geoff@FERNWOOD.MPK.CA.US (the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow) (07/04/89)
is the front page headline of COMMUNICATIONSWEEK, July 3, 1989 by Kelly Jackson: NEW YORK -- NYSERNet Inc. this week will begin the industry's largest pilot of a global directory service based on Open Systems Interconnection protocols, COMMUNICATIONSWEEK has learned. The OSI X.500 Directory Services test, which will run through May 1990, will feature the emerging X.500 standard protocol for a distributed user directory running over the TCP/IP-based Internet research-and-development network. The test could have implications for all users of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol-based networks. It will demonstrate how ISO Application Layer protocols can run across existing communications protocols, such as TCP/IP. Such a model of coexistence between OSI and TCP/IP is crucial for users planning to migrate from TCP/IP to OSI, the emerging standard for internetworking, industry experts said. The trial service is expsted to encompass more than 100 Internet sites nationwide by the end of the year. ... The Internet currently uses a centralized directory service, which is updated manually by technicians at the Internet Network Information Center at SRI International Inc., Menlo Park, Calif. That directory includes entries of users and computers on the network. The White Pages being tested are a more modern version of that directory service. "It's about time we made the Internet Directory work," said Danial Lynch, president of Advanced Computing Environments, a Mountian View, Calif., consulting and education firm. "The old one got too big and too outdated." The more comprehensive White Pages directory service, which is expected to replace the existing directory by the late 1990s, will free participating Internet users from the backlogs and space constraints characteristic of a centralized directory, industry experts said. For the test, NYSERNet plans to accumulate 2 million directory entries consisting of users and organizations. That dwarfs the 70,000 entries in the existing Internet directory, most of which are outdated, said Marshall Rose, a senior scientist at NYSERNet. Feature Combination "We wrote the software on top of X.500 that supports a name-based architecture. That's a more natural way for users" to look up other users on the Internet, said Rose. With the X.500 protocol, the White Pages directory eventually will combine electronic messaging and facismile functions with basic directory queries, Rose said. ... The new White Pages system is based on Version 5.2 of the International Organization for Standardization Development Environment (ISODE) software, a programming tool developed by Rose and his former counterparts at Northrop Corp.'s Research and Technology Center in Los Angeles. ... To participate in the pilot, users first must load the White Pages database with their user data. Once that data is entered, the program assists users in maintaining their directories by sending occasional electronic messages reminding them to update database information. Whether the White Pages service actually will replace the Internet directory service depends on the outcome of the trial, Rose said. NYSERNet technicians will determine whether the X.500-based directory can handle the volume of entries. and whether users can maintain their own portions of the directory, Rose said. NYSERNet will demonstrate the White Pages service at the INTEROP '89 conference, which will be held in San Jose, Calif., in October.