Network Working Group M. Mealling
Request for Comments: 3553 VeriSign
BCP: 73 L. Masinter
Category: Best Current Practice Adobe Systems
T. Hardie
Qualcomm
G. Klyne
Nine by Nine
June 2003
An IETF URN Sub-namespace for Registered Protocol Parameters
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document describes a new sub-delegation for the 'ietf' URN
namespace for registered protocol items. The 'ietf' URN namespace is
defined in RFC 2648 as a root for persistent URIs that refer to
IETF-defined resources.
1. Introduction
From time to time IETF standards require the registration of various
protocol elements in well known central repository. The Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority maintains this central repository and
takes direction from the IETF on what, how and when to add items to
it. The IANA maintains lists of items such as all assigned port
numbers, MIME media types, enterprise numbers, etc.
Over time there has developed a need to be able to reference these
elements as URIs in various schema. In the past this was done in a
very ad hoc way that easily led to interoperability problems. This
document creates a new sub-delegation below the "ietf" [2]URN
namespace [1] called 'params' which acts as a standardized mechanism
for naming the items registered for IETF standards. Any assignments
below that are specified in an RFC according to the IETF consensus
process and which include the template found in Section 4.
Mealling, et. al. Best Current Practice [Page 1]
RFC 3553 IANA URN Namespace June 2003
2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
3. IETF Sub-namespace Specifics
Sub-namespace name:
params
Declared registrant of the namespace:
The Internet Engineering Task Force
Declaration of structure:
The namespace is primarily opaque. The IANA, as operator of the
registry, may take suggestions for names to assign but they
reserve the right to assign whatever name they desire, within
guidelines set by the IESG. The colon character (":") is used to
denote a very limited concept of hierarchy. If a colon is present
then the items on both sides of it are valid names. In general,
if a name has a colon then the item on the left hand side
represents a class of those items that would contain other items
of that class. For example, a name can be assigned to the entire
list of DNS resource record type codes as well as for each
individual code. The URN for the list might look like this:
urn:ietf:params:dns:rr-type-codes
while the URN for the SOA records type code might look like this:
urn:ietf:params:dns:rr-type-codes:soa
Relevant ancillary documentation:
[3], [2], [1]
Identifier uniqueness considerations:
The IESG uses the IETF consensus process to ensure that
sub-namespaces generate unique names within that
sub-namespace. The IESG delegates to the IANA the task of
ensuring that the sub-namespace names themselves are unique.
Until and unless the IESG specifies differently, the IANA is
directed to ensure uniqueness by comparing the name to be assigned
Mealling, et. al. Best Current Practice [Page 2]
RFC 3553 IANA URN Namespace June 2003
with the list of previously assigned names. In the case of a
conflict the IANA is to request a new string from the registrant
until the conflict is resolved.
Identifier persistence considerations:
Once a name has been allocated it MUST NOT be re-allocated for a
datatracker.ietf.org