A Naming Scheme for c=US
RFC 1255

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Network Working Group                 The North American Directory Forum
Request for Comments: 1255                                September 1991
Obsoletes:  RFC 1218

                        A Naming Scheme for c=US

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

Summary

   This RFC is a near-verbatim copy of a document, known as NADF-175,
   which has been produced by the North American Directory Forum (NADF).
   The NADF is a collection of organizations which offer, or plan to
   offer, public Directory services in North America, based on the CCITT
   X.500 Recommendations.  As a part of its charter, the NADF must reach
   agreement as to how entries are named in the public portions of the
   North American Directory.  NADF-175 represents the NADF's agreement
   in this area.

Table of Contents

   1 Introduction ..........................................    2
   2 Approach ..............................................    2
   2.1 Names and User-Friendliness .........................    3
   2.2 Choice of RDN Names .................................    3
   2.3 Outline of the Scheme ...............................    4
   3 The Naming Process ....................................    4
   3.1 Right-To-Use ........................................    4
   3.2 Registration ........................................    6
   3.3 Publication .........................................    6
   4 Structuring Objects ...................................    7
   4.1 The National Level ..................................    7
   4.2 The Regional Level ..................................    7
   4.3 The Local Level .....................................    9
   4.4 ADDMD Operators .....................................   10
   4.5 Summary of Structuring Objects ......................   11
   5 Entity Objects ........................................   12
   5.1 Organizations .......................................   12
   5.1.1 Kinds of Organizations ............................   12
   5.1.2 Modeling Organizations ............................   13
   5.2 Persons .............................................   14
   6 Listing Entities ......................................   15
   6.1 Organizations .......................................   15

NADF                                                            [Page 1]
RFC 1255                A Naming Scheme for c=US          September 1991

   6.2 Persons .............................................   16
   7 Usage Examples ........................................   17
   7.1 Organizations with National-Standing ................   17
   7.2 Organizations with Regional-Standing ................   18
   7.3 Organizations with Local-Standing ...................   19
   7.4 Organizations with Foreign-Standing .................   20
   7.5 Persons .............................................   21
   8 Bibliography ..........................................   22
   Appendix A: Revision History of this Scheme .............   22
   Security Considerations .................................   25
   Author's Address ........................................   25

                         A Naming Scheme for c=US
                    The North American Directory Forum
                  Supercedes: NADF-166, 143, 123, 103, 71
                               July 12, 1991

1.  Introduction

   Computer networks form the infrastructure between the users they
   interconnect, and networks are built on an underlying naming and
   numbering infrastructure, usually in the form of names and addresses.
   For example, some authority must exist to assign network addresses to
   ensure that numbering collisions do not occur.  This is of paramount
   importance for an environment which consists of multiple service
   providers.

2.  Approach

   It should be observed that there are several different naming
   universes that could be used in the Directory Information Tree (DIT).
   For example, geographical naming, community naming, political naming,
   organizational naming, and so on.  The choice of naming universe
   largely determines the difficulty in mapping a user's query into a
   series of Directory operations to find useful information.  Although
   it is possible to simultaneously support multiple naming universes
   with the DIT, this is likely to be unnatural.  As such, this scheme
   focuses on a single naming universe.

   The naming universe in this scheme is based on civil authority.  That
   is, it uses the existing civil naming infrastructure and suggests a
   (nearly) straight-forward mapping on the DIT.  An important
   characteristic is that entries can be listed wherever searches for
   them are likely to occur.  This implies that a single object may be
   listed as several separate entries.

NADF                                                            [Page 2]