NADF Standing Documents: A Brief Overview
A short guide to the document series that let competing providers run one public X.500 directory.
The North American Directory Forum, "NADF Standing Documents: A Brief Overview", RFC 1417, DOI 10.17487/RFC1417, February 1993, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1417>.
@misc{rfc1417,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 1417,
howpublished = {RFC 1417},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC1417},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1417},
author = {The North American Directory Forum},
title = {{NADF Standing Documents: A Brief Overview}},
pagetotal = 4,
year = 1993,
month = feb,
} RFC text
Contents
Network Working Group The North American Directory Forum
Request for Comments: 1417 February 1993
Obsoletes: 1295, 1255, 1218
NADF Standing Documents:
A Brief Overview
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is
unlimited.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ......................................... 1
1.1 Document Availability ............................... 3
1.1.1 Hardcopy .......................................... 3
1.1.2 Anonymous FTP ..................................... 4
1.1.3 Electronic Mail ................................... 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-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.
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
3055 Q 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.ics.uci.edu
area: mrose/nadf/
files: sd-*.ps
mode: ascii
1.1.3. Electronic Mail
addr: archive-server@ftp.ics.uci.edu
body: mimesend mrose/nadf/sd-NN.ps
(where "NN" is the desired SD)
Security Considerations
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
Author's Address
North American Directory Forum
c/o Theodore H. Myer
Rapport Communication
3055 Q Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: +1 202-342-2727
EMail: 0004454742@mcimail.com
AI ELI5
On this page
§1Why the NADF Wrote Standing Documents
The North American Directory Forum (NADF) is a collection of service providers that plans to offer a Public Directory Service in North America using the CCITT X.500 Recommendations. The RFC says the NADF is unusual because it must achieve a cooperative service offered by competing providers.
This memo is an informational overview of the NADF Standing Document series. It obsoletes RFC 1295, RFC 1255 and RFC 1218, and says it does not specify an Internet standard.
Imagine rival shops agreeing to share one town directory. They have to write down the rules first, and this memo lists those rules.
§2The Documents in the Series
The series runs from SD-0 (this overview) to SD-12. SD-1 (Terms of Reference) defines the scope of the NADF, and SD-2 (Program Plan) describes issues of interest to it. The other documents describe the agreements needed for a cooperative service. The NADF relies on X.500(88) to the largest extent possible.
- SD-3 covers the Directory service, such as quality of service, and SD-4 covers the Directory schema.
- SD-8 describes agreements for the NADF Pilot.
- SD-10 gives security and privacy policy, including a User Bill of Rights for entries and listings, and SD-11 covers the security mechanisms used in the Public Directory service.
Each numbered paper covers one job, like what the service promises, what information it holds, and how to keep it safe.
§3Naming and Sharing the Name Space
SD-5 explains how a national authority should structure its DIT subtree, then defines the naming scheme for the c=CA and c=US parts. The subtree is split into a public name-space, for objects with public recognition such as states, counties and businesses, and several private name-spaces, each managed by one public provider. SD-12 is the registry of these providers, and SD-6 gives guidelines for organizing a private name-space.
SD-7 covers how the DIT is mapped onto multiple Directory Management Domains. Because competing providers make a single manager of the public name-space impossible, each provider links the public name-space into its own private one. The shared information is limited to knowledge references and naming links. SD-9 describes the central authority, the CAN, that coordinates and distributes it.
The public part of the phone book is shared by everyone, and each company keeps its own private pages. Signposts link the two.
§4Availability and Status
When written, the Standing Documents existed only in hardcopy and PostScript, not ASCII, so they could not be issued as informational RFCs. The memo lists three ways to get them: postal mail from the NADF Secretariat, anonymous FTP, and an e-mail archive server. It says security issues are not discussed in the memo.
The papers were only on paper or in a special print format, so this memo told people where to ask for copies.