scope:

The Directory provides the directory capabilities required by OSI applications, OSI management processes, other OSI layer entities, and telecommunications services. Among the capabilities which it provides are those of 'userfriendly naming', whereby objects can be referred to by names which are suitable for citing by human users (though not all objects need have user-friendly names); and 'name-to-addres mapping' which allows the binding between objects and their locations to be dynamic. The latter capability allows OSI networks, for example, to be "self configuring in the sense that addition, removal and the changes of object location do not affect OSI network operation. It is characteristic of the Directory that, except as a consequence of differing access rights or unpropagated updates, the results of directory queries will not be dependent on the identity or location of the enquirer. This characteristic renders the Directory unsuitable for some telecommunications application, for example some types of routing.