RFC 1684 (rfc1684) - Page 2 of 10
Introduction to White Pages Services based on X
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
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