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Murdock 2 Intended status: Informational NATO C&I Agency 3 Expires: April 14, 2015 October 14, 2014 5 URN Namespace for NATO 6 draft-murdock-nato-nid-02.txt 8 Status of this Memo 10 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 11 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 13 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 14 Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that 15 other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- 16 Drafts. 18 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 19 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 20 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 21 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 23 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 24 http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt 26 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 27 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html 29 This Internet-Draft will expire on April 14, 2015. 31 Copyright Notice 33 Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 34 document authors. All rights reserved. 36 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 37 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 38 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 39 publication of this document. Please review these documents 40 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 41 to this document. 43 Abstract 45 This document describes a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace for 46 assignment by NATO. The current primary use is for uniquely 47 identifying Extensible Markup Language (XML) artifacts that provide 48 information about NATO message text formats and service 49 specifications as described in various NATO standards [4], 50 instructions and publications. 52 Table of Contents 54 1. Introduction ................................................ 2 55 2. Specification Template ...................................... 3 56 2.1. Namespace ID ........................................... 3 57 2.2. Registration Information ............................... 3 58 2.3. Declared Registrant of the Namespace ................... 3 59 2.4. Declaration of Syntactic Structure ..................... 3 60 2.5. Relevant Ancillary Documentation ....................... 4 61 2.6. Identifier Uniqueness Considerations ................... 5 62 2.7. Identifier Persistence Considerations .................. 5 63 2.8. Process of Identifier Assignment ....................... 5 64 2.9. Process for Identifier Resolution ...................... 5 65 2.10. Rules for Lexical Equivalence ......................... 5 66 2.11. Conformance with URN Syntax ........................... 6 67 2.12. Validation Mechanism .................................. 6 68 2.13. Scope ................................................. 6 69 3. Namespace Considerations .................................... 6 70 4. Community Considerations .................................... 6 71 5. Security Considerations ..................................... 7 72 6. IANA Considerations ......................................... 7 73 7. Conclusions ................................................. 7 74 8. References .................................................. 7 75 8.1. Normative References ................................... 7 76 8.2. Informative References ................................. 8 77 9. Acknowledgments ............................................. 8 79 1. Introduction 81 Historically, NATO has used standardized character-oriented message 82 text formats (MTF) to interoperate, report and exchange information 83 both among its commands and with national entities, commercial 84 partners and NGOs. These MTFs are generated using the NATO Message 85 Text Formatting System (FORMETS) in accordance with the rules, 86 constructions and vocabulary specified within the Allied Data 87 Publication Number 3 (ADatP-3). Almost 400 NATO-defined messages 88 that conform to ADatP-3 are contained in the Allied Procedural 89 Publication Number 11 (APP-11) message catalogue. 91 Prior to 2008 these messages were only available as slash delimited 92 textual messages. Since 2008, the APP-11 message catalogue also 93 includes XML-MTF definitions for these messages, giving rise to a 94 need to define and manage a URN namespace to name the XML namespaces. 96 2. Specification Template 98 2.1. Namespace ID 100 The Namespace ID "nato" is requested. 102 2.2. Registration Information 104 Version 1 106 Date: 2014-09-11 108 2.3. Declared Registrant of the Namespace 110 Registering Organization: 112 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 114 Communications & Information Services Agency (NCIA) 116 Address: SHAPE, 7010, Belgium 118 Declared Contact: 120 Role: NATO Naming and Addressing Authority (NRA) 122 Email: nra@ncia.nato.int 124 2.4. Declaration of Syntactic Structure 126 The Namespace Specific String (NSS) of all URNs that use the "nato" 127 NID shall have the following structure: 129 ::= "nato" ":" 131 ::= | ":" | ":" 1*( ":" 132 ) 134 ::= 1* 136 ::= 1* 138 ::= 1* 140 ::= | "%" 141 ::= | | | 144 ::= | "A" | "B" | "C" | "D" | "E" | "F" | 145 "a" | "b" | "c" | "d" | "e" | "f" 147 ::= "(" | ")" | "+" | "," | "-" | "." | 148 "=" | "@" | ";" | "$" |"_" | "!" | "*" | "'" 150 The "Type" is the top-level segment of the NSS. It is a required US- 151 ASCII string, subject to the above syntax, that conforms to the URN 152 syntax requirements (see RFC 2141 [1]). It identifies a particular 153 category or type of named resources, such as "mtf". 155 The "Source" is the second-level segment of the NSS, belonging to the 156 "Type" context. At this time, not all "Type" segments have "Source" 157 children, making "Source" an optional US-ASCII string, subject to the 158 above syntax and conformant to the URN syntax requirements (see RFC 2141 159 [1]). "Source" identifies a particular standard, catalogue or other 160 source of relevant specifications. 162 The NATO Naming and Registration Authority (NRA) functions as a Local 163 Internet Registry under RIPE NCC and will also serve as the responsible 164 registrar for assigning the first two levels of segments within the NSS 165 ("Type" and "Source"). The NRA may directly assign segments below these 166 levels of the namespace hierarchy, or delegate assignment 167 responsibilities for segments below the second level (i.e. below 168 "Source") at its discretion. In either case, NRA will ensure a registry 169 of the resulting namespace is maintained. 