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diff --git a/doc/rfc/rfc4926.txt b/doc/rfc/rfc4926.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49fb1fa --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/rfc/rfc4926.txt @@ -0,0 +1,507 @@ + + + + + + +Network Working Group T. Kalin +Request for Comments: 4926 M. Molina +Category: Informational DANTE + July 2007 + + + A URN Namespace for GEANT + +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 IETF Trust (2007). + +Abstract + + This document describes a proposed URN (Uniform Resource Name) + namespace that would be managed by DANTE, representing European + Research and academic networks, for naming persistent resources + defined by GEANT, the Consortium of European Academic and Research + Networks, its projects, activities, working groups, and other + designated subordinates. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 1] + +RFC 4926 A URN Namespace for GEANT July 2007 + + +1. Introduction + + The Consortium of European Academic and Research Networks (GEANT) + provides high-speed, high-quality network connectivity for education + institutions, universities, and research centres in Europe. The + network infrastructure is composed of several National Research and + Education Networks (NRENs) and their European-wide interconnection, + GEANT. The current network is GEANT2 [6], and is the seventh + generation of pan-European research and education network, successor + to the pan-European multi-gigabit research network GEANT. DANTE [7] + is a UK-based organization representing the members of the Consortium + and operating the GEANT2 Network. This cooperative work is mainly + done in the framework of EU-funded projects. The biggest of such + activities is currently the GN2 project [6], started in September + 2004, that follows other successful ones that have evolved the + European Networks for Research and Education for almost two decades. + It is expected that these activities and the network evolution will + continue to be supported by the European Union and all European + governments in the years to come, as they view the existence of a + state-of-the-art network for research in Europe as being of top + strategic importance. We will refer to the organization involved in + these projects and those that benefit from their outcome as the + "GEANT community". + + The GEANT community produces many kinds of documents: specifications, + working drafts, project reports, schemas, stylesheets, etc. The + community wishes to provide global, distributed, persistent, + location-independent names for these resources. The Uniform Resource + Name (URN) variant of URIs meets these requirements. + + The GEANT community and other GEANT-affiliated groups would benefit + from the GEANT URN proposal by having an easy, efficient way to + assign globally unique, persistent identifiers to resources that they + create. The nature of GEANT work is that it serves the needs of many + communities of interest. A namespace managed so as to facilitate the + creation, registration, and resolution of unique, persistent + identifiers would be of great value for GEANT, its affiliates, and + the higher education community generally. The possibility of fitting + the naming needs under existing namespaces has been considered, but + the conclusion was that the number of activities and the size of the + developers community is such that creating a lot of (possibly + uncoordinated) dependencies from other namespaces is undesirable. + + The proposed URN namespace specification is for a formal namespace. + + + + + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 2] + +RFC 4926 A URN Namespace for GEANT July 2007 + + +2. Specification Template + + Namespace ID: + + geant + + Registration Information: + + Registration Version Number 1 + + Registration Date: 2006-03-21 + + Registrant of the namespace: + + DANTE + ATTN: Maurizio Molina + City House + 126 - 130 Hills Road + Cambridge CB2 1PQ + United Kingdom + Phone: +44 1223 371340 + + Contact: Tomaz Kalin + Affiliation: DANTE + City House + 126 - 130 Hills Road + Cambridge CB2 1PQ + + Email: tomaz.kalin@dante.org.uk + Phone: +386 1 430 3055 + + Syntactic structure: + + The Namespace Specific Strings (NSS) of all URNs assigned by + GEANT will conform to the syntax defined in section 2.2 of RFC + 2141, "URN Syntax" [2]. In addition, all GEANT 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 below entitled "Identifier + assignment" for more on the semantics of NSSs. This syntax + convention is captured in the following normative ABNF rules + for GEANT NSSs (see RFC 4234 [1]): + + + + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 3] + +RFC 4926 A URN Namespace for GEANT July 2007 + + + GEANT-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 GEANT NSS is also a valid RFC 2141 NSS. + + Relevant ancillary documentation: + + None. + + Identifier uniqueness: + + It is the responsibility of DANTE 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: + + DANTE bears ultimate responsibility for maintaining the + usability of GEANT 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 the + case a subordinate naming authority ceases to function. + + Identifier assignment: + + DANTE 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 + GEANT will be invited to designate a naming authority and to + suggest one or more candidate names. + + + + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 4] + +RFC 4926 A URN Namespace for GEANT July 2007 + + + Institutions and communities affiliated with GEANT may request, + through their designated GEANT liaison, that they be granted + GEANT-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, e.g., the German National Research + and Education Network wished to be designated a subordinate + naming authority under GEANT, the institutional GEANT liaison + could propose to DANTE to be delegated control over names + beginning with "urn:geant:dfn.de". Institutions seeking + affiliation with GEANT should send email to + geant-submit@dante.org.uk, nominating an institutional liaison + and providing contact information for that person. + + On at least an annual basis, DANTE 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 GEANT. 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 GEANT namespace specific strings + (NSSs) is defined below as an exact, case-sensitive string + match. DANTE will assign names of immediately subordinate + naming authorities in lowercase only. This forestalls the + registration of two GEANT-subordinate naming authorities whose + names differ only in case. + + Identifier resolution: + + DANTE will maintain an index of all GEANT and GEANT workgroup + assigned URNs on its Web site, + http://www.dante.net/urn-geant/urn-geant.html. That index will + map URNs to resource identifiers, usually URLs. GEANT- + affiliated naming authorities will specify how to resolve the + URNs they assign if they are resolvable. + + Lexical equivalence: + + Lexical equivalence of two GEANT Namespace Specific Strings + (NSSs) is defined as an exact, case-sensitive string match. + + Conformance with URN syntax: + + All GEANT NSSs fully conform to RFC 2141 syntax rules for NSSs. + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 5] + +RFC 4926 A URN Namespace for GEANT July 2007 + + + Validation mechanism: + + As specified in the "Identifier resolution" section above, + DANTE will maintain an index of all GEANT and GEANT workgroup + assigned URNs on its Web site, + http://www.dante.net/urn-geant/urn-geant.html Presence in that + index implies that a given URN is valid. GEANT-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 Namespace Identifier (NID) specific to GEANT is + reasonable given the following considerations: + + 1. GEANT would like to assign URNs to some very fine-grained + objects. This does not seem to be the primary intended use of + the XMLORG namespace (RFC 3120) [3], or the more tightly + controlled OASIS namespace (RFC 3121) [4]. + + 2. GEANT seeks naming autonomy. GEANT is not a member of OASIS, so + becoming a subordinate naming authority under the OASIS URN space + is not an option. + + 3. GEANT 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 GEANT. + + Some GEANT-developed schema and namespaces may be good candidates for + inclusion in the XMLORG or possible future "EU" registry. The fact + that such an object might already have a GEANT-assigned URN shouldn't + be a hindrance. RFC 3406 [5] (which replaced RFC 2611) includes an + explicit statement that two or more URNs may point to the same + resource. A resource with a GEANT-assigned Namespace Specific String + would, of course, be given an XMLORG or EU Namespace Specific String + as it enters the XMLORG or "EU" registry. + + + + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 6] + +RFC 4926 A URN Namespace for GEANT July 2007 + + +5. Community Considerations + + The assignment and use of identifiers within the namespace are open, + and the related rule is established by DANTE. Registration agencies + (the next level naming authorities) will be the European National + Research and Education Networks and the established organizational + cross-border formations. + + It is expected that the majority of the NRENs and all GEANT base + activities make use of the GEANT namespace. + + After the establishment of the GEANT namespace, the consortium will, + as soon as practical, establish a resolution service (analogously to + other distributed pan-European services, like EduROAM, PerfSONAR, + etc.) for the namespace clients. + +6. IANA Considerations + + IANA has registered the "geant" NID within the IANA registry of URN + NIDs. + +7. Normative References + + [1] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax + Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005. + +8. Informative References + + [2] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 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 66, RFC 3406, October + 2002. + + [6] GEANT2 project's Web site, <http://www.geant2.net/>. + + [7] DANTE's company Web site, <http://www.dante.net/>. + + + + + + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 7] + +RFC 4926 A URN Namespace for GEANT July 2007 + + +Authors' Addresses + + T. Kalin + DANTE + City House + 126 - 130 Hills Road + Cambridge + CB2 1PQ + United Kingdom + + EMail: tomaz.kalin@dante.org.uk + + + Maurizio Molina + DANTE + City House + 126 - 130 Hills Road + Cambridge + CB2 1PQ + United Kingdom + + EMail: maurizio.molina@dante.org.uk + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 8] + +RFC 4926 A URN Namespace for GEANT July 2007 + + +Full Copyright Statement + + Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007). + + This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions + contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors + retain all their rights. + + This document and the information contained herein are provided on an + "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS + OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE IETF TRUST AND + THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM 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. + +Intellectual Property + + The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any + Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to + pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in + this document or the extent to which any license under such rights + might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has + made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information + on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be + found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. + + Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any + assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an + attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of + such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this + specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at + http://www.ietf.org/ipr. + + The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any + copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary + rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement + this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at + ietf-ipr@ietf.org. + +Acknowledgement + + Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the + Internet Society. + + + + + + + +Kalin & Molina Informational [Page 9] + |