draft-ietf-whip-wps-reqs-summary-01.txt WHIP Working Group INTERNET DRAFT Dec 1994 Requirements for an Internet White Pages Service Fri Dec 9 18:43:46 CST 1994 C. Allan Cargille MCI ACargille@mcimail.com This draft document is being circulated for comment. If consensus is reached it will be submitted to the RFC editor for publication as an Informational RFC, to provide information for the Internet community. Please send comments to the author, or to the IETF IDS (Integrated Directory Services) Working Group mailing list, "ids@merit.edu". This document is an Internet Draft. Internet Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas, and its Working Groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet Drafts. Internet Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months. Internet Drafts may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is not appropriate to use Internet Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as a "working draft" or "work in progress." Please check the I-D abstract listing contained in each Internet Draft directory to learn the current status of this or any other Internet Draft. Abstract: RFC1588 reported on a meeting held in November 1993 to discuss the future of and approaches to a white pages directory services for the Internet. This document summarizes the requirements for an Internet white pages service from that RFC, and can be used to measure proposed solutions against these requirements. Cargille Expires May, 1995 [Page 1] DRAFT White Page Requirements Dec 1994 1. Introduction RFC1588 reported on a meeting held in November 1993 to discuss the future of and approaches to a white pages directory services for the Internet. This document summarizes the requirements for an Internet white pages service from that RFC, and can be used to measure proposed solutions against these requirements. Because this document is intended to summarize information presented in RFC1588, detailed citations (ie, quotation marks and page numbers) are not utilized. 2. What do I need to know to be able to read this document? The only critical background reading is contained in RFC1588 [ref]. To be more knowledgeable about the directory protocols involved, one might read information on X.500 [refs to X.500 doc and summary RFCs] and the WHOIS++ protocol [rfc]. RFC1588 contains additional references. 3. Acknowledgements Appendix I of RFC1588 contains a summary list of requirements, which served as a starting point for this document (pp. 33-35). That list was initially developed by Chris Weider and amended by other discussion and meeting participants. Those participants are listed in RFC1588 (p 31). Jon Postel and Celeste Anderson wrote and edited RFC1588 following the meeting. 4. Requirements Listed below are all the requirements which I found based on a detailed pass through 1588. These are not in priority or order. Some may be conflicting goals. In a following draft, I will organize these into logical groupings and provide text describing the intent or need for each. Some requirements may apply to specific Internet WPS technologies. Please feel free to recommend additional requirements -- the working group should have the authority to add to or delete from this list: Support Searching - Searching is the ability to find people given some information about them. Fast Searching Support Retrieval - Retrieval is defined as obtaining additional information associated with a person, such as an address, telephone number, email mailbox, or security certificate. Cargille Expires May, 1995 [Page 2] DRAFT White Page Requirements Dec 1994 Support Security Certificates - The Internet WPS should support the storage and retrieval of security certificates or public keys. Accommodate multiple technologies Simple Common Ground approach Lowest Common Denominator High Functionality Low Entry Cost (cookbook info on how to bring up new server) Take advantage of deployed technology / existing infrastructure (X.500 and other) Reliable Standardized naming scheme Encourage multiple clients Encourage multiple servers Support interaction between servers Support access to servers of various protocols Fast Searching / "reasonable" search response time Support additional data in records Contain accurate data Be Scalable to the whole Internet Support fuzzy searching Local Management Decentralized authority Support Access Control (Possibly) Support multiple transport protocols Support Descriptive Naming / Logical searches Support Multiple interfaces Cargille Expires May, 1995 [Page 3] DRAFT White Page Requirements Dec 1994 Support multiple clients Be Flexible (in data contained?) Have low resource requirements Be Inexpensive (product cost and staff time) Ability to migrate in future Ability to externalize existing local directory to Internet (with minimum effort) -- or -- Ability to easily export local directory info to Internet WPS (data conversion tools?) Ability to automate Internet WPS queries Consistency in responses to queries Possibly - allow site to choose level of complexity they choose to deploy Complexity proportionate with site needs Software freely available / public domain versions (especially Unix) Reliable infrastructure (root servers / centroid servers) Clear mechanisms defined for new sites to join Internet WPS Easy for new sites to join Internet WPS Assistance available for new sites to join Internet WPS Ability to limit information exposed outside an organization Easy to build client software (user agents) Replication (?) Easy to install servers Client-server protocol easy to debug / experiment with Simple centralized organization registration procedures (if used at all) Data up to date Ability to develop & deploy high performance servers for upper layers of tree (if tree structure used) or centroids Cargille Expires May, 1995 [Page 4] DRAFT White Page Requirements Dec 1994 Protocol simplicity -- one developer can implement a server on the order of one week's time. Efficient implementations -- disk based storage, reasonable disk and memory requirements for servers Adds value if run strictly as local service Local service easy to integrate into global service (?) Replication of data -- at what level? Ability for local sites to decide what protocol or technology they choose to deploy or externalize Access controls over data If update is supported, then authentication must be supported Contains mechanism to prevent trawling of data Supports data protection needs of various countries Consistent naming conventions Naming conventions that support searching based on information that users are likely to know and search on Cookbooks for administrators Complete User guides available Ability to limit number of servers contacted in a search Ability to specify info in query to properly limit query (CAC) Ability to return info which allows user to intelligently limit query Some scheme for fast searching, most likely by indexing "Live" data used to populate Internet WPS, to avoid stale data Possibly - standard query language from DSA to current databases Standard protocol for directory queries Standard query format Standard field names Cargille Expires May, 1995 [Page 5] DRAFT White Page Requirements Dec 1994 Data maintained by local organization Extensible/flexible but consistent naming scheme Clear idea of naming authorities High QOS from lowest common denominator (since that is what the service will be judged as) Security ? Easy navigation Ability to handle multi-media information? Protocol support for maintenance of data Ability to change protocol rapidly to correct deficiencies Reasonably painless upgrade path for organizations Widely deployed clients Stable APIs (for implementations) Shallow learning curve for novice users (client and server administrator) Easy mechanism for maintaining data Supportable infrastructure Ability to handle rapidly changing data ? 5. Author's Information C. Allan Cargille Senior Engineer MCI Telecommunications 2424 Garden of the Gods Road Colorado Springs, CO 80919 USA Internet: ACargille@mcimail.com X.400: TBA Voice: +1 (719) 535-1736 Fax: TBA Cargille Expires May, 1995 [Page 6] DRAFT White Page Requirements Dec 1994 6. References [1] RFC1588 [2,3,4] X.500 reference, RFCs [5] Whois++ reference Cargille Expires May, 1995 [Page 7]