171 2.5. Relevant Ancillary Documentation 173 APP-11 - the ADatP-3 message catalogue 175 AdatP-3 - The message text format standard promulgated under STANAG 176 5500 ed. 7 178 The interim NATO Metadata Registry and Repository (NMRR) webpage can 179 be found at https://nmrr.ncia.nato.int/home.htm 181 2.6. Identifier Uniqueness Considerations 183 The NRA, as registrar, shall directly assure the global uniqueness of 184 the assigned strings. Though responsibility for administration of 185 sub-trees may be delegated, these shall not be published to the 186 registry or be requested to be resolved by any URN resolver until the 187 uniqueness of the resulting urn:nato URN has been validated against 188 the existing contents of the registry. URN identifiers shall be 189 assigned to at most one resource and not reassigned. 191 2.7. Identifier Persistence Considerations 193 The Registrar may assign URNs in sub-trees below the level of Type or 194 Standard, but once registered, URNs shall not be re-assigned. Within 195 the registry, their status as active or archive shall be recorded. 197 2.8. Process of Identifier Assignment 199 A namespace specific string within the NATO namespace will only be 200 assigned upon advancement of a relevant specification. The Registrar 201 checks all requested identifiers against the existing registrations 202 within urn:nato to ensure uniqueness and encourage relevance. 204 The assignment may include delegated registration activities for the 205 sub-tree if underpinned by supporting agreements. Otherwise, such 206 responsibilities remain with the NRA as overarching Registrar. In 207 any case, the urn must be registered with appropriate metadata before 208 an authorized request for URN resolution can be initiated (if 209 necessary). 211 2.9. Process for Identifier Resolution 213 The namespace is not currently listed with a Resolution Discovery 214 System (RDS) [3]. In the future, URNs from this namespace may be 215 resolved using a NATO listing in an RDS, using a third party listed 216 resolver, using an unlisted private resolver, or some combination of 217 these. The resolution method for each segment will be registered 218 with the NRA Registrar. 220 2.10. Rules for Lexical Equivalence 222 No special considerations. The rules for lexical equivalence 223 specified in RFC 2141 apply. 225 2.11. Conformance with URN Syntax 227 No special considerations. 229 2.12. Validation Mechanism 231 None specified. It will be conducted as part of the application for 232 identifier registration as indicated in preceding paragraphs. 234 2.13. Scope 236 Global. 238 3. Namespace Considerations 240 In addition to the large number of XML message specifications that 241 now exist in APP-11, there are other existing and emerging NATO 242 standard messages expressed as XML, as well as ongoing Web service 243 specification development. With no single NID registered to NATO, 244 some of these specifications may be established within locally 245 relevant, self-generated URN namespaces. Not only does this inhibit 246 the portability and adoption intended by standards development [4], 247 it risks name collisions when exposed to the global context of the 248 federation of partners for which these messages are destined. 250 The use of Uniform Resource Names with an appropriate Namespace ID 251 will enable the various NATO standards committees and working groups 252 [5] to use unique, relevant, reliable, permanent, managed and 253 accessible namespace names for their XML products. 255 A dedicated namespace also provides NATO the opportunity to leverage 256 the use of URNs for persistent naming of non-XML resources. 258 4. Community Considerations 260 The NATO standards development community, and those implementing such 261 standards, will benefit from publication of this namespace by having 262 more permanent and reliable names for the XML namespaces defined 263 within STANAGs, the MTF catalogue (APP-11) and other published 264 standards [4]. 266 Though these are NATO-published standards [4], they represent the 267 consensus of multi-national working groups, are implemented in 268 commercial products and used by partners within the international 269 community. 271 In the case of MTF standards [5], the responsibility for its 272 development and maintenance belongs to the NATO C3 Board's Message 273 Text Formats (MFT) Capability Team [5]. This team is "open to all 274 recognized NATO Partners around the Globe in principle. The term 275 'Partners around the Globe' summarizes all partners that are listed 276 on the NATO webpage: Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), NATO's 277 Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) 278 and Partners across the globe" [AC/322-N(2014)0091-AS1]. 280 5. Security Considerations 282 This document introduces no additional security considerations beyond 283 those associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general. 285 Distribution of NATO information in any form is subject to its 286 security policies. Nonetheless, this specification is for public use 287 and not subject to any NATO security policies. 289 6. IANA Considerations 291 This document defines a URN NID registration of "nato", which is 292 requested to be entered into the IANA registry "Uniform Resource 293 Names (URN) Namespaces". The registration template is given in 294 section 2. 296 7. Conclusions 298 It is necessary that a standards body, like NATO, ensures its 299 messages, service specifications and other XML artifacts are based in 300 namespaces that can be described using unique, persistent and managed 301 URNs. Considering its role as an information broker between many 302 disparate communities, this document recommends a formal namespace 303 identifier (NID) urn:nato for Uniform Resource Names (URN) associated 304 with NATO information products and vocabularies. 306 8. References 308 8.1. Normative References 310 [1] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997. 312 [2] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R. and P. Faltstrom, 313 "Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace Definition Mechanisms", 314 BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002. 316 [3] Sollins, K., "Architectural Principles of Uniform Resource Name 317 Resolution", RFC 2276, January 1998. 319 8.2. Informative References 321 [4] List of Current NATO Standards (publicly available hosted by 322 NATO Standardization Office): 323 http://nso.nato.int/nso/nsdd/listpromulg.html 325 [5] The Message Text Format Capability Team website: 326 https://nhqc3s.hq.nato.int/Default.aspx 328 [6] 330 [AC/322-N(2014)0091-AS1] NATO notice which specifies that partners 331 that have, or intend to introduce, systems interoperable 332 with NATO MTFs may join the respective NATO working group, 333 subject to the approval of the C3 Board. 335 9. Acknowledgments 337 The author acknowledges and appreciates the support and expertise 338 provided by Nanda Kol, Ulrich Ritgen and the urn-nid review team. 340 This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot. 342 Authors' Address 344 Aidan Murdock 345 NATO C&I Agency 346 Core Enterprise Services 347 Naming and Registration Authority 348 SHAPE, Belgium 349 7010 351 Email: Aidan.murdock@ncia.nato.int