A policy engine for the OCAP monitor application [TV open cable application platform]

Television cable operators must be able to easily and economically customize the services and features that they deliver to their customers. At the same time, customers desire the ability to further refine access to those very same services and features. Combining a locally hosted policy engine with remotely managed policy files is one way to implement a network of highly configurable receivers. By separating policy enforcement from policy expression, an operator can easily modify the behavior of the policy engine by simply updating the appropriate policy files. We describe a policy engine-based architecture for the OCAP monitor application that provides flexibility in remote management of receivers.