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edu-ID – Architecture

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See also Working group Technik

The following comments are based on the results of the Workshops in November 2019 in Bamberg. See also the Notes and the related Blackboard picture.

  • Support for central edu-ID use cases
    • Onboarding
    • “Recognition”, uninterrupted use of services
    • Account linking, aggregation of attributes and identities (“affiliations”)
  • Use of local or institution-specific service providers must still be possible
  • Ideally a single IdP as authentication source (i.e. not edu-ID-IdP versus home IdP)
  • edu-ID is issued/generated centrally –> central IdP for onboarding

(are not rendered superfluous by an edu-ID system, but take on a different role in some cases)

  • Must manage edu-ID (the identifier) locally in the IdM
  • …and be able to synchronise attributes with the edu-ID system, ideally via push API (SCIM), attribute query as an emergency/transitional solution
  • Must generally continue to “serve” local SPs (often special configurations)
  • Home IdP as preferred authentication source (in edu-ID scenarios, the edu-ID IdP provides the attributes).
  • SWITCH model: A central IdP that is able to emulate the IdPs of the participating home institutions
  • Hybrid model: Home IdPs and edu-ID IdP side by side, edu-ID IdP only for certain SPs / use cases
  • Decentralised model: edu-ID system only provides the identifier and the core attributes provided by the users
  • Based on hybrid model
  • edu-ID system fulfils several roles:
    • IdP: for homeless users, especially in onboarding scenarios
    • Proxy-SP: home IdP as authentication source –> one user session (SSO)
      (use case “recognition”, uninterrupted use of services)
    • Attribute and identity aggregator
  • Identifiers derived from edu-ID:
    • (targeted) pairwise-id, occasionally also (unique) subject-id
    • Are generated by the edu-ID system
    • … and could be retrieved and cached by the home IdPs via a data connector (web service). However, this can only be an emergency solution! (difficult for “edu-SPs”) –> SSO better via Proxy-SP (see above)
    • Discovery in “proxy mode”
      • Aim for the best possible user experience
      • Ideally no cascading selection
    • Account linking, aggregation of attributes and identities
      • Push API (like SWITCH) for provisioning user data to the edu-ID system
      • Linking of identities is not automatic, but user-controlled
      • Essential for FIDs and research infrastructures
      • To aggregate IDs reliably (no copy+paste), customised solutions are required (e.g. from ORCID)

Information about SCIM

  • Last modified: 2 months ago