Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

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Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
Paul F
Ciara D
Gina C
Rosy S
Davey F
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An Introduction to LDAP
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is
an open standard protocol (like HTTP) for
directory services on the internet. LDAP is
similar to the older X500 Directory Access
Protocol, but without some of its
overheads. With LDAP you are able to look up
e-mail addresses by entering your friends name
using a standard interface.
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X.500 and it's relationship to LDAP
X.500 defines a comprehensive directory service,
and the directory access protocol (DAP) used by
clients to access the directory. The LDAP was
designed to remove some of the burden of the
X.500 access from directory clients making the
directory available to a wider variety of
machines and applications LDAP runs over TCP/IP
and other reliable transport.
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LDAP's 4 advantages over X.500
1. LDAP runs directly over TCP/IP which
eliminates much of the connection set up and
packet-handling experienced with X.500. Because
of this it can also run on a majority of systems
straight away. 2. LDAP simplifies the X.500 by
leaving out the read and list operations and also
leaves out some of the lesser used service
controls. 3. LDAP uses string encoding for simple
data elements and distinguished names, this means
less complexity for encoding/decoding. 4. LDAP
frees clients from the burden of chasing
referrals.
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The Future of LDAP's
To address the problem of X.500s disappointing
performance on the internet a standalone LDAP
server called slapd is being developed. To
prevent stand-alone LDAP servers from being
isolated, a compatible extension to LDAP that
allows the return of referrals to the client has
been made. A new version of LDAP is under
development by the Internet Engineering Task
Force that will incorporate the following
features access control, schema management and
various DAP extensions. It will also address some
security concerns with the present version of
LDAP.
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Continued...
In relation to the World Wide Web work has
already begun on defining a URL format for LDAP,
and a URL-valued attribute for X.500. Netscape,
IBM, ATT and the major Unix vendors have
announced plans to extend NetWare Directory
Services and StreetTalk, respectively, to
interoperate with LDAP. Netscape plans to support
LDAP in future versions of Netscape SuiteSpot,
and to build LDAP-compliant address book and
electronic mail applications into Netscape
Navigator. LDAP has the potential to radically
improve web productivity and navigability.
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LDAP and it's use in modern days
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Continued....