Re: LDAP terminology proposal

["Kurt D. Zeilenga" <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>]

At 04:10 PM 11/9/2004, Jim Sermersheim wrote:
>As mentioned in the WG meeting today, I prefer "PDU layer" or "LDAP message layer" over "LDAP sream" for what is being defined here.

I'm fine with "LDAP message layer"

Kurt



>>>> "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org> 11/9/04 1:41:49 PM >>>
>An ad-hoc engineering team consisting of Jim, Roger, Hallvard,
>Bob, and myself offer the following proposal for WG consideration
>to address LDAP session terminology issues (related to the LDAPBIS
>I-Ds use of "LDAP exchange", "connection", "LDAP association" and
>related terms. The proposal basically(*) replaces the term
>"LDAP exchange" as used in [Protocol] with the term "LDAP stream",
>and (re)introduces the term "LDAP session". Also, as part of this
>proposal, the terms "exchange" and "association" would not take on
>any LDAPBIS-specific meaning. That is, they are (and would be)
>used in the dictionary and/or RFC 2828 sense.
>
>(* It is recognized that in some cases the old terms cannot
>(or should not) simply be replaced with new terms. Some minor
>tweaking would be needed here and there, and the WG would need
>to carefully review that tweaking.)
>
>The terms would be defined as follows:
>
>"connection" refers to the underlying transport services 
>used to carry the protocol exchange, as well as
>associations established by these services.
>
>"TLS layer" refers to TLS services used in providing
>security services, as well as associations
>established by these services.
>
>"SASL layer" refers to SASL services used in providing
>security services, as well as associations established
>by these services.
>
>"LDAP stream" refers to the LDAP Message (PDU) services
>used in providing directory services, as well as associations
>established by these services.
>
>"LDAP session" refers to combined services (connection, TLS
>layer, SASL layer, LDAP stream) and their associations.
>
>The following diagram illustrates how the component services
>of an LDAP session relate to each other:
>
>+------------------+
>| LDAP stream |
>+------------------+ > LDAP PDUs
>+------------------+ < data
>| SASL layer |
>+------------------+ > SASL-protected data
>+------------------+ < data
>| TLS layer |
>Application +------------------+ > TLS-protected data 
>------------+------------------+ < data
>Transport | connection |
>+------------------+
>
>To further illustrate the use intended by this proposal, the following is
>how these terms would be used in [Protocol, 4.3]:
>
>The function of the Unbind Operation is to terminate an LDAP session.
>The Unbind operation is not the antithesis of the Bind operation as
>the name implies. The naming of these operations is historical. The
>Unbind operation should be thought of as the "quit" operation.
>
>The Unbind Operation is defined as follows: 
>
>UnbindRequest ::= [APPLICATION 2] NULL
>
>The Unbind Operation has no response defined. The client, upon
>transmission of the UnbindRequest, and the server, upon receipt
>of the UnbindRequest are to close the LDAP session as follows:
>1) close the LDAP stream and cease sending LDAP messages,
>2) close the SASL layer (if installed),
>3) close the TLS layer (if installed), and
>4) close the connection.
>Uncompleted operations are handled as specified in Section 5.1.
>
>Comments?