Christian,
- Discovery of an OPES box and its characteristics ( WEBI )
- Description of the OPES services
Both issues (intermediary discovery and description) have been/are
discussed in WEBI. If there are specific requirements for OPES, they
should be posted to WEBI to avoid duplicate efforts. Maybe sort of a
requirements write-up from OPES perspective might be helpful,
especially for the description of OPES services.
- Service delivery mechanism supporting multiple transports
(1-1, 1-many)
Services should be delivered using existing standardized
delivery/transport mechanisms. OPES should not try to define new
transports. Clients should be able to access OPES services using
existing protocols.
- Rule base needs to be delivered to the OPES box. Is there
a published format or object APIs for the rule base, or
just standardize the delivery of the rule modules ?
First, we need a standardized format/language for the rule modules.
PSRL tries to address this problem (Note that we will put out an
updated draft renaming PSRL into IRML - Intermediary Rule Markup
Language). In addition to the language, we need a standardized way to
deliver the IRML rule descriptions to the OPES boxes. We probably can
use some existing protocols and mechanisms for the delivery (secure,
scalable, etc. - let's start with the requirements for that protocol).
The OPES box will then translate the IRML rules into an internal rule
base. What this internal rule base looks like is up to each
implementor, it's a local implementation issue. There is no need to
standardize the rule base format/representation. The "outside"
interface will be the rule markup language.
Additionally http://draft-tomlinson-epsfw-00.txt shows the
Administrative Server. I assume that the intend is to have
an OPES box from company A communicates w/ Administration
Server from company B. Are there any protocols, accounting
requirements defined ?
How about just using a standardized logging format? The OPES box would
transmit (detailed) log files using a standarized format and a
standarized protocol (e.g. secure file transfer etc.) to the
Administration server. The Administration server can then get all the
information it wants from the log files and do accounting based on
local decisions.
-Markus