This International Standard, Remote Database Access for SQL (RDA), defines a model for the remote interaction of an SQL-client and one or more SQL-servers through communication media, and defines the encoding of messages, the semantics of messages and associated facilities for mediating the interaction between one SQL-client and one SQL-server.

This International Standard also defines a mapping of the RDA Protocol to the specific communication infrastructures TCP/IP and Transport Layer Security (TLS).

This International Standard relies upon the facilities provided by ISO/IEC 9075 (SQL) and ISO/IEC 9075-3 (SQL/CLI).

This International Standard also:

• identifies potential security vulnerabilities in remote database access using RDA,
• defines RDA facilities which protect against the potential vulnerabilities.

Normative annexes provide:

• a Conformance Proforma,
• an optional language independent Application Programming Interface defined in the notational conventions of ISO/IEC 9075-3 (SQL/CLI) for invoking RDA Operations,
• an optional mapping of ISO/IEC 9075-3 (SQL/CLI) functions to RDA Operations,
• definitions of optional SQL-servers, the RDA Location Server and the RDA Support Server, to facilitate interoperation and data distribution in a heterogeneous environment,
• a set of security profiles that identify which RDA facilities and other security facilities are required for different levels of protection against potential vulnerabilities.

Informative annexes provide:

• an analysis of security service requirements,
• an ASN.1 specification for the RDA Protocol,
• an ASN.1 specification for the encoding of multiple rows.

This International Standard does not constrain:

• conforming RDA-client environments to be implemented using any particular processor decomposition,
• conforming RDA-server environments to be implemented using any particular processor decomposition.

This International Standard refers to but does not define:

• protocols and security mechanisms for communication confidentiality, integrity and authentication of communicating peers,
• digital signature and authentication mechanisms supported by protocol elements of RDA.

This International Standard does not define:

• algorithms for query decomposition or for the combining of results in a distributed database environment,
• mechanisms for recovery in the event that transaction co-ordination fails,
• mechanisms for storage integrity and confidentiality using cryptography,
• mechanisms to counter Denial of Service attacks.