scope:

This CWA provides guidance material. It is not a formal specification having any conformance requirements. This CWA is intended for planners of directory services and for directory administrators responsible for maintenance of directory services. It provides guidelines for technical agreements regulating the interworking among DMDs. Conformance to standardised protocols is essential, but not sufficient to ensure consistent interworking among DMDs at the service level. Agreements on various issues are required to provide a useful service to the end-user across DMD boundraies. The X.500 standard covers some of these aspects. Service definition, quality of service, schema and knowledge information distribution, the role of a first level DSA, character repertoire, etc. require explicit agreements among the managements of the DMDs. This CWA covers those aspects of interconnection that the X.500 standard does net directly dictate. This CWA does not cover more commercial aspects of interconnection, such as charging, accounting and settlement procedures. However, commercial agreements may influence the more technical agreements.