When considering interoperability, there are two dimensions to take into account: internal interoperability within the framework and external interoperability with other frameworks.
One of the key purposes of a Trust Framework is to achieve interoperability of identity services across different use cases and sectors, principally ensuring a User can present their identity to many different organizations in a simple, seamless way.
When constructing the framework, a key design choice is whether to include the concept of schemes and whether those schemes are separately administered from the framework.
If a separately administered trust scheme model is implemented, then to ensure interoperability the framework will need to set some rules that all schemes must adhere to. Rules to consider setting at the framework level include:
Interoperability can also be achieved through parties such as Identity Providers or credential issuers becoming compliant with more than one trust scheme.
External interoperability with other trust frameworks can be achieved in three ways:
The node approach is a more efficient way of ultimately achieving mass interoperability between frameworks as it only requires each framework to align to commonly agreed rules. The node approach essentially creates an overarching trust framework, or a âframework of frameworksâ.
The key areas that need to be designed and implemented with interoperability between frameworks in mind are: