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+Network Working Group R. Morgan
+Request for Comments: 3613 Univ. of Washington
+Category: Informational K. Hazelton
+ Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
+ October 2003
+
+
+ Definition of a Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace for the
+ Middleware Architecture Committee for Education (MACE)
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+ This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
+ not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
+ memo is unlimited.
+
+Copyright Notice
+
+ Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
+
+Abstract
+
+ This document describes a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace for
+ the Internet2 Middleware Architecture Committee for Education (MACE).
+ This namespace is for naming persistent resources defined by MACE,
+ its working groups and other designated subordinates.
+
+1. Introduction and Community Considerations
+
+ The Internet2 Middleware Architecture Committee for Education (MACE)
+ produces many kinds of documents: specifications, working drafts,
+ object classes, schemas, stylesheets, etc. It also defines directory
+ attributes and controlled vocabularies for the values of some of
+ those attributes.
+
+ MACE wishes to provide global, distributed, persistent, location-
+ independent names for these resources. The Uniform Resource Name
+ (URN) variant of URIs meets these requirements.
+
+ MACE working groups and other MACE-affiliated groups will benefit
+ from the MACE URN namespace by having an easy, efficient way to
+ assign globally unique, persistent identifiers to resources that they
+ create. The nature of MACE work is that serves the needs of one or
+ more communities of interest. A namespace managed so as to
+ facilitate the creation, registration and resolution of unique,
+ persistent identifiers will be of great value for MACE, its
+ affiliates and the higher education community generally.
+
+
+
+
+Morgan & Hazelton Informational [Page 1]
+
+RFC 3613 URN Namespace for MACE October 2003
+
+
+ This URN namespace specification is for a formal namespace.
+
+2. Specification Template
+
+ Namespace ID:
+
+ "mace"
+
+ Registration Information:
+
+ Registration Version Number 1
+
+ Registration Date: 2003-08-01
+
+ Registrant of the namespace:
+
+ Middleware Architecture Committee for Education (MACE)
+ ATTN: Lisa Hogeboom
+ Internet2
+ 3025 Boardwalk Suite 200
+ Ann Arbor, MI 48108
+
+ Phone: +1 734 913 4250
+
+ Contact: Keith Hazelton
+
+ Affiliation: Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
+ 1210 W. Dayton St.
+ Madison, WI 53706
+ Phone: +1 608 262 0771
+
+ hazelton@doit.wisc.edu
+
+ Syntactic structure:
+
+ The Namespace Specific Strings (NSS) of all URNs assigned by MACE
+ will conform to the syntax defined in section 2.2 of RFC 2141,
+ "URN Syntax" [1]. In addition, all MACE URN NSSs will consist of
+ a left-to-right series of tokens delimited by colons. The left-
+ to-right sequence of colon-delimited tokens corresponds to
+ descending nodes in a tree. To the right of the lowest naming
+ authority node there may be zero, one or more levels of
+ hierarchical naming nodes terminating in a rightmost leaf node.
+ See the section entitled "Identifier assignment" below for more on
+ the semantics of NSSs. This syntax convention is captured in the
+ following normative ABNF rules for MACE NSSs (see RFC 2234) [2]:
+
+
+
+
+
+Morgan & Hazelton Informational [Page 2]
+
+RFC 3613 URN Namespace for MACE October 2003
+
+
+ MACE-NSS = 1*(subStChar) 0*(":" 1*(subStChar))
+
+ subStChar = trans / "%" HEXDIG HEXDIG
+
+ trans = ALPHA / DIGIT / other / reserved
+
+ other = "(" / ")" / "+" / "," / "-" / "." /
+
+ "=" / "@" / ";" / "$" /
+
+ "_" / "!" / "*" / "'"
+
+ reserved = "%" / "/" / "?" / "#"
+
+ The exclusion of the colon from the list of "other" characters
+ means that the colon can only occur as a delimiter between string
+ tokens. Note that this ABNF rule set guarantees that any valid
+ MACE NSS is also a valid RFC 2141 NSS.
