Cisco Systems Network Endpoint Assessment (NEA) architectures have been implemented in the industry, e.g. [TNC, NAP, NAC], to assess the software or hardware configuration of endpoint devices for the purposes of monitoring compliance of endpoints to an organization's policy for access to the network, and optionally restricting or denying access until the endpoint has been updated to satisfy the requirements. While these architectures share common components and interfaces to support network endpoint assessment, these components are not interoperable because not all required protocols are standards. This document describes the problem these architectures are intending to address, defines common terminology and concepts, and identifies interfaces that are candidates for standardization.