The functional advantage of the Affiliate Registration Authority is that an organisation can manage its certification services at a central location, with many Affiliate Registration Organisations in different geographical locations providing certification services. For example, where the cost of an Affiliate Certification Authority are not justified, an Affiliate Registration Authority can be established at the national level having offices in several cities and towns, each of which are connected to the PKI as Affiliate Registration Organisations.

In addition, Affiliate Registration Authorities can:

• Determine which certificate policies they will support from those available from their super ordinate Affiliate Certification Authority that issued its ARA certificate;

• Customize the Affiliate Registration Organisation user interface to their local needs, e.g. local language support, localised presentation format etc.;

• Negotiate with their Affiliate Certification Authority, that issued their ARA certificate, to have Certificate Policies adopted to local requirements;

• Use a dedicated infrastructure for the provision of certification services requested by its Affiliate Registration Organisations and End Users.