A new Request for Comments is now available in online RFC libraries.


        RFC 2768

        Title:      Network Policy and Services:
                    A Report of a Workshop on Middleware
        Author(s):  B. Aiken, J. Strassner, B. Carpenter, I. Foster,
                    C. Lynch, J. Mambretti, R. Moore, B. Teitelbaum
        Status:     Informational
        Date:       February 2000
        Mailbox:    raiken@cisco.com, johns@cisco.com,
                    brian@hursley.ibm.com, foster@mcs.anl.gov,
                    cliff@cni.org, j-mambretti@nwu.edu,
                    ben@internet2.edu 
        Pages:      29
        Characters: 81034
        Updates/Obsoletes/SeeAlso: None
        I-D Tag:    draft-aiken-middleware-reqndef-02.txt

        URL:        ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2768.txt


An ad hoc middleware workshop was held at the International Center for
Advanced Internet Research in December 1998.  The Workshop was
organized and sponsored by Cisco, Northwestern University's
International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR), IBM, and
the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of the workshop was to
identify existing middleware services that could be leveraged for new
capabilities as well as identifying additional middleware services
requiring research and development.  The workshop participants
discussed the definition of middleware in general, examined the
applications perspective, detailed underlying network transport
capabilities relevant to middleware services, and then covered various
specific examples of middleware components. These included APIs,
authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) issues, policy
framework, directories, resource management, networked information
discovery and retrieval services, quality of service, security, and
operational tools.  The need for a more organized framework for
middleware R&D was recognized, and a list of specific topics needing
further work was identified.

This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.

This announcement is sent to the IETF list and the RFC-DIST list.
Requests to be added to or deleted from the IETF distribution list
should be sent to IETF-REQUEST@IETF.ORG.  Requests to be
added to or deleted from the RFC-DIST distribution list should
be sent to RFC-DIST-REQUEST@RFC-EDITOR.ORG.

Details on obtaining RFCs via FTP or EMAIL may be obtained by sending
an EMAIL message to rfc-info@RFC-EDITOR.ORG with the message body 
help: ways_to_get_rfcs.  For example:

        To: rfc-info@RFC-EDITOR.ORG
        Subject: getting rfcs

        help: ways_to_get_rfcs

Requests for special distribution should be addressed to either the
author of the RFC in question, or to RFC-Manager@RFC-EDITOR.ORG.  Unless
specifically noted otherwise on the RFC itself, all RFCs are for
unlimited distribution.echo 
Submissions for Requests for Comments should be sent to
RFC-EDITOR@RFC-EDITOR.ORG.  Please consult RFC 2223, Instructions to RFC
Authors, for further information.