1. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Data Transport Standard (DTS) Nathan Chitty, Software Architect - Nelnet Mark Malinoski, Technical Coordinator/Web Development - American Education Services Richard Henninger, Chief Software Architect - Datatel

2. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Defined Data Transport Standard is a specification not a product Established by Postsecondary Education Standards Council (PESC) for exchanging data for: Inquiries Reports Transactions

3. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Defined A specification for an adjunct to or a replacement for existing data transport mechanisms Email and FTP PGP / GnuPG encryption SecretAgent encryption SecureFTP

4. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Specification Specification covers Technical interchange rules and processes Recommended best practices The definition of the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) interface

5. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Specification Working Reference implementation examples are available Implementation Guide is for both.Net and Java reference implementations Specification does not cover Business rules for transaction processing Operational oversight, monitoring or escalation

6. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Why a new transport? Email transport No guarantee of delivery No guarantee of order of delivery No automatic confirmation of receipt Size limitations Encryption is a separate step

7. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Why a new transport? FTP transport Possibility to overwrite files No confirmation of receipt Implementation issues (scripting) Encryption is a separate step

8. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Why a new transport? Encryption being a separate step External application call for encryption Maintenance of key rings Failures

9. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Business Requirements Interoperable among prevalent platforms in industry Ease of adoption Cost not a barrier Payload agnostic No need to analyze payload to determine type and destination Secure and Reliable

10. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Technical Workgroup Task: Create a written specification for real-time exchange of data between organizations Meets business requirements Standards based Standard technologies (Java,.Net)

11. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Benefits A Web Services implementation Delivery confirmation included – no guessing All requests get a response All submissions get an answer of some kind Facilitates real time data exchange

12. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Benefits Includes automatic data encryption (https) Uses digital signature standards Strong authentication with non-repudiation Delivery order problem solved by actively delivering and receiving the data – no unconfirmed hand-offs

13. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Benefits (continued) Larger payload sizes FTP overwrite problem solved by not using filenames in transport

14. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Technologies Building blocks for Web Services WSDL (Web Services Definition Language) SOAP WS-Security WS-Interoperability

15. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Anticipated Architectures Immediate processing Request and processed Result Response “ Push/Push” deferred processing Request and Acknowledge Response Request with Result and Acknowledge Response “Push/Pull” deferred processing Request and Acknowledge Response (just send) Request for Result and Result Response

16. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Immediate

17. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc “Push/Push”

18. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc “Push/Pull”

19. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc How Did We Do It? Created basic HelloWorld service and client Worked interoperable Added simple Headers to HelloWorld Was not interoperable Added complex Header to HelloWorld Was not interoperable

20. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Interop Problem with SOAP Headers xsi:type attribute in Header elements Java includes and requires this attribute.Net does not

21. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Why SOAP Headers To answer routing and processing expectations without opening the payload Remain payload insensitive Allow extensibility for new processes

22. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Version 1 Headers DTSRequestRouting DTSRequestServiceExpectation DTSRequestPayloadType DTSRequestSignature DTSResponseRouting DTSResponseAcknowledge DTSResponsePayloadType DTSResponseSignature

23. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Existing Transport vs Header elements A [B] A = File Type, B = Encrytption, X.Y.Z = key identifier, M = Unique message ID Encryption unnecessary because using HTTPS DTSRequestPayloadType = A DTSRequestRouting SourceIDSubCode = X, SourceID =Y(.Z) UUID = M

24. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTSv1 Request SOAP Header

25. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc SOAP is the Key The SOAP transmitted across the wire is of primary importance Element names Type attribute Not Namespace moniker (Java uses one by default,.Net does not) How you get the correct SOAP is not important

26. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Version 1 Signature Proprietary Signature Element Met business requirement for authentication and non-repudiation Did not answer limitations of existing PKI Still need to trade keys (X.509 certificates) “out-of-band” Reason Interoperability with tool sets at the time of proving concept

27. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Version 1 Answered all business requirements With proven interoperable working code But… Proprietary header structures created are a little outside of “standards” created by competing companies – WS-* Now What?

28. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Version 2 New tool sets released in November 2005 Axis1.3 Removed xsi:type attribute requirement for interoperability WSS4J and WSE2.0 (sp3) Inclusion of WS-Security full compliance Interoperable

29. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Version 2 Removal of xsi:type attribute requirement for interoperability Allowed DTS Header elements to be implemented like other WS-* specifications WS-Security Specification inclusion Expect to answer PKI limitations No key rings, out-of-band transfers, etc

30. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTSv2 Request SOAP Header

31. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Version 1 vs Version 2 All business requirements met in both All header elements defined by Version 1 are still in Version 2 Just different organization structure

32. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Version 1Version 2

33. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Reference Implementation Architecture Client Application Client Core Service Core Service Application

34. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Client Application Knows nothing of SOAP or Web Services Implements Client Core Interface “Setters” and “Getters” of DTS specific elements Houses specific business logic

35. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Client Core Knows nothing of business logic Uses properties set to construct the SOAP Interface for “setting send” and “getting returned” elements Handles the communication to Service Core- DTS Specification

36. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Service Core Accepts transmissions from Client Core Implements Service Application Interface “Setters” and “Getters” of DTS specific elements Creates return SOAP Format return acknowledgement or data from Service Application Construct SOAP faults

37. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Service Core (continued) Isolated business logic Examples Invoke Service Application based on payload Place payload in “queue”

38. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Service Application Interface for “setting sent” and “getting to be returned” elements Houses specific business logic Knows nothing of SOAP or Web Services

39. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Connecting the layers

40. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Connecting the layers

41. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Connecting the layers

42. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Connecting the layers

43. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Connecting the layers

44. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS – What has AES done? We have been involved with DTS since it’s inception. Co-chair of the DTS technical workgroup. Created the Java reference implementation for the specification. Looking for areas of use for DTS - both internal and external to use DTS. Centralized proxy to other services that can’t provide authentication/authorization CR/C Real-time implemenation

45. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Goals Create an Architecture (DTS Proxy) that allows for pluggable services. IDTSApplication (see java reference implementation) allows for these type of pluggable services. Looking at the Eclipse plug-in framework to implement the pluggable services. Need DTS proxy architecture to fit into overall SOA effort (in progress) Come to the SOA presentation for more

46. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Goals (Cont.) Allow for internal use without digital signatures. Requires additional processing not needed for internal use. Remove dependency for digital signatures in header processing. Parameterize service so signatures can be turned on/off

47. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc DTS Proxy Overview

48. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Planned usage of DTS from software developer's perspective Richard Henninger Chief Software Architect Datatel

49. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Why is Datatel Involved? PESC DTS

50. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc The Datatel Solution is all about the People and their experience

51. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc The Datatel Solution Affiliated Organizations StudentAdministrative Staff General Community AlumniProspective Student FacultyFriendsIT Staff  Academic  Advising  Library Solutions  Digital Asset Management  Institutional Management  eLearning  Research  Financial  Placement Office  Procurement  Book Store  Facilities Mgmt  Scheduling  Online Sales  Financial Aid  Admission  eRecruiting  Institutional Development  Human Resources  Student Mgmt  Alumni Development  Administrative  Clubs & Organizations  Sports and Athletics  Social Networking  Student Portfolios  Project Management  Collaborative Authoring  Intelligent Workspaces  Personal  Security  Software Development  System Administration  Infrastructure Management  IT Presentation Services Portals Smart Clients Mobile Clients Identity Management Single Sign-On Profile Management Personalization Communication Services Message Delivery Process Orchestration Syndication Integration Services Data Marts Service-Oriented Architect Composite User Interface Collaboration Services Shared Workspaces Content Management Personal Productivity

52. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Strategic Software Architecture Enterprise Service Bus B2B Connections and Remote Web Services Other Enterprise Business Systems Business Process Orchestration Colleague Applications Business Intelligence Enterprise Data SAS Business Objects ASG System Administration (SA Valet) Messaging Gateway

53. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Interoperability Implies Robust Transport Mechanism  Transport must provide:  Clear Routing  Reliable Delivery  Secure Privacy  Reliable Authentication of Principals  Yet be widely understood

54. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc What Datatel sees in DTS  A Solution to “Widely Understood” issue:  Implies standardized transport between Higher Ed Institutions and 3rd Party systems  Can encourages proven transport practices within and amongst institutions and partners  Can act as clearinghouse for proposed industry-wide standards Lab for experimenting finding “best practices” amongst proposed standards while solving real problems

55. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Datatel’s Vision for DTS  Satisfy Relevant Campus Use Cases  Satisfy Robustness requirements cited before  Easy to Certify  Minimal Setup/Negotiation of Format and Structure  Built Using Tools which are/use:  Proven technologies/platforms  Standards based  Commonly available  Cost effective

56. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Datatel’s Contribution to DTS  Senior Architectural/R&D Talent  To understand the needs of existing DTS committee participants  To influence DTS committee to include Datatel’s requirements in standard  To gain experience in real-world transport interoperability issues and solutions  Q1 2006 actively participated in DTS-2 WS-S interoperability labs/sessions

57. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Datatel’s Evaluation of Contribution  DTS-2 is progressing in ways we can continue to support  Labs are helping us understand the limits of interoperability  Participation is providing insights into transport needs of PESC participants  Participation is providing good feedback on Datatel’s transport requirements

58. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Thank You! Questions?

59. Copyright 2006 Datatel, Inc Contact Info Nathan Chitty Nelnet nathan.chitty@nelnet.net Mark Malinoski American Education Services mmalinos@aessuccess.org Richard Henninger Datatel Richard_Henninger@datatel.com