RFC 3652 (rfc3652) - Page 1 of 53
Handle System Protocol (ver 2
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group S. Sun
Request for Comments: 3652 S. Reilly
Category: Informational L. Lannom
J. Petrone
CNRI
November 2003
Handle System Protocol (ver 2.1) Specification
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
The Handle System is a general-purpose global name service that
allows secured name resolution and administration over the public
Internet. This document describes the protocol used for client
software to access the Handle System for both handle resolution and
administration. The protocol specifies the procedure for a client
software to locate the responsible handle server of any given handle.
It also defines the messages exchanged between the client and server
for any handle operation.
Sun, et al. Informational
