RFC 1803 (rfc1803) - Page 1 of 8

Recommendations for an X

Network Working Group                                          R. Wright
Request for Comments: 1803                  Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
Category: Informational                                      A. Getchell
                                  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
                                                                T. Howes
                                                  University of Michigan
                                                             S. Sataluri
                                                  AT&T Bell Laboratories
                                                                  P. Yee
                                               NASA Ames Research Center
                                                                W. Yeong
                                 Performance Systems International, Inc.
                                                               June 1995


       Recommendations for an X.500 Production Directory Service

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.

Abstract

   This document contains a set of basic recommendations for a country-
   level X.500 DSA.  These recommendations can only be considered a
   starting point in the quest to create a global production quality
   X.500 infrastructure.  For there to be a true "production quality"
   X.500 infrastructure more work must be done, including a transition
   from the 1988 X.500 (plus some Internet extensions) to the 1993 X.500
   standard (including the '93 replication and knowledge model).  This
   document does not discuss this transition.

1.  Introduction

   The ISO/CCITT X.500 Directory standard enables the creation of a
   single world-wide Directory that contains information about various
   types of information, including people. In the United States, in mid
   1989 NYSERNet (the project was later taken over by Performance
   Systems International - PSI) started a White-pages Pilot Project
   (WPP).  Several organizations in the US joined this project.  The PSI
   WPP provided the c=US root level master Directory System Agent (DSA)
   where organizations that joined the pilot were connected.  In
   November 1990, the PARADISE project was started in Europe to provide
   an international directory service across Europe with international
   connectivity to the rest of the world.  The PARADISE project also
   operated the "root of the world" DSA that connected each of the



Wright, et al                Informational