+
+ Relevant ancillary documentation:
+
+ None.
+
+ Identifier uniqueness:
+
+ It is the responsibility of MACE directors to guarantee uniqueness
+ of the names of immediately subordinate naming authorities. Each
+ lower-level naming authority in turn inherits the responsibility
+ of guaranteeing uniqueness of names in their branch of the naming
+ tree.
+
+ Identifier persistence:
+
+ MACE directors bear ultimate responsibility for maintaining the
+ usability of MACE URNs over time. This responsibility may be
+ delegated to subordinate naming authorities per the discussion in
+ the section below on identifier assignment. That section provides
+ a mechanism for the delegation to be revoked in case a subordinate
+ naming authority ceases to function.
+
+ Identifier assignment:
+
+ MACE directors will create an initial series of immediately
+ subordinate naming authorities, and will define a process for
+ adding to that list of authorities. Each top-level working group
+ of MACE will be invited to designate a naming authority and to
+ suggest one or more candidate names for that authority. The
+ MACE-Shibboleth group, for example, might propose creating a
+
+
+
+Morgan & Hazelton Informational [Page 3]
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+RFC 3613 URN Namespace for MACE October 2003
+
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+ naming authority under "urn:mace:shib," "urn:mace:shibboleth" or
+ some other name.
+
+ Institutions and communities affiliated with MACE may request,
+ through their designated MACE liaison, that they be granted MACE-
+ subordinate naming authority status. They may propose candidate
+ names for that authority. One way for such entities to guarantee
+ uniqueness of their proposed name is to base it on a DNS name.
+ That is, if Georgetown University wished to be designated a
+ subordinate naming authority under MACE, the institutional MACE
+ liaison could propose to MACE directors that they be delegated
+ control over names beginning with "urn:mace:georgetown.edu".
+ Institutions seeking affiliation with MACE should send email to
+ mace-submit@internet2.edu, nominating an institutional liaison and
+ providing contact information for that person.
+
+ On at least an annual basis, MACE directors will contact the
+ liaisons or directors of each immediately subordinate naming
+ authority. If there is no response, or if the respondent
+ indicates that they wish to relinquish naming authority, the
+ authority over that branch of the tree reverts to MACE. This
+ process will be enforced recursively by each naming authority on
+ its subordinates. This process guarantees that responsibility for
+ each branch of the tree will lapse for less than one year at worst
+ before being reclaimed by a superior authority.
+
+ Lexical equivalence of two MACE namespace specific strings (NSSs)
+ is defined below as an exact, case-sensitive string match. MACE
+ will assign names of immediately subordinate naming authorities in
+ a case-insensitive fashion, so that there will not be two MACE-
+ subordinate naming authorities whose names differ only in case.
+
+ Identifier resolution:
+
+ MACE directors will maintain an index of all MACE and MACE
+ workgroup assigned URNs at the web site
+ http://middleware.internet2.edu/urn-mace/urn-mace.html. That
+ index will map URNs to resource identifiers or resource
+ specifications (e.g., protocol parameters). MACE-affiliated
+ naming authorities will specify how to resolve the URNs they
+ assign if they are resolvable.
+
+ Lexical equivalence:
+
+ Lexical equivalence of two MACE namespace specific strings (NSSs)
+ is defined as an exact, case-sensitive string match.
+
+ Conformance with URN syntax:
+
+
+
+Morgan & Hazelton Informational [Page 4]
+
+RFC 3613 URN Namespace for MACE October 2003
+
+
+ All MACE NSSs fully conform to RFC 2141 syntax rules for NSSs.
+
+ Validation mechanism:
+
+ As specified in the "Identifier resolution" section above, MACE
+ directors will maintain an index of all MACE and MACE workgroup
+ assigned URNs on its web site,
+ http://middleware.internet2.edu/urn-mace/urn-mace.html. Presence
+ in that index implies that a given URN is valid. MACE-affiliated
+ naming authorities will specify how to validate the URNs they
+ assign.
+
+ Scope:
+
+ Global.
+
+3. Security Considerations
+
+ There are no additional security considerations beyond those normally
+ associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general.
+
+4. Namespace Considerations
+
+ Registration of an NID specific to MACE is reasonable given the
+ following considerations:
+
+ 1. MACE would like to assign URNs to some very fine-grained objects
+ (such as specific controlled vocabulary values of an attribute in
+ MACE-defined LDAP object classes). This does not seem to be the
+ primary intended use of the XMLORG namespace (RFC 3120) [3], let
+ alone the more tightly controlled OASIS namespace (RFC 3121) [4].
+
+ 2. MACE seeks naming autonomy. We understand that the XMLORG
+ registrants left the door open to subordinate naming authorities,
+ "OASIS may assign portions of its XMLORG namespace for assignment
+ by other parties" (RFC 3120) [3], but there is no specified
+ process for such assignment. That would in any case mean having a
+ fixed XMLORG-assigned prefix on every single object to which we
+ assign a URN. MACE has a number of active work groups that may
+ well generate a growing number of subordinate naming authorities.
+ Moreover, MACE is not a member of OASIS, so becoming a subordinate
+ naming authority under the OASIS URN space is currently not an
+ option.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Morgan & Hazelton Informational [Page 5]
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+RFC 3613 URN Namespace for MACE October 2003
+
+
+ 3. MACE will want to assign URNs to non-XML objects as well. That is
+ another reason that XMLORG may not be an appropriate higher-level
+ naming authority for MACE.
+
+ Some MACE-developed schema and namespaces may be good candidates for
+ inclusion in the XMLORG registry. The fact that such an object might
+ already have a MACE-assigned URN shouldn't be a hindrance. Work is
+ in progress to update RFC 2611 [5], which includes an explicit
+ statement that two or more URNs may point to the same resource. A
+ resource with a MACE-assigned namespace-specific-string would, of
+ course, be given an XMLORG namespace-specific-string at the time it
+ enters the XMLORG registry.
+
+5. IANA Considerations
+
+ The IANA has formally registered URN namespace 13 to MACE, within the
+ IANA registry of URN NIDs.
+
+6. Normative References
+
+ [1] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.
+
+ [2] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
+ Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
+
+ [3] Best, K. and N. Walsh, "A URN Namespace for XML.org", RFC 3120,
+ June 2001.
+
+ [4] Best, K. and N. Walsh, "A URN Namespace for OASIS", RFC 3121,
+ June 2001.
+
+ [5] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R. and P. Faltstrom, "URN
+ Namespace Definition Mechanisms", BCP 33, RFC 2611, June 1999.
+
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+Morgan & Hazelton Informational [Page 6]
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+RFC 3613 URN Namespace for MACE October 2003
+
+
+7. Authors' Addresses
+
+ RL "Bob" Morgan
+ 4545 15th Ave. NE
+ Seattle, WA 98105
+ U.S.A.
+
+ EMail: rlmorgan@washington.edu
+
+
+ Keith D. Hazelton
+ University of Wisconsin-Madison
+ 1210 W. Dayton St.
+ Madison, WI 53706
+ U.S.A.
+
+ EMail: hazelton@doit.wisc.edu
+
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+Morgan & Hazelton Informational [Page 7]
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+RFC 3613 URN Namespace for MACE October 2003
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+
+8. Full Copyright Statement
+
+ Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
+
+ This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
+ others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
+ or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
+ and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
+ kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
+ included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
+ document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
+ the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
+ Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
+ developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
+ copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
+ followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
+ English.
+
+ The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
+ revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assignees.
+
+ This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
+ "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
+ TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
+ BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
+ HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
+ MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Acknowledgement
+
+ Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
+ Internet Society.
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