Provider Federation

Provider federation begins with a circle of trust. A circle of trust is a group of service providers who contractually agree to exchange authentication information. Each circle of trust must include at least one identity provider, a service provider that maintains and manages identity data, and provides authentication services. After the business contracts and policies defining a circle of trust are in place, the specific protocols, profiles, endpoints, and security mechanisms being used by each member is collected into a metadata document that is exchanged among all other members of the circle. OpenSSO Enterprise provides the tools necessary to integrate the metadata and enable a circle of trust technologically. Authentication within this federation is honored by all membered providers.

The establishment of contractual trust agreements between providers is beyond the scope of this guide. See The Concept of Trust for an overview.