The GHR is a distributed registry whose operation is managed collaboratively by the DONA Foundation and multiple organizations. An organization that is authorized by the DONA Foundation to participate in the distributed administration of the GHR is referred to as a Multi-Primary Administrator (MPA). Each MPA is "credentialed" and allotted a zero-delimiter prefix by the DONA Foundation. It operates its own GHR Service in accordance with the Foundation procedures, and coordinates it with the other MPAs and DONA on a multi-primary basis.
The DOI Foundation is an MPA and was allotted the prefix 10.
The GHR consists of:
•the GHR services of the MPAs called MPA GHR Services
•the GHR Service operated by the DONA Foundation
An MPA GHR Service provides:
•first-level resolution of Handles
The GHR is the first access point for any client requesting a Handle resolution. Based on the prefix Handles hosted in the GHR, it redirects the client to the Local Handle Service (LHS) responsible for this Handle.
•administration for its assigned credential prefix
The MPA GHR Service allows the creation and maintenance by an authorized administrator of the one-delimiter prefix Handles derived from the credential prefix. All prefix Handles managed in a GHR Service are automatically copied across all the other GHR Services.
The GHR stores only the records of zero- and one-delimiter prefix Handles (up to the limit of one million). The other prefixes are managed through LHSs.
