Network Working Group P. Saint-Andre Internet-Draft Cisco Systems, Inc. Intended status: Informational M. Cotton Expires: May 11, 2013 IANA November 7, 2012 A Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace for IANA Registries draft-saintandre-iana-urn-00 Abstract This document defines a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace for uniquely identifying information contained in registries maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Status of this Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." This Internet-Draft will expire on May 11, 2013. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Saint-Andre & Cotton Expires May 11, 2013 [Page 1] Internet-Draft URN Namespace for IANA Registries November 2012 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Specification Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Namespace Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4. Community Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Saint-Andre & Cotton Expires May 11, 2013 [Page 2] Internet-Draft URN Namespace for IANA Registries November 2012 1. Introduction The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocates and maintains unique codes and numbering systems that are used in the context of Internet protocols. Most of the constants and other well- known values maintained by the IANA are contained in registries that are accessible over the Internet, where each registry is hosted at iana.org and identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) [RFC3986] whose resources are retrieved using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) [RFC2616]. Some Internet protocols need persistent identifiers for the entries contained in IANA registries. However, currently such identifiers do not exist, for several reasons: 1. Each IANA registry is located at an HTTP URI (e.g., "http:// www.iana.org/assignments/sdp-security-descriptions/ sdp-security-descriptions.xml"), but there are no "pointers" to specific entries in each registry (e.g., the "AES_256_CM_HMAC_SHA1_80" entry in the SRTP Crypto Suite registry located at that URI). 2. From time to time, the IANA might change the URIs for its registries (as was done not long ago when the IANA changed all of its registries to use Extensible Markup Language [XML] files instead of plain text files). It is desirable that names for the entries in IANA registries can be persistent and location-independent, which is not necessarily the case with names that are also HTTP URIs. However, Uniform Resource Names (URNs) [RFC2141] are designed to be both persistent and location-independent. For example, a URN for the foregoing registry entry might be: urn:iana:sdp-security-descriptions:AES_256_CM_HMAC_SHA1_80 Therefore, in accordance with the process defined in [RFC3406], this document defines a formal namespace identifier (NID) that could be used to assign URNs representing the information contained in IANA registries. 2. Specification Template Namespace ID: The Namespace ID "iana" is requested. Saint-Andre & Cotton Expires May 11, 2013 [Page 3] Internet-Draft URN Namespace for IANA Registries November 2012 Registration Information: Version 1 Date: [[to be assigned by the RFC Editor]] Declared Registrant of the Namespace: Registering organization Organization: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Address: 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330 Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6601 USA Designated contact Role: IANA team Email: iana@iana.org Declaration of Syntactic Structure: The Namespace Specific String (NSS) of all URNs that use the "iana" NID shall have the following structure: urn:iana:{RegistryName}:{EntryName} The keywords have the following meaning: (1) the "RegistryName" is a required ASCII string that conforms to the URN syntax (RFC 2141) and defines a particular registry maintained by the IANA. (2) the "EntryName" is a required ASCII string that conforms to the URN syntax (RFC 2141) and defines a particular entry in the relevant registry. The IANA is responsible for managing the assignment of both "RegistryName" and "EntryName" strings. Relevant Ancillary Documentation: Information about IANA registration procedures can be found on the IANA website and in RFC 5226. Identifier Uniqueness Considerations: The IANA ensures the uniqueness of all IANA URNs by checking RegistryNames and EntryNames against existing names for both registries and entries. The IANA directly ensures the Saint-Andre & Cotton Expires May 11, 2013 [Page 4] Internet-Draft URN Namespace for IANA Registries November 2012 uniqueness of the assigned strings and does not assign secondary responsibility for management of any sub-trees. In no case will the resulting URNs be re-assigned. Identifier Persistence Considerations: Through its existing registration procedures, the IANA ensures that registrants provide clear documentation of the entries in IANA registries. Process of Identifier Assignment: The processes and procedures for identifier assignment are documented on the IANA website and in RFC 5226. Process for Identifier Resolution: The namespace is not currently listed with a Resolution Discovery System (RDS). However, nothing about the namespace prohibits the future definition of appropriate resolution methods or listing with an RDS. Rules for Lexical Equivalence: No special considerations; the rules for lexical equivalence specified in RFC 2141 apply. Conformance with URN Syntax: No special considerations. Validation Mechanism: None specified. Scope: Global. 3. Namespace Considerations The IANA is one of the Internet's oldest institutions, with its activities dating back to the 1970s. The use of Uniform Resource Names with an appropriate Namespace ID will enable the IANA to assign cleaner, more general, more permanent, more reliable, and more controllable names for the parameters used by Internet protocols and applications. Saint-Andre & Cotton Expires May 11, 2013 [Page 5] Internet-Draft URN Namespace for IANA Registries November 2012 4. Community Considerations The Internet community will benefit from this namespace by having more permanent and reliable names for parameters used in the context of Internet protocols and applications. The registries maintained by the IANA are open to contributions from any interested individual or organization. See the IANA website and documentation of its registration procedures [RFC5226] for detailed descriptions of the registration procedures. 5. Security Considerations This document introduces no additional security considerations beyond those associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general. 6. IANA Considerations This document defines a URN NID registration of "iana" and thus opens the possibility that the IANA can use that namespace if desired. However, this document does not stipulate that the IANA is to create names for every entry in every registry that it maintains. The IANA's use of the namespace is a matter for IANA policy, which is outside the scope of this document. 7. References 7.1. Normative References [RFC2141] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997. [RFC3406] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom, "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002. 7.2. Informative References [RFC2616] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H., Masinter, L., Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999. [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC 3986, January 2005. Saint-Andre & Cotton Expires May 11, 2013 [Page 6] Internet-Draft URN Namespace for IANA Registries November 2012 [RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226, May 2008. [XML] Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli, J., and T. Bray, "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition)", World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC- xml-20081126, November 2008, . Authors' Addresses Peter Saint-Andre Cisco Systems, Inc. 1899 Wynkoop Street, Suite 600 Denver, CO 80202 USA Phone: +1-303-308-3282 Email: psaintan@cisco.com Michelle Cotton IANA 4676 Admiralty Way Suite 330 Marina Del Rey, CA 90292-6601 USA Phone: +1-310-823-9358 Email: michelle.cotton@icann.org Saint-Andre & Cotton Expires May 11, 2013 [Page 7]