RFC 3651 (rfc3651) - Page 2 of 41

Handle System Namespace and Service Definition

RFC 3651            Handle System Service Definition       November 2003


Table of Contents
   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
   2.  Handle System Namespace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  Handle System Data Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
       3.1.  Handle Value Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
       3.2.  Pre-defined Handle Data Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
             3.2.1.  Handle Administrator: HS_ADMIN . . . . . . . . . 10
             3.2.2.  Service Site Information: HS_SITE. . . . . . . . 14
             3.2.3.  Naming Authority Delegation Service:
                     HS_NA_DELEGATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
             3.2.4.  Service Handle: HS_SERV. . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
             3.2.5.  Alias Handle: HS_ALIAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
             3.2.6.  Primary Site: HS_PRIMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
             3.2.7.  Handle Value List: HS_VLIST. . . . . . . . . . . 22
   4.  Handle System Service Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
       4.1.  Handle System Service Components . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
             4.1.1.  Global Handle Registry (GHR) . . . . . . . . . . 23
             4.1.2.  Local Handle Service (LHS) . . . . . . . . . . . 26
       4.2.  Handle System Middle-Ware Components . . . . . . . . . . 27
             4.2.1.  Handle System Caching Service. . . . . . . . . . 27
             4.2.2.  Handle System Proxy Server . . . . . . . . . . . 28
       4.3.  Handle System Client Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   5.  Handle System Operation Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
       5.1.  Handle System Service Request and Response . . . . . . . 30
       5.2.  Handle System Authentication Protocol. . . . . . . . . . 32
   6.  Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
   7.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
   8.  References and Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
   9.  Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
   10. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

1.  Introduction

   The Handle System manages handles as globally unique names for
   Internet resources.  It was originally conceived and described in a
   paper by Robert Kahn and Robert Wilensky [22] in 1995.  The Handle
   System provides a general-purpose global name service that allows
   handles to be resolved and administrated securely over the public
   Internet.  The Handle System categorizes its service into two
   categories: the handle resolution service and the handle
   administration service.  Clients use handle resolution service to
   resolve handles into their values.  The handle administration service
   deals with client requests to manage these handles, including adding
   and deleting handles, and updating handle values.

   The document "Handle System Overview" [1] provides an architectural
   overview of the Handle System, and its relationship to other Internet
   services such as DNS [2,3] and LDAP[4].  This document provides a



Sun, et al.                  Informational