Overview
The Real-Time Broker Service (RBS) is offered by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) as part of their Identity Web Services (IWS), which were developed to provide identity verification services to government agencies for Department of Defense (DoD) military personnel, their dependents, retirees, DoD civilians, and contractors. These web services allow customers to request and receive current identity data from DMDCs Person Data Repository (PDR).
RBS is an online synchronous data delivery web service that receives a request for an individual, queries the PDR, and returns a response to the originating system. RBS is intended for real-time data requests for an individual, greatly reducing or eliminating the need to synchronize a local data store with the PDR. RBS receives the identifiers in the customer request and attempts to find a match in the PDR database. If a match is made, RBS will return all available data specified in the customer-specific RBS response schema. RBS is designed to return data to the requesting system in under two seconds, although response time may vary based on network and server loads.
Why Should I Use It?
For the purposes of EDS, BBS allows Combatant Commands, Services, and Agencies (CC/S/As) to request and receive current identity data from DMDC’s PDR to verify the identity of users accessing their applications and to synchronize a local data store. This enables applications to reduce their infrastructure footprint and IT expenditures for managing and administering user accounts. Also, using RBS to provision local directories and Global Address Lists (GALs) satisfies some of the requirements mandated in the DoD CIO EDS Memo.
How Can I Use It?
Individual RBS requests may be made as often as needed within the limits of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the Customer Interface Specification (CIS), which your DMDC PO will provide. Additional information about RBS is available at https://intellipedia.intelink.gov/wiki/DMDC_IWS, including instructions to initiate implementation. If frequent large batch updates are needed, BBS may be a more appropriate solution.
Documentation
All RBS reference materials are available on the Program Documentation page. This is only available on DoD Cyber Exchange NIPR.