SLA policies associated with an SLD policy are enforced on the request message prior to the associated SLD policy; and

enforcing the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules comprises:

enforcing the associated SLD policy prior to enforcing the associated SLA policies on the response message in a prescribed order using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules.

5. The method of claim 1 , where enforcing the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules comprises:

executing, in a prescribed order relative to the captured execution sequence, a sequence of the corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and the SLD policies, and any policy alternatives of the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies, on the response message to symmetrically and coherently enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message on the response message.

6. A method, comprising:

tracking, by a processor, a plurality of service level agreement (SLA) policies and service level definition (SLD) policies applied to a request message of a correlated request/response message pair, comprising:

capturing, within a symmetric policy enforcement context structure, an execution sequence of a corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message, and any policy alternatives of the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies; and

storing the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within a memory; and

where the method further comprises:

detecting a response message of the correlated request/response message pair;

identifying, using the tracked plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message, the corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message; and

enforcing the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules.

7. The method of claim 6 , where enforcing the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules comprises:

executing, in a prescribed order relative to the captured execution sequence, a sequence of the corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules used to enforce the plurality of SLA policies and the SLD policies, and any policy alternatives of the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies, on the response message to symmetrically and coherently enforce the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies applied to the request message on the response message.

8. The method of claim 6 , where:

storing the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within the memory comprises:

storing the symmetric policy enforcement context structure within a transactional context structure constructed for the correlated request/response message pair, where the transactional context structure comprises a transaction identifier assigned to the correlated request/response message pair; and

detecting the response message of the correlated request/response message pair comprises:

detecting the response message of the correlated request/response message pair using the transaction identifier of the transactional context structure.

9. The method of claim 6 , where:

SLA policies associated with an SLD policy are enforced on the request message prior to the associated SLD policy; and

enforcing the plurality of SLA policies and SLD policies on the response message using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules comprises:

enforcing the associated SLD policy prior to enforcing the associated SLA policies on the response message in a prescribed order using the identified corresponding plurality of platform-specific policy enforcement processing rules.