Network Working Group The North American Directory Forum
Request for Comments: 1758 February 1995
Obsoletes: 1417, 1295, 1255, 1218
Category: Informational
NADF Standing Documents:
A Brief Overview
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.
Table of Contents
1. IntrodUCtion ......................................... 1
1.1 Document Availability ............................... 3
1.1.1 Hardcopy .......................................... 4
1.1.2 Anonymous FTP ..................................... 4
Security Considerations ................................. 4
Author's Address ........................................ 4
1. Introduction
The North American Directory Forum (NADF) is a collection of service
providers which plans to cooperatively offer a Public Directory
Service in North America using the CCITT X.500 Recommendations.
Although many groups are working on realizing X.500, the NADF is
unique in that it must achieve a cooperative service offered by
competing providers.
The purpose of this document is to provide a brief overview of the
NADF's Standing Document series. As of this writing, the standing
documents are:
No Title
---- ------------------------------------------------
SD-0 NADF Standing Documents: A Brief Overview
SD-1 Terms of Reference
SD-2 Program Plan
SD-3 Service Description
SD-4 The Directory Schema
SD-5 An X.500 Naming Scheme for National DIT SuBTrees
and Its Application for c=CA and c=US
SD-6 Guidelines on Naming and Subtrees
SD-7 Mapping the North American DIT
onto Directory Management Domains
SD-8 The EXPerimental Pilot Plan
SD-9 Charter, Procedures and Operations of the
Central Administration for NADF
SD-10 Security & Privacy: Policy & Services
SD-11 Directory Security: Mechanisms and Practicality
SD-12 Registry of ADDMD Names
SD-13 NADF Accounting and Settlements
SD-1 defines the scope of the NADF, whilst SD-2 describes issue of
interest to the NADF.
The remaining documents describe the agreements necessary to achieve
a cooperative Public Directory Service offered by competing
providers. In this context, it should be observed that the NADF
relies on X.500(88) to the largest extent possible.
SD-3 contains agreements concerning the Directory "service", e.g.,
quality of service, whilst SD-4 contains agreements concerning the
Directory schema.
SD-5 concerns itself with how a national authority should structure
its DIT subtree, and then applies these principles to define the
naming scheme for the c=CA and c=US parts of the DIT. The NADF's
approach is to divide a national DIT subtree into two portions: the
public name-space, which corresponds to information objects having
some sort of public recognition (e.g., states, counties, businesses,
etc.), and several private name-spaces, each unilaterally managed by
a public provider of Directory services. (SD-12 defines the registry
of these providers.) Based on the civil standing of an entity, that
entity may opt to list as one or more entries in the public name-
space. That is, registration, per se, occurs outside of the
Directory. This is an important concept as it allows an entity to
list where others are likely to search.
SD-6 provides guidelines as to how organizations might wish to
organize their private name-space, and also discusses how multi-
nationals might choose to list themselves.
SD-7 contains agreements concerning how the DIT is mapped onto
multiple DMDs. Knowledge maintenance procedures are absent from
X.500(88), and products which support X.500(92) are years away.
Further, the competitive relationships between the North American
Directory providers invalidate any possibility of a single entity
having exclusive management rights to the public name-space. The
NADF approach is to cooperatively manage the public name-space by
allowing each service provider to provide linkage from the public
name-space into their own private name-space. This information is
limited to knowledge references and naming links; there is little, if
any, payload present. SD-9 discusses how a central authority (termed
the CAN) coordinates and disseminates this information. In effect,
the CAN publishes a roadmap for North American Public Directory
Service.
SD-8 describes agreements reached for the NADF Pilot.
SD-10 describes the NADF policy toward security and privacy.
Attachment 1 of SD-10 contains the "User Bill of Rights for entries
and listings in the Public Directory". In contrast, SD-11 describes
the security facilities available in the Directory, and then
specifies which mechanisms which will be used in the Public Directory
service.
SD-12 provides a registry of ADDMD names in the NADF project.
SD-13 provides a model and general principles for accounting and
settlement in the directory.
1.1. Document Availability
At the present time, the NADF standing documents are available only
in hardcopy and PostScript form. Since they do not exist in ASCII
form, the NADF standing documents can not be distributed as
informational RFCs. Following are the various distribution
mechanisms available.
1.1.1. Hardcopy
Postal: NADF Secretariat
c/o Rapport Communication
2721 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
US
Tel: +1 202 342 2727
Fax: +1 202 625 4101
E-Mail: Ted Myer <4454742@mcimail.com>
1.1.2. Anonymous FTP
host: ftp.gte.com
area: /pub/nadf/nadf-docs
files: sd-*.ps
mode: ascii
Security Considerations
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
Author's Address
North American Directory Forum
c/o Theodore H. Myer
Rapport Communication
2721 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: +1 202-342-2727