Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) B. Rosen
Request for Comments: 6061 NeuStar
Category: Informational January 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721
Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace for the National Emergency Number
Association (NENA)
Abstract
This document describes the Namespace Identifier (NID) "nena" for
Uniform Resource Name (URN) resources published by the National
Emergency Number Association (NENA). NENA defines and manages
resources that utilize this URN model. Management activities for
these and other resource types are provided by the NENA Registry
System (NRS).
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/RFC 6061.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 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.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. URN Specification for "nena" NID ................................2
3. Examples ........................................................4
4. Namespace Considerations ........................................5
5. Community Considerations ........................................5
6. Security Considerations .........................................6
7. IANA Considerations .............................................6
8. Acknowledgements ................................................6
9. References ......................................................7
9.1. Normative References .......................................7
9.2. Informative References .....................................7
1. Introduction
The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) is currently in the
process of setting standards, processes, and procedures for the use
of an IP-based Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet) for all public
safety entities in North America. Some of the solutions being
developed by NENA require XML namespaces that are managed so that
they are unique and persistent. To assure that the uniqueness is
absolute, the registration of a specific Uniform Resource Name (URN)
[RFC 2141] Namespace ID (NID) for use by NENA is required. This
document defines and registers such a namespace in accordance with
[RFC 3406].
2. URN Specification for "nena" NID
Namespace ID: nena
Registration information:
registration version number: 1
registration date: 2010-10-13
Declared registrant of the namespace:
Registering organization
Name: National Emergency Number Association (NENA)
Address: 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 750
Arlington, VA 22203-1695
Designated contact:
Role: NENA Registry Services Administrator
Email: nrs-admin@nena.org
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Declaration of syntactic structure:
The Namespace Specific String (NSS) of all URNs that use the
"nena" NID will have the following structure:
{NENAclass}:{ClassSpecificString}
The "NENAclass" conforms to the URN syntax requirements [RFC 2141] and
defines a specific class of resource type. Each class will have a
specific labeling scheme that is covered by "ClassSpecificString",
which also conforms to the naming requirements of [RFC 2141].
NENA maintains a naming authority, the National Emergency Number
Association (NENA) Registry System (NRS), that will manage the
assignment of "NENAclass" and the specific registration values
assigned for each class. Other NENA standards documents will define
the "ClassSpecificStrings" for a given "NENAclass".
Relevant ancillary documentation:
The National Emergency Number Association Registry System (NRS)
provides information on the registered resources and the
registrations for each. More information about the NRS and the
registration activities and procedures to be followed are defined
in "NENA Registry System Standard", NENA 70-001 [NENA70-001],
which is available at http://www.nena.org/.
Identifier uniqueness considerations:
The NRS will manage resources using the "nena" NID and will be the
authority for managing the resources and subsequent strings
associated. The NRS shall ensure the uniqueness of all nena URNs
by checking such names against the list of existing namespace
names, as documented in NENA 70-001 [NENA70-001].
Identifier persistence considerations:
The NRS will provide clear documentation of the registered uses of
the "nena" NID. The NRS will establish a registry for
"NENAclass", as defined in NENA08-003 [NENA08-003]. Each
"NENAclass" will have a separate description in the