Which protocols are commonly associated with federation?

Federation refers to the establishment of a relationship between different domains or organizations that allows for trusted sharing of user identities and authentication assertions. The protocols that are most commonly associated with federation are SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) and OIDC (OpenID Connect).

SAML is a standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between parties, particularly between an identity provider and a service provider, making it a cornerstone of federation in enterprise environments. It allows for single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, enabling users to authenticate once and gain access to multiple services across different domains or organizations seamlessly.

OIDC, built on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol, is a modern approach to handle user authentication. It also supports SSO and is designed to work well in web and mobile applications, making it popular in contemporary implementations of federated identity management. The combination of SAML and OIDC covers a wide range of scenarios and setups for federated identity, aligning closely with the needs of businesses leveraging cloud services and interconnected systems.

The other options, while important in their own right, do not pertain to federated identity in the context described. FTP and HTTP are primarily used for file transfer and web communication respectively, but do not involve identity management