Roadmap to European Middleware Is it different? Ton.Verschuren@SURFnet.NL

1. Roadmap to European Middleware Is it different? Ton.Verschuren@SURFnet.NL TERENA Networking Conference Antalya, May 2001

2. Contents • (European) middleware? • Global trends • Directories • Public Key Infrastructure • Inter-domain authorisation • Summary

3. What is Middleware? the intersection of the stuff that network engineers don’t want to do with the stuff that applications developers don’t want to do -- Ken Klingenstein

4. What is European Middleware? Stuff that the Europeans don´t want to do? Stuff that only the Europeans want to do? Is there no such thing as European middleware?

5. The European Environment • Legislation • Privacy • Habits • Cultural differences

6. Global Trends (1) • IP over everything & everything over IP • Middleware near the intersection applications middleware IP transmission

7. Global Trends (2) • Reduced complexity in layers • Dumber cores & smarter edges • AAA functions at the edge: • DiffServ • authenticate locally, act globally

8. Roadmap to the Middleware Track • Directories • Public Key Infrastructures • Inter-domain authorisation

9. Directories • History: X.500 /Paradise • A single global Directory Information Tree was never realised • Exit X.500; enter LDAP v2 -> v3 • An European NREN White Pages service • Centralised service by DANTE (the glue) • Index & search experimental service: GIDS • Start moving from WP to DEN

10. Directories (cont’d) • IETF LDAP developments: • Ldapext, co-chaired by Roland Hedberg • Ldup • Ldapbis • Does LDAP fit our needs? • David Chadwick • Schema issues • X.521 vs. Domain Component • EduPerson by Keith Hazelton

11. Directories (cont’d) • Directories for videoconferencing: • Internet2 vidmid • European collaboration & co-ordination • Terena TF-LSD • GRID developments • Web2ldap • Michael Ströder

12. PKI • European directives: • Digital Signatures Directive (to be implemented on 1 July 2001) • European Signature Standardization Initiative • Qualified Certificates (not for NREN´s?) • National differences wrt crypto legislation • EuroPKI • Antonio Lioy

13. PKI (cont’d) • Deployment just started; not all issues well understood • Start bottom up • Client cert for SSL (http, imap, ipsec, …) • Integration with directories • Bottom line is trust

14. Inter-domain Authorisation • Disclosing credentials beyond your administrative domain: • Publishers • Tele-education • Grids • Increased flexibility: • Better than IP address-based authentication • Increased security: • Weak u/p replaced by e.g. certificate

15. Inter-domain Authorisation (cont’d) • Various attempts to create a system: • Athens • PAPI • STPA • Gestalt • Shibboleth • Longer-term architecture: • IRTF AAAARCH RG

16. Summary • There is no such thing as European middleware • But there is an European environment! • Start experimenting to understand the issues • Strong drive from the R&E community • Interoperability should be reached through • Standards • Collaboration