    Network Working Group                                      G. Michaelson
    Request for Comments: 1562                  The University of Queensland
    Category: Informational                                         M. Prior
                                                  The University of Adelaide
                                                               December 1993

            Naming Guidelines for the AARNet X.500 Directory Service

    Status of this Memo

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

    Background

       This document is an AARNet (Australian Academic and Research Network)
       Engineering Note (AEN-001).  AARNet Engineering Notes are engineering
       documents of the AARNet Engineering Working Group, and record current
       or proposed operational practices related to the provision of
       Internetworking services within Australia, and AARNet in particular.

    Abstract

       AARNet is a member network of the global Internet and participates in
       the global Internet X.500 based Directory Service. A number of RFC's
       have been issued that make recommendations that alter or supplement
       the OSI/ETU standards for X.500 [1]. In general, these RFCs will be
       followed by the AARNet Directory Service.  However, in certain cases
       we wish to align ourselves with our national ISO body (Standards
       Australia) rather than the Internet where they conflict.  In naming,
       we have chosen to align ourselves with Standards Australia and this
       document notes the difference in our approach to the Internet
       guidelines suggested in RFC 1384 [2].

    1.  Introduction

       The intended audience of this document is the administrators (or
       potential administrators) of an X.500 Directory System Agent (DSA).
       It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the relevant Internet
       documents, especially RFC 1384.

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    RFC 1562         Naming Guidelines for the AARNet X.500    December 1993

    2.  The Australian X.500 domain

       Standards Australia (SAA) have produced a document [3] that describes
       the organisation of the Australian X.500 namespace. It is considered
       that, as far as possible, we should align the AARNet Directory
       Service with these requirements in order to provide a smooth
       transition to an Australian Directory Service as ultimately the OSI
       Registration Authority of Standards Australia has naming authority
       for the DIT subtree underneath the node "c=AU".

       The SAA document defines only two types of objects that can be placed
       directly below the c=AU node in the DIT, organisations with
       nationally recognised names and localities representing the states
       and territories of the Commonwealth of Australia.

       It is intended to follow this scheme with one modification. The
       recommendation doesn't indicate where ADMD and PRMD names should be
       registered and so these objects will be treated as for organisations
       with nationally recognised names.

    3.  Entries representing DSAs

       The naming convention currently used by the Internet leads to a large
       amount of clutter due to organisational DSAs being named directly
       under the country node. The "normal" user of a directory service
       isn't interested in the mechanics of the service and so the presence
       of these entries in such a prominent location is unfortunate. In
       order to avoid this clutter, and to conform to SAA requirements, we
       have created a pseudo organisation called DMD where all Australian
       DSAs should be registered.

       Rather than continue the Quipu tradition of naming DSAs after
       endangered South American animals, in Australia, it is suggested that
       DSAs be named after Australian fauna.

    4.  Entries representing the states and territories of Australia

       Immediately subordinate to the Australian entry are locality objects
       representing the eight states and territories of the Commonwealth of
       Australia. The RDN of these entries will use the stateOrProvinceName
       attribute and have values consisting of the standard Australian two
       or three letter abbreviations for the particular state of territory.

    5.  Entries representing organisations

       SAA recommends that organisations are registered as immediate
       subordinates of either the Australian entry or of the eight states
       and territories depending on the uniqueness of the organisation's

    Michaelson & Prior                                              [Page 2]

    RFC 1562         Naming Guidelines for the AARNet X.500    December 1993

       name.

       Organisations that can demonstrate that they have a name unique
       within Australia (for example, if it has been allocated a name by an
       organisation that can guarantee this uniqueness such as the
       Australian Securities Commission) may be added immediately beneath
       the Australian entry.  If the name is only unique within a specific
       state or territory, then the entry must be added immediately beneath
       the state entry.

       The names chosen for the distinguished name of an organisation must
       be the officially registered name of the organisation and have a
       maximum length of 64 characters, but other more familiar names can be
       added as additional organisation names to aid searching.

    6.  Entries representing residential people

       An individual may be registered in the directory and their entry will
       be placed subordinate to the entry for their state of residence. The
       RDN of such an entry will be composed of a combination of their
       common name and their street address.

    7.  References

       [1] CCITT: The Directory -- Overview of concepts, models and services,
           December 1988. CCITT X.500 Series Recommendations.

       [2] Barker P., and S. Hardcastle-Kille, "Naming Guidelines for
           Directory Pilots", RFC 1384, University College London, ISODE
           Consortium, January 1993.

       [3] Standards Australia: Naming and addressing in the Australian
           OSI Environment. SAA MP59-1991.

    Security Considerations

       Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

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    RFC 1562         Naming Guidelines for the AARNet X.500    December 1993

    Authors' Addresses

       George G. Michaelson
       The Prentice Centre
       The University of Queensland
       St Lucia, Q 4072
       AUSTRALIA

       Phone: +61 7 365 4079
       Fax:   +61 7 365 4477
       EMail: G.Michaelson@cc.uq.oz.au

       Mark R. Prior
       Information Technology Division
       The University of Adelaide
       Adelaide, SA 5005
       AUSTRALIA

       Phone: +61 8 303 5680
       Fax:   +61 8 303 4400
       EMail: mrp@itd.adelaide.edu.au

    Michaelson & Prior                                              [Page 4]