DIXIE is an obsolete protocol for accessing X.500 directory services. DIXIE was intended to provide a lightweight means for clients to access X.500 directory services. DIXIE allowed TCP/IP clients to connect a DIXIE-to-DAP gateway which would provide access to the X.500 Directory Service. This design allows the client to access the directory without requiring it to support the cumbersome Open Systems Interconnection protocol stack.
X.500 is a series of computer networking standards covering electronic directory services. The X.500 series was developed by ITU-T, formerly known as CCITT, and first approved in 1988. The directory services were developed in order to support the requirements of X.400 electronic mail exchange and name lookup. ISO was a partner in developing the standards, incorporating them into the Open Systems Interconnection suite of protocols. ISO/IEC 9594 is the corresponding ISO identification.
The Internet protocol suite is the conceptual model and set of communications protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks. It is commonly known as TCP/IP because the foundational protocols in the suite are the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP). It is occasionally known as the Department of Defense (DoD) model because the development of the networking method was funded by the United States Department of Defense through DARPA.
The Open Systems Interconnection model is a conceptual model that characterizes and standardizes the communication functions of a telecommunication or computing system without regard to its underlying internal structure and technology. Its goal is the interoperability of diverse communication systems with standard protocols. The model partitions a communication system into abstraction layers. The original version of the model defined seven layers.
DIXIE was created in 1990 at the University of Michigan by Tim Howes, Mark Smith, and Bryan Beecher. DIXIE was formally specified in RFC 1249, published in 1991. The university offered a completed UNIX implementation of the protocol, including a DIXIE server, an application development library, and DIXIE clients. A DIXIE client for Apple Macintosh was also provided.
The University of Michigan, often simply referred to as Michigan, is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The university is Michigan's oldest; it was founded in 1817 in Detroit, as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, 20 years before the territory became a state. The school was moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 onto 40 acres (16 ha) of what is now known as Central Campus. Since its establishment in Ann Arbor, the university campus has expanded to include more than 584 major buildings with a combined area of more than 34 million gross square feet spread out over a Central Campus and North Campus, two regional campuses in Flint and Dearborn, and a Center in Detroit. The university is a founding member of the Association of American Universities.
Tim Howes is a computer scientist, entrepreneur and author. He is the co-inventor of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), the Internet standard for accessing directory servers. He co-founded enterprise software company Opsware, internet browser company Rockmelt, and children’s education company, Know Yourself. He has co-authored two books, several Internet RFCs, and holds several patents.
These efforts led to the development of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. LDAP replaced DIXIE. [1]
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Directory services play an important role in developing intranet and Internet applications by allowing the sharing of information about users, systems, networks, services, and applications throughout the network. As examples, directory services may provide any organized set of records, often with a hierarchical structure, such as a corporate email directory. Similarly, a telephone directory is a list of subscribers with an address and a phone number.
When created, the acronym DIXIE did not stand for anything, however later it become known to stand for Directory Interface to X.500 Implemented Efficiently.
