Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI)

AAI provides a federated identity management system that allows users to access multiple resources or services using a single set of credentials, while maintaining secure authentication and authorization mechanisms. It typically involves the use of standard protocols such as SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language), OAuth (Open Authorization), and OIDC (OpenID Connect), which allow different organizations to securely exchange authentication and authorization information.

In AAI, the user's identity and attributes are managed by an Identity Provider (IdP), which is responsible for verifying the user's identity and providing information about their identity and attributes to Service Providers (SPs). The SPs are responsible for enforcing access control policies and determining which resources or services the user is authorized to access.

AAI is widely used in academic and research institutions, as well as in other domains where secure and efficient access to resources or services is critical. It allows users to access resources or services across multiple organizations and domains, while reducing the burden of managing multiple sets of credentials and ensuring that sensitive information is kept private and secure.