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rfc:rfc7467

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Murdock Request for Comments: 7467 NATO C&I Agency Category: Informational April 2015 ISSN: 2070-1721

  URN Namespace for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Abstract

 This document allocates a formal Uniform Resource Name (URN)
 namespace for assignment by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
 (NATO), as specified in RFC 3406.  At this time, the URN will be used
 primarily to uniquely identify Extensible Markup Language (XML)
 artefacts that provide information about NATO message text formats
 and service specifications as described in various NATO standards,
 instructions, and publications.

Status of This Memo

 This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
 published for informational purposes.
 This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
 (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
 received public review and has been approved for publication by the
 Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
 approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
 Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
 Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
 and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
 http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7467.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2015 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.

Murdock Informational [Page 1] RFC 7467 URN Namespace for NATO April 2015

Table of Contents

 1. Introduction ................................................ 2
 2. Specification Template ...................................... 3
    2.1. Namespace ID ........................................... 3
    2.2. Registration Information ............................... 3
    2.3. Declared Registrant of the Namespace ................... 3
    2.4. Declaration of Syntactic Structure ..................... 3
    2.5. Relevant Ancillary Documentation ....................... 4
    2.6. Identifier Uniqueness Considerations ................... 4
    2.7. Identifier Persistence Considerations .................. 4
    2.8. Process of Identifier Assignment ....................... 5
    2.9. Process for Identifier Resolution ...................... 5
    2.10. Rules for Lexical Equivalence ......................... 5
    2.11. Conformance with URN Syntax ........................... 5
    2.12. Validation Mechanism .................................. 5
    2.13. Scope ................................................. 5
 3. Namespace Considerations .................................... 6
 4. Community Considerations .................................... 6
 5. Security Considerations ..................................... 7
 6. IANA Considerations ......................................... 7
 7. Conclusions ................................................. 7
 8. References .................................................. 7
    8.1. Normative References ................................... 7
    8.2. Informative References ................................. 8
 Acknowledgments ................................................ 8
 Author's Address ............................................... 8

1. Introduction

 Historically, NATO has used standardized character-oriented message
 text formats (MTF) to interoperate, report, and exchange information
 both among its commands and with national entities, commercial
 partners, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).  These MTFs are
 generated using the NATO Message Text Formatting System (FORMETS) in
 accordance with the rules, constructions, and vocabulary specified
 within the Allied Data Publication Number 3 (ADatP-3).  Almost 400
 NATO-defined messages that conform to ADatP-3 are contained in the
 Allied Procedural Publication Number 11 (APP-11) NATO Message
 Catalogue [7].
 Prior to 2008, these messages were only available as slash-delimited
 textual messages.  Since 2008, the APP-11 message catalogue also
 includes XML-MTF definitions for these messages, giving rise to a
 need to define and manage a URN namespace to name the XML namespaces.
 To address this need, this document requests that a formal URN space
 type be assigned as described in Section 4.3 of RFC 3406.

Murdock Informational [Page 2] RFC 7467 URN Namespace for NATO April 2015

2. Specification Template

2.1. Namespace ID

 The Namespace ID (NID) "nato" has been assigned by IANA.

2.2. Registration Information

 Version 1
 Date: 2014-09-11

2.3. Declared Registrant of the Namespace

 Registering Organization:
    Name: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
          Communications & Information Agency (NCIA)
    Address: SHAPE, 7010, Belgium
    Declared Contact: NATO Naming and Addressing Registration
                      Authority (NRA)
    Email: nra@ncia.nato.int

2.4. Declaration of Syntactic Structure

 The Namespace Specific String (NSS) of all URNs that use the "nato"
 NID shall have the following structure:
 <URN> ::= "urn:" "nato" ":" <NSS>
 <NSS> ::= <Type> | <Type> ":" <Source> |
           <Type> ":" <Source> 1*( ":" <segment> )
 <Type> ::= 1*<non-colon chars>
 <Source> ::= 1*<non-colon chars>
 <segment>  ::= 1*<non-colon chars>
 <non-colon chars> ::= <non-colon trans> | "%" <hex> <hex>
 <non-colon trans> ::= <upper> | <lower> | <number> |
                       <non-colon other>
 <hex>         ::= <number> | "A" | "B" | "C" | "D" | "E" | "F" |
                   "a" | "b" | "c" | "d" | "e" | "f"
 <non-colon other> ::= "(" | ")" | "+" | "," | "-" | "." |
                   "=" | "@" | ";" | "$" |"_" | "!" | "*" | "'"

