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.