Common Indexing Protocol (find)

This Working Group Did Not Meet

NOTE: This charter is a snapshot of the 43rd IETF Meeting in Orlando, Florida. It may now be out-of-date. Last Modified: 07-Apr-98

Chair(s):

Roland Hedberg <Roland.Hedberg@umdac.umu.se>
Patrik Faltstrom <paf@swip.net>

Applications Area Director(s):

Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>
Patrik Faltstrom <paf@swip.net>

Applications Area Advisor:

Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>

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Description of Working Group:

On the Internet, several more or less localized directory services have evolved over the last couple of years. Also 2 global directory services have been deployed, X.500 and Whois++. To be able to find something or someone, one needs to know what service to use, and what server to query.

One step towards the solution of this problem is to define one and only one common indexing protocol which all directory services can use when passing indexing information. When a user queries one server it should be possible for that user to get a referral to another server and even another service, if the two servers have exchanged index information.

For this to work, one common protocol must be developed. The idea is to expand on the Centroid ideas used by Whois++, to allow it to be used for other services than Whois++. At the very least, a localized service should be able to be polled by an indexing server using the Common Indexing Protocol (CIP). To be specific, three specifications are to be presented:

o An interface spec, where one says how you present a query and what the referrals you get back look like

o A server interface spec, where one says that the CIP will be able to include information presented in this format

o An engine spec, which specifies that this is how one support the functionality using Centroids a la Whois++.

The task for this working group is to create the Common Indexing Protocol so it is (1) usable for other distributed directory services such as X.500, (2) allows the use of non-distributed directory services such as CCSO in the distributed directory service, and (3) addresses needs such as replication to make the protocol itself more stable.

Just because the Common Indexing Protocol is already in use by Whois++, but not published, the first task of this group is to publish version 1 of the Common Indexing Protocol as is. After that, the protocol must be extended according to the specification below. This will result in version 2 of the protocol.

Other topics to be addressed potentially include:

o Incremental updates of indices

o Support for the UTF-FSS encoding of UNICODE

o Guidelines for building an effective mesh of indexing servers

o Administrative protocols and procedures such as server registration

o Security between directory services

The working group will work in very close cooperation with the working groups ASID and IDS in the IETF.

The working group will use the following Internet-Drafts as input:

o Architecture of the Whois++ Index Service, Chris Weider <draft-ietf-wnils-whois-03.txt o How to interact with a Whois++ mesh, Patrik Faltstrom <draft-ietf-wnils-whois-mesh-01.txt

Goals and Milestones:

Dec 95

  

Hold first meeting at Dallas IETF.

Dec 95

  

Submit first version of the Common Indexing Protocol to the IESG for publication as an RFC.

Dec 95

  

Submit paper on Whois++ navigation to the IESG for publication as an RFC.

Feb 96

  

Produce first set of Internet-Draft on the client interface, server interface, and engine.

Mar 96

  

Submit Internet-Draft describing usage of the Common Indexing Protocol with LDAP/X.500.

Mar 96

  

Submit Internet-Draft describing usage of the Common Indexing Protocol withWHOIS++.

Jun 96

  

Submit the Internet-Drafts on the client interface, server interface, and engine to the IESG for consideration as Proposed Standards.

Jul 96

  

Submit Internet-Draft on useage of CIP and Whois++ to IESG for consideration as an Informational RFC.

Jul 96

  

Submit Internet-Draft on usage of CIP with LDAP/X.500 to IESG for consideration as an Informational RFC.

Aug 96

  

Generate document summarizing first round on LDAP/X.500 and Whois++ interoperability tests, and submit to IESG for consideration as an Informational RFC.

Internet-Drafts:

No Request For Comments

Current Meeting Report

None received.

Slides

None received.