Engineering Commons^™

Inventions On Using Ldap For Different Purposes-Part-1, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The objective of this article is to know how is LDAP used for applications in e-commerce and Policy Management. The analysis of patents shows which Inventive Principles have been used to solve those inventions. Unlike other parts of the study which have tried to improve certain aspect of LDAP technology and application, this article includes the inventions that use LDAP for various different purposes. This article is divided into 3 parts for convenience of size. The first part of the article includes 6 patents using LDAP for “e-commerce” and “Policy Management”. The second part includes 10 patents using LDAP for …

Inventions On Ldap Data Storage- A Study Based On Us Patents, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an IETF open standard to provide directory services in the network. LDAP was initially developed at the University of Michigan with an objective to include most of the features of X.500 directory structure, while eliminating the burdens and difficulties of the same.

As LDAP does not provide any specification on the data storage, different venders can implement different mechanism for data storage as found suitable to the specific vender or environment. Although underlying data storage system between different LDAP servers can differ, this disparity does not affect the functionality or interaction of LDAP clients. …

Inventions On Ldap Data Storage- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an IETF open standard to provide directory services in the network. LDAP stores the directory information in a database. An LDAP server may store data in a Flat file, or in RDBMS or in any other format. The LDAP client applications such as LDAP enabled web browsers like Netscape communicator and Internet Explorer can use LDAP directory interface without having knowledge on the underlying data storage mechanism. This article is a part of the main study made on LDAP based on 60 patents selected from US patent database. (For more details on the study …

Inventions On Extending Ldap Functionality- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The LDAP server stores the directory information in a database. The client makes a TCP/IP connection and sends requests to an LDAP server. The LDAP server executes the client requests and returns a response to the client. LDAP offers nine basic functional operations, viz., add, delete, modify, bind, unbind, search, compare, and modify distinguished name and abandon. Apart from the above basic operations, LDAP v3 includes new mechanism called Extended Operations, which allows additional operations to be defined for services not available in this protocol, for instance digitally signed operations and results. Using this feature it is possible to provide …

Inventions On Ldap Data Management- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The data model of LDAP is same as X.500 data model. The LDAP protocol assumes there are one or more servers, which jointly provide access to a Directory Information Tree (DIT). The tree is made up of entries. Entries have relative distinguished name (RDN), which must be unique among all its siblings. The concatenation of the relative distinguished names from a particular entry to an immediate subordinate of the root of the tree forms the Distinguished Name (DN) for that entry. (IETF, RFC 2251).

LDAP provides add, delete and modify operations for data modification. Each of these LDAP update operation …

Inventions On Ldap Administration- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an IETF open standard to provide directory services in the network. LDAP was initially developed at the University of Michigan with an objective to include most of the features of X.500 directory structure, while eliminating the burdens and difficulties of the same. The LDAP protocols offer the following basic functional operations, viz., add, delete, modify, bind, unbind, search, compare, modify distinguished name, abandon and extended operations. The LDAP server stores the directory information in a database. It offers a rich set of searching capabilities and provides the capability for directory information to be queried …

Inventions On Data Searching In Ldap- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Searching is one of the most basic operation provided by an LDAP server. LDAP offers a rich set of searching capabilities. The search operation allows a client to request the server to perform a search on its behalf. The search operation locates specific users or services in the directory tree. The LDAP server executes the search (or update) command and returns a response to the client. Upon receipt of a Search Request, a server will perform the necessary search of the DIT. The server will then return to the client a sequence of responses in separate LDAP messages. The search …

Inventions On Ldap Access Interface- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

LDAP server may store data in a Flat file, in RDBMS or in any other database. The LDAP client applications can use LDAP directory interface without having knowledge on the underlying data storage mechanism. LDAP can be mapped onto any other directory system so long as the X.500 data and service model as used in LDAP is not violated in LDAP interface. The individual entries are stored in the directory server. But different clients may need the same data in different format. LDAP specification does not provide any mechanism of accessing data in different format. This article is a TRIZ …

Inventions On Using Ldap For Different Purposes-Part-3, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Unlike other parts of the study which have tried to improve certain aspect of LDAP technology and application, this article includes the inventions that use LDAP for various different purposes. This article is divided into 3 parts for convenience of size. The first part of the article includes 6 patents using LDAP for “e-commerce” and “Policy Management”. The second part includes 10 patents using LDAP for “Network Management” and “Telecommunications”. The third part of the article includes 11 patents using LDAP for “World Wide Web” and “Java and CORBA”. This is the third part of the article which analyses patents …

Inventions On Using Ldap For Different Purposes (Part-2) - A Triz Based Analysis Of Us Patents, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The objective of this article is to know how is LDAP used for Network Management and Telecommunications. The analysis of patents shows which Inventive Principles have been used to solve those inventions. Unlike other parts of the study which have tried to improve certain aspect of LDAP technology and application, this article includes the inventions that use LDAP for various different purposes. This article is divided into 3 parts for convenience of size. The first part of the article includes 6 patents using LDAP for “e-commerce” and “Policy Management”. The second part includes 10 patents using LDAP for “Network Management” …

Inventions On Integrating Ldap With Other Directories - A Triz Based Analysis Of Us Patents, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Thus the LDAP architecture allows multiple LDAP servers work together on the same directory tree or multiple directory trees. Besides, LDAP being built on an open architecture, it is quite possible to integrate with other directory servers. LDAP can be mapped onto any other directory system so long as the X.500 data and service model as used in LDAP is not violated in LDAP interface. LDAP server may store data in a Flat file, in RDBMS or in any other database. The LDAP client applications can use LDAP directory interface without having knowledge on the underlying data storage mechanism. However, …

Inventions On Ldap Security- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The specifications of LDAP v.3 provide facilities for simple authentication using a cleartext password as well as any SASL mechanism.SASL allows for integrity and privacy services to be negotiated (RFC 2251, www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2251.txt). Use of cleartext password is strongly discouraged where the underlying transport service cannot guarantee confidentiality and may result in disclosure of the password to unauthorized parties. The protocol allows other security mechanisms like SASL to be implemented in LDAP. The protocol also permits that the server can return its credentials to the client, if it chooses to do so. This article is a TRIZ based study on patents …

Inventions On Ldap- A Study Based On Us Patents, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an IETF open standard to provide directory services in the network. LDAP is based on X.500 directory architecture, intended to provide directory services in Internet compatible environments. LDAP is used to provide directory services to applications ranging from e-mail systems to distributed system management tools. LDAP is becoming more and more popular with its wider usage in the Internet.

This report on LDAP is based on a study of 60 selected patents on LDAP from US patent database. The objective of this article is to present the distribution of patents according to different features …