Referral Whois Protocol (RWhois)

Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract This memo describes version 1.0 of the client/server interaction of RWhois. RWhois provides a distributed system for the display of hierarchical information. This system is hierarchical by design, allowing for the reduction of a query, and the referral of the user closer to the maintainer of the information. 1.0 Introduction Early in ARPANET development, the SRI-NIC established a centralized whois database that provided host and network information about the systems connected to the network and the E-mail addresses of the users on those systems. The ARPANET experiment has evolved into a global network with countless people and hundreds of thousands of end systems. Given the sheer size and effort needed to maintain a centralized database, an alternate, decentralized approach to store and display this information is desired. The Internet portions of the DDN NIC have been transitioned to what is now known as InterNIC Registration Services (RS). The charter for InterNIC RS has been reduced to maintain information only for IP networks, top-level domains, Autonomous System Numbers, and the points of contact for each of these particular entities. In addition, the InterNIC, in its role as an Internet Registry (IR), has delegated IP block assignment authority to Regional Registries such as the RIPE NCC for Europe and the APNIC for the Asian Pacific region, while retaining authority for North America and all non-delegated regions. This has led to a fragmentation of whois service to the Internet user. Several different solutions have been proposed and developed by the various regional IR's. Two solutions have been worked on extensively: the Shared Whois Project (SWIP) and X.500. The SWIP project has a common exchange format that can be parsed by the various IR's for input and output. Thus, one can synchronize their databases with information obtained from the other IR's. This project is showing promise and is now operational. However, this approach still requires a centralized database for store and display. The InterNIC has also been involved in the use of X.500 for display of registration information. Among other things, this included defining schemas and Directory information tree structures for the purpose of distributing information amongst the various IR X.500 Directory Service Agents (DSA). Unfortunately, X.500's complexity, resource utilization, and lack of Internet …