RFC 2259 (rfc2259) - Page 1 of 30
Simple Nomenclator Query Protocol (SNQP)
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group J. Elliott
Request for Comments: 2259 Epic Systems Corporation
Category: Informational J. Ordille
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies
January 1998
Simple Nomenclator Query Protocol (SNQP)
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The Simple Nomenclator Query Protocol (SNQP) allows a client to
communicate with a descriptive name service or other relational-style
query service. The protocol is useful to services that search many
data repositories for query responses. Clients can pose queries on
relations, list descriptions of relations, and obtain advice on
reducing the search time and cost of their queries. Clients are
informed of the age of information in caches, and may request more
recent information. SNQP provides support for graphical user
interfaces. It also supports different types of comparison
operators, so services can use SNQP with a variety of back-end
servers, e.g. relational database servers, CCSO servers, and servers
providing relational views of X.500.
SNQP is an ASCII protocol in the request-reply style of SMTP. It was
specifically designed for use with the Nomenclator name and
information service, and has been useful elsewhere.
1. Introduction
The Simple Nomenclator Query Protocol (SNQP) is a protocol for
querying servers that search collections of data repositories. Users
retrieve information from an SNQP server by describing attributes of
the information. SNQP servers contact one or many data repositories
to retrieve the response to a user query. If the data repositories
Elliott & Ordille Informational