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Policymap File

The policymap file is used to list the mapping of classes to policies and routers. In the policymap file, there is one line for each policy of a router. One router can have several policy maps. This policymap file is automatically created after performing the Create Policies for Classes in the NorthStar Planner client and then saving the network environment.

Each line in the policy map file contains information about the policy name, router name, defined classes and class policies (such as bandwidth and queue length). The priority class is always listed before the other classes. The format of each record is:

The following table provides the definition of each field (fields are separated by a vertical “|” line):

Field

Description

Type

The type of queueing algorithm. Valid types are “CBWFQ”, “MDRR”, “MDRR strict”, “MDRR alternate”, “ERX”.

Global Parameters

Reserved for future use. This field may be left empty for now.

Router

Name of the router. This corresponds to the Node ID field in the muxloc file. A ‘-’ in this field indicates ‘Any Router’.

Policyname

Name of a policy defined for the router

PriorityClass, Bandwidth(Kbps), -

Name of the priority class. This is followed by the bandwidth in Kbps, or the maximum bandwidth of the priority class. For MDRR queueing, this field should be substituted with the weight value.The ‘-’ indicates that this field (typically used for queue length) is not applicable for the priority class.

Classname, Bandwidth, QueueLength, bitmap, dscpbitmap, expbitmap, dscpbitmap1, bc, be, pir

This field defines the policy for each class. It is repeatable for up to 6 classes, not including the priority class.

  • Classname

  • Bandwidth is in kbps. For MDRR queueing, this field should be substituted with the weight value. It is not necessary to fill in all sub-fields. The dash “-“ tells the system to use the default values.

  • QueueLength is the size of the queue of the specified class. The unit of the queue length is the number of packets.

  • bitmap and dscpbitmap are fields reserved for future use, and may be left empty for now.

The priority class is for Low Latency Queueing or Priority Queueing. Packets belonging to this class have higher priority than other classes. There is no queue limit for this class. That is why there is the dash “-“ in the third subfield.

Examples:

The following table explains the first line of the example:

Field

Value

Type

CBWFQ

Router name

Node0

Policy name

policy_N0

Priority class name

voice

bandwidth

64 kbps

Class name

business_data

bandwidth

400 kbps

Queue length

32 packets

Class name

economy_data

bandwidth

100 kbps

queue

16 packets

After creating the policymap file, you need to let the system know where that file is. There are two ways of pointing to the policymap file:

  • Add in the specification file the following line:

    where policymap_filename is the name of the policymap file just created above.

  • Or, from the NorthStar Planner client edit the specification file. Click on Network Files tab of the Spec File Generation window. Select the policymap entry in the Device-Specific Files category, click Browse to locate the file, and then click the Set button.