Introduction to White Pages Services based on X.500
RFC 1684
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(August 1994; No errata)
Was draft-rare-nap-x500intro (individual)
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Author | Peter Jurg | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | Legacy | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 1684 (Informational) | |
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group P. Jurg Request for Comments: 1684 SURFnet bv Category: Informational August 1994 Introduction to White Pages Services based on X.500 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. Abstract This document aims at organisations who are using local and global electronic communication on a day to day basis and for whom using an electronic White Pages Service is therefore indispensable. The document provides an introduction to the international ITU-T (formerly CCITT) X.500 and ISO 9594 standard, which is particularly suited for providing an integrated local and global electronic White Pages Service. In addition a short overview of the experience gained from the Paradise X.500 pilot is given. References to more detailed information are included. The document should be useful for managers of the above mentioned organisations who need to get the necessary executive commitment for making the address information of their organisation available by means of X.500. Table Of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................ 2 2. Concept of X.500 ............................................ 3 2.1 Directory Model ......................................... 3 2.2 Information Model ....................................... 4 3. Benefits of X.500 .......................................... 5 4. Organisational aspects of X.500(experience from Paradise) .. 6 5. Applications of X.500 ...................................... 8 6. References ................................................. 9 7. Security Considerations .................................... 10 8. Author's Address ........................................... 10 RARE Working Group on Network Applications Support [Page 1] RFC 1684 Introduction to X.500 White Pages Services August 1994 1. Introduction Due to the tremendous growth and development of international computer networks we have nowadays the possibility to overcome - without having to travel - geographical distances when working together with other people. Besides the possibility of using the telephone we may use electronic data exchange to discuss working documents, new ideas, plans or whatsoever. One of the most popular means for this is electronic mail, which can be used to exchange all kinds of electronic data: from informal pure text messages to formatted and multi-media documents. As the number of people connected to computer networks grows (and it does continuously, it is at least doubling each year!), it becomes more difficult to track down people's electronic (mail) addresses. Hence, in order to make global communication over computer networks work, a global White Pages service is indispensable. Such a service should of course provide people's electronic mail addresses, but could also easily contain telephone and fax numbers and postal addresses. Currently, one technical solution for a globally distributed White Pages service is X.500 and there exists an international infrastructure based on X.500 technology called 'Paradise' (Piloting An inteRnationAl DIrectory SErvice), which contains about 1.5 million entries belonging to persons and 3,000 belonging to organisations. Worldwide 35 countries are involved. Paradise is also a project of the EC. The project continues until September 1994. Afterwards its operational tasks will be taken over by a European service provider for the R&D community (DANTE). The goal of Paradise and related national initiatives is to stimulate and extend the use of the X.500 White Pages service. Within the pilot attention is paid to technical and organisational aspects. The Paradise infrastructure is mainly based on the Internet Protocol. The specific issues that are related to the use of the Internet Protocol for X.500 can be found in [5]. In the decision process of joining the international X.500 infrastructure and opening (part) of the local (address) information to the outside world, it is important that an organisation fully understands the technical and organisational issues that are involved. This document tries to be of help in this matter first by explaining the main concepts of X.500 (section 2) and subsequently by pointing out its benefits (section 3), the organisational aspects that are involved (section 4), and for which other RARE Working Group on Network Applications Support [Page 2] RFC 1684 Introduction to X.500 White Pages Services August 1994 applications the X.500 infrastructure may be used in the nearShow full document text