RFC 2657 (rfc2657) - Page 1 of 12

LDAPv2 Client vs

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Network Working Group                                        R. Hedberg
Request for Comment: 2657                                     Catalogix
Category: Experimental                                      August 1999


                    LDAPv2 Client vs. the Index Mesh

Status of this Memo

   This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
   community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
   Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   LDAPv2 clients as implemented according to RFC 1777 [1] have no
   notion on referral.  The integration between such a client and an
   Index Mesh, as defined by the Common Indexing Protocol [2], heavily
   depends on referrals and therefore needs to be handled in a special
   way.  This document defines one possible way of doing this.

1. Background

   During the development of the Common Indexing Protocol (CIP), one of
   the underlying assumptions was that the interaction between clients
   and the Index Mesh Servers [1] would heavily depend on the passing of
   referrals.  Protocols like LDAPv2 [2] that lack this functionality
   need to compensate for it by some means.  The way chosen in this memo
   is to add more intelligence into the client. There are two reasons
   behind this decision.  First, this is not a major enhancement that is
   needed and secondly, that the intelligence when dealing with the
   Index Mesh, with or the knowledge about referrals, eventually has to
   go into the client.

2. The clients view of the Index Mesh

   If a LDAPv2 client is going to be able to interact with the Index
   Mesh, the Mesh has to appear as something that is understandable to
   the client.  Basically, this consists of representing the index
   servers and their contained indexes in a defined directory
   information tree (DIT) [3,4] structure and a set of object classes
   and attribute types that have been proven to be useful in this
   context.



Hedberg                       Experimental
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