Handle System Overview
RFC 3650
Document | Type | RFC - Informational (November 2003; Errata) | |
---|---|---|---|
Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
Stream | ISE | ||
Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
Stream | ISE state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 3650 (Informational) | |
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | Ted Hardie | ||
IESG note |
It is suggested that these go forward with the following IESG Note attached (originally drafted by Patrik): IESG NOTE: The IETF and IRTF have discussed the Handle system in the realm of URI-related work. The IESG wishes to point out that there is no IETF consensus on the current Handle system nor on where it fits in the IETF architecture. The IESG is of the view that the Handle system would be able to, with very small changes, fit into the IETF architecture as a URN namespace. These documents, however, contain information on the Handle system without these changes. |
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Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group S. Sun Request for Comments: 3650 L. Lannom Category: Informational B. Boesch CNRI November 2003 Handle System Overview 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 (2003). All Rights Reserved. IESG Note Several groups within the IETF and IRTF have discussed the Handle System and its relationship to existing systems of identifiers. The IESG wishes to point out that these discussions have not resulted in IETF consensus on the described Handle System, nor on how it might fit into the IETF architecture for identifiers. Though there has been discussion of handles as a form of URI, specifically as a URN, these documents describe an alternate view of how namespaces and identifiers might work on the Internet and include characterizations of existing systems which may not match the IETF consensus view. Abstract This document provides an overview of the Handle System in terms of its namespace and service architecture, as well as its relationship to other Internet services such as DNS, LDAP/X.500, and URNs. The Handle System is a general-purpose global name service that allows secured name resolution and administration over networks such as the Internet. The Handle System manages handles, which are unique names for digital objects and other Internet resources. Sun, et al. Informational [Page 1] RFC 3650 Handle System Overview November 2003 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Motivations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3. Handle Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4. Handle System Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5. Handle System Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6. The Handle System and other Internet Services. . . . . . . . . 12 6.1. Domain Name Service (DNS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6.2. Directory Services (X.500/LDAP). . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6.3. Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)/Uniform Resource Name (URN). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 7. Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.1. General Security Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.2. Privacy Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 7.3. Caching and Proxy Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 7.4. Mirroring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 7.5. Denial of Service (DoS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 8. History of the Handle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 9. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 10. References and Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 11. Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 12. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 1. Introduction This document provides an overview of the Handle System, a distributed information system designed to provide an efficient, extensible, and secured global name service for use on networks such as the Internet. The Handle System includes an open protocol, a namespace, and a reference implementation of the protocol. The protocol enables a distributed computer system to store names, or handles, of digital resources and resolve those handles into the information necessary to locate, access, and otherwise make use of the resources. These associated values can be changed as needed to reflect the current state of the identified resource without changing the handle. This allows the name of the item to persist over changes of location and other current state information. Each handle may have its own administrator(s) and administration can be done in a distributed environment. The Handle System supports secured handle resolution. Security services such as data confidentiality, data integrity, and non-repudiation are provided upon client request. The Handle System provides a confederated name service that allows any existing local namespace to join the global handle namespace by obtaining a unique Handle System naming authority. Local names and their value-binding(s) remains intact after joining the Handle System. Any handle request to the local namespace may be processedShow full document text