Notes from focus group meeting 20 Nov 2003

[Tim Moses <tim.moses@entrust.com>]

Colleagues - The XACML focus group met today.  Anne, Michiharu, Frank and
Tim attended.  The discussion was devoted to Frank's proposal for a
delegation solution.  There was agreement that the approach is promising.
Buy-in from the other members of the TC is required, and even those present
on the call need more time to consider the implications.

The only implication for the XACML schema appears to be the optional
inclusion of metadata, such as issuer, maximum path length and validity
interval in Policy and PolicySet elements.  In addition, a new combining
algorithm must be defined for combining decisions from all the policies that
form a delegation path.

The possibility exists to use a restricted form of XACML that allows
combining of policies, as opposed to the combining of decisions.

The tentative plan is to:

1. add the optional metadata to the XACML v2.0 schema.
2. in a separate specification, destined to be an OASIS standard, explain
the delegation model and specify the combining algorithm.
3. in a subsequent effort, explore a restricted version of XACML that allows
for combining policies (as opposed to combining decisions), which may result
in an OASIS standard.

It was agreed that Frank will present his proposal to the next plenary
meeting of the TC.  The objective is to decide whether Frank's approach will
be the single one whose refinement will be the focus of the TC.

The chairs are requested to consider making the meeting on 4th Dec a plenary
meeting, so that the work can progress, while allowing members sufficient
time to review the proposal.  Note that the next scheduled plenary (27th
Nov) conflicts with Thanksgiving in the US.

Finally, Michiharu has submitted a proposal concerning ConditionReference
and he would like to present his proposal during the next plenary meeting.

All the best.  Tim.

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Tim Moses
613.270.3183