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 The "Type" is the top-level segment of the NSS.  It is a required
 US-ASCII string, subject to the above syntax, that conforms to the
 URN syntax requirements (see RFC 2141 [1]).  It identifies a
 particular category or type of named resources, such as "mtf".
 The "Source" is the second-level segment of the NSS, belonging to the
 "Type" context.  At this time, not all "Type" segments have "Source"
 children, making "Source" an optional US-ASCII string, subject to the
 above syntax and conformant to the URN syntax requirements (see RFC
 2141 [1]).  "Source" identifies a particular standard, catalogue, or
 other relevant specifications.
 The NATO Naming and Registration Authority (NRA) functions as a Local
 Internet Registry under RIPE NCC and will also serve as the
 responsible registrar for assigning the first two levels of segments
 within the NSS ("Type" and "Source").  The NRA may directly assign
 segments below these levels of the namespace hierarchy, or delegate
 assignment responsibilities for segments below the second level
 (i.e., below "Source") at its discretion.  In either case, the NRA
 will ensure that a registry of the resulting namespace is maintained.

2.5. Relevant Ancillary Documentation

 ADatP-3 - NATO, "Concept of NATO Message Text Formatting System
 (Conformets) - ADatP-3 (A)", STANAG 5500 - Edition 7, November 2010.

2.6. Identifier Uniqueness Considerations

 The NRA, as registrar, shall directly ensure the global uniqueness of
 the assigned strings.  Though responsibility for administration of
 sub-trees may be delegated, these shall not be published to the
 registry or be requested to be resolved by any URN resolver until the
 uniqueness of the resulting urn:nato URN has been validated against
 the existing contents of the registry.  URN identifiers shall be
 assigned to one resource at most and not reassigned.

2.7. Identifier Persistence Considerations

 The Registrar may assign URNs in sub-trees below the level of Type or
 Standard; however, once registered, URNs shall not be reassigned.
 Within the registry, their status as "active" or "archive" shall be
 recorded.

Murdock Informational [Page 4] RFC 7467 URN Namespace for NATO April 2015

2.8. Process of Identifier Assignment

 A namespace-specific string within the NATO namespace will only be
 assigned upon advancement of a relevant specification.  The Registrar
 will check all requested identifiers against the existing
 registrations within urn:nato to ensure uniqueness and encourage
 relevance.
 The assignment may include delegated registration activities for the
 sub-tree if underpinned by supporting agreements.  Otherwise, such
 responsibilities remain with the NRA as the overarching Registrar.
 In any case, the URN must be registered with appropriate metadata
 before an authorized request for URN resolution can be initiated (if
 necessary).

2.9. Process for Identifier Resolution

 The namespace is not currently listed with a Resolution Discovery
 System (RDS) [3].  In the future, URNs from this namespace may be
 resolved using a NATO listing in an RDS, using a third-party-listed
 resolver, an unlisted private resolver, or some combination of these.
 The resolution method for each segment will be registered with the
 NRA Registrar.

2.10. Rules for Lexical Equivalence

 No special considerations.  The rules for lexical equivalence
 specified in RFC 2141 apply.

2.11. Conformance with URN Syntax

 No special considerations.

2.12. Validation Mechanism

 None specified.  It will be conducted as part of the application for
 identifier registration as indicated in preceding paragraphs.

2.13. Scope

 Global.

Murdock Informational [Page 5] RFC 7467 URN Namespace for NATO April 2015

3. Namespace Considerations

 In addition to the large number of XML message specifications that
 now exist in APP-11, there are other existing and emerging NATO
 standard messages expressed as XML, as well as ongoing Web service
 specification development.  With no single NID registered to NATO,
 some of these specifications may be established within locally
 relevant, self-generated URN namespaces.  Not only does this inhibit
 the portability and adoption intended by standards development [5],
 it risks name collisions when exposed to the global context of the
 federation of partners for which these messages are destined.
 The use of Uniform Resource Names with an appropriate Namespace ID
 will enable the various NATO standards committees and working groups
 [6] to use unique, relevant, reliable, permanent, managed, and
 accessible namespace names for their XML products.
 A dedicated namespace also provides NATO the opportunity to leverage
 the use of URNs for persistent naming of non-XML resources.

4. Community Considerations

 The NATO standards development community, and those implementing such
 standards, will benefit from publication of this namespace by having
 more permanent and reliable names for the XML namespaces defined
 within STANAGs, the MTF catalogue (APP-11), and other published
 standards [5].
 Though these are NATO-published standards [5], they represent the
 consensus of multi-national working groups, are implemented in
 commercial products, and are used by partners within the
 international community.
 In the case of MTF standards [7], the responsibility for its
 development and maintenance belongs to the NATO C3 Board's Message
 Text Formats (MFT) Capability Team [6].  This team is "open to all
 recognized NATO Partners around the Globe in principle.  The term
 'Partners around the Globe' summarizes all partners that are listed
 on the NATO webpage: Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), NATO's
 Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI)
 and Partners across the globe" [8].

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5. Security Considerations

 Since the URNs in this namespace are opaque, there are no additional
 security considerations other than those normally associated with the
 use and resolution of URIs and URNs in general (see the Security
 Considerations in Internet STD 66 [4], RFC 2141 [1], and BCP 66 [2]).
 It is noted, however, that resolution algorithms and rules for
 handling invalid URNs are opaque.  Therefore, attempting to resolve a
 NATO URN through a resolver other than one operated or delegated by
 NATO may return outdated, incorrect, or confusing results.
 Distribution of NATO information in any form is subject to its
 security policies.  Nonetheless, this specification is for public use
 and not subject to any NATO security policies.

6. IANA Considerations

 This document registers the formal URN NID "nato", which has been
 entered into the "Formal URN Namespaces" IANA registry [9].  Per
 Section 4.3 of RFC 3406 [2], formal NIDs are assigned via IETF
 Consensus and are subject to IESG review and acceptance.  The
 registration template is given in Section 2.

7. Conclusions

 It is necessary that NATO ensures its messages, service
 specifications, and other XML artefacts are based in namespaces that
 can be described using unique, persistent, and managed URNs.
 Considering its role as an information broker between many disparate
 communities, this document registers a formal namespace identifier
 (NID) "nato" for Uniform Resource Names (URN) associated with NATO
 information products and vocabularies: urn:nato.

8. References

8.1. Normative References

 [1]  Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997,
      <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2141>.
 [2]  Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
      "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition Mechanisms",
      BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002,
      <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3406>.

Murdock Informational [Page 7] RFC 7467 URN Namespace for NATO April 2015

 [3]  Sollins, K., "Architectural Principles of Uniform Resource Name
      Resolution", RFC 2276, January 1998,
      <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2276>.
 [4]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
      Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC 3986,
      January 2005, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3986>.

8.2. Informative References

 [5]  NATO, "List of Current NATO Standards",
      <http://nso.nato.int/nso/nsdd/listpromulg.html>.
 [6]  NATO, "NATO HQ C3 Staff Main Page",
      <https://nhqc3s.hq.nato.int/Default.aspx>.
 [7]  NATO, "NATO Message Catalogue - APP-11(C) Change 1" STANAG 7149,
      Edition 5, September 2010.
 [8]  NATO, "Request to open MTF CaT to all NATO Partners", document
      AC/322-N(2014)0091-AS1, 2014.  Available from the NATO Public
      Diplomacy Division.
 [9]  IANA, "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespaces",
      <http://www.iana.org/assignments/urn-namespaces>.

Acknowledgments

 The author acknowledges and appreciates the support and expertise
 provided by Nanda Kol, Ulrich Ritgen, and the urn-nid review team.

Authors' Address

 Aidan Murdock
 NATO C&I Agency
 Core Enterprise Services
 Naming and Registration Authority
 SHAPE, Belgium
 7010
 EMail: Aidan.murdock@ncia.nato.int

Murdock Informational [Page 8]

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