[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]
The Policy Element (PE) component is the Microsoft-provided policy interface for Windows clients. The PE provides policy information that is incorporated in network resource reservation requests, which in turn get sent out onto the network. This policy information is intercepted by the Admission Control Service (ACS) (which includes SBM functionality as part of its fundamental service suite). The ACS services such requests by checking whether the requesting client has authorization to use network resources on the local subnet. If successful, policy information is forwarded on to the next network node for subsequent policy checking, and such activity continues toward the intended receiver, along the data path of network nodes, until the request is rejected or the intended receiver (the node with which the sending client wishes to communicate) is reached.