Network Working Group S.E. Kille
INTERNET--DRAFT University College London
March 1991
A proposed strategy for deploying an
OSI Internet Directory
Status of this Memo
This document is a first cut at describing an overall strategy for
deploying an OSI Directory on the Internet. This is a draft
document, and does not carry any implications of agreement on
policy.
This draft document will be submitted to the RFC editor as an
informational document. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Please send comments to the author or to the discussion group
<osi-ds@CS.UCL.AC.UK>.
INTERNET--DRAFT Strategy for Internet Directory March 1991
1 Background
There is substantial interest in establishing an OSI Directory
Service on the Internet. There is pressure to establish a number
of services on the Internet, including:
o White Pages lookup of users.
o Support for OSI Applications.
o Support for X.509 Authentication for a range of application,
including Privacy Enhanced Mail [Lin89].
The OSI Directory is viewed as the best basis for achieving these
services, for both technical and political reasons.
Add some more general notes, or delete this section??
2 Strategy
The first issue is to define what is needed. This is the target to
be reached in five years. The target is straightforward: A
directory infrastructure used by all Internet members, which
interworks with non-Internet X.500 services. It should be used
for:
o Lookup of users and related white pages services such as
committee support
o Support of management of the internet infrastructure
o Support of all OSI Applications on the Internet, especially
X.400
o Support of Internet Security activities (X.509), by providing
access to public-key certificates.
o Use of X.500 directory should be a mandatory requirement for
all Internet sites. A transition plan from DNS to X.500 should
be in place. This gives a scaling target of order of millions
or tens of millions of entries.
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INTERNET--DRAFT Strategy for Internet Directory March 1991
There are are a number of aspects of deployment in order to achieve
this. These are:
1. Technical issues. Which specifications and agreements are
needed in order to make things work.
2. Implementations. What implementations are available, and what
are needed. What steps are being taken to fill the gaps.
3. Operations. What central initiatives are needed. What is
needed locally.
These are discussed in the remainder of this document.
3 Technical Issues
The technical issues relating to this activity are being dealt with
by the IETF WG on OSI Directories (OSI-DS). The work of this group
is summarised in an RFC [Kil90].
4 Implementations
An effective pilot will need to have
o Two independent DSA implementations, as a verification of
openness.
o DUA implementations for all systems participating in the pilot
o Suppprt fo standard APIs.
There are currently some gaps. Should there be central funding?
5 Operations
The initial operation of the Internet Pilot is under the aegis of
two activities:
PSI Pilot
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INTERNET--DRAFT Strategy for Internet Directory March 1991
This is a de facto pilot, which is operation X.500 on the
Internet.
FOX
Fielding Operational X.500, which is investigating deployment
of X.500
PARADISE
Piloting a ReseArch DIrectory Service in Europe. This will be
a key project which will be closely coupled with Internet
Activities.
These pilots should lead to identifying:
o What central services are needed to build a full service
o Requirements which must be palaced on end sites
6 Site Support
There is a need to plan the support which is needed, both for
participating stes and users. This is being tackled by the
Directory Information Services (pilot) Infrastructure Working Group
(DISI) --- joint OSI and User Services area.
7 Liaison
Some liaison of the overall activity is needed:
Other Pilots
To ensure a coherent international service.
Standards Bodies
To feed back experience gained from this activity
References
[Kil90] S.E. Kille. Building and internet directory using X.500,
November 1990. Internet Draft:
draft-ietf-osix500-directories-01.txt.
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INTERNET--DRAFT Strategy for Internet Directory March 1991
[Lin89] J. Linn. Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail:
Part 1 --- Message Encipherment and Authentication
Procedures. Request for Comments 1113, DDN Network
Information Center, SRI International, August 1989.
8 Security Considerations
Security considerations are not discussed in this INTERNET--DRAFT .
9 Author's Address
Steve Kille
Department of Computer Science
University College London
Gower Street
WC1E 6BT
England
Phone: +44-71-380-7294
EMail: S.Kille@CS.UCL.AC.UK
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