Ldap

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP; /ˈɛldæp/) is an application protocol for reading and editing directories over an IP network.[1] A directory in this sense is an organized set of records: for example, a telephone directory is an alphabetical list of persons and organizations with an address and phone number in each “record”.
The latest version of LDAP is Version 3, which is specified in a series of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Standard Track Requests for comments (RFCs) as detailed in RFC 4510.
Internet Protocol Suite
Application Layer
BGP · DHCP · DNS · FTP · HTTP · IMAP · IRC · LDAP · MGCP · NNTP · NTP · POP · RIP · RPC · RTP · SIP · SMTP · SNMP · SSH · Telnet · TLS/SSL · XMPP ·
Transport Layer
TCP · UDP · DCCP · SCTP · RSVP · ECN ·
Internet Layer
IP (IPv4, IPv6) · ICMP · ICMPv6 · IGMP · IPsec ·
Link Layer
ARP/InARP · NDP · OSPF · Tunnels (L2TP) · PPP · Media Access Control (Ethernet, DSL, ISDN, FDDI) ·
V · d · e
Origin and influences

Telecommunication companies’ understanding of directory requirements was well developed after some 70 years of producing and managing telephone directories. These companies introduced the concept of directory services to information technology and computer networking, their input culminating in the comprehensive X.500 specification,[2] a suite of protocols produced by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in the 1980s.
X.500 directory services were traditionally accessed via the X.500 Directory Access Protocol (DAP), which required the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol stack. LDAP was originally

intended to be a lightweight alternative protocol for accessing X.500 directory services through the simpler (and now widespread) TCP/IP protocol stack. This model of directory access was borrowed from the DIXIE and Directory Assistance Service protocols.
Standalone LDAP directory servers soon followed, as did directory servers supporting both DAP and LDAP. The latter has become popular in enterprises, as LDAP removed any need to deploy an OSI network. Today, X.500 directory protocols including DAP can also be used directly over TCP/IP.
The protocol was originally created by Tim Howes of the University of Michigan, Steve Kille of Isode Limited, and Wengyik Yeong of Performance Systems International, circa 1993. Mark Wahl of Critical Angle Inc., Tim Howes, and Steve Kille started work in 1996 on a new version of LDAP, LDAPv3, under the aegis of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). LDAPv3, first published in 1997, superseded LDAPv2 and added support for extensibility, integrated the Simple Authentication and Security Layer, and better aligned the protocol to the 1993 edition of X.500. Further development of the LDAPv3 specifications themselves and of numerous extensions adding features to LDAPv3 has come through the IETF.
In the early engineering stages of LDAP, it was known as Lightweight Directory Browsing Protocol, or LDBP. It was renamed with the expansion of the scope of the protocol beyond directory browsing and searching, to include directory update functions. It was given its Lightweight name because it was not as network intensive as its DAP predecessor and thus was more easily implemented over the internet due to its relatively modest bandwidth usage.
LDAP has influenced subsequent Internet protocols, including later versions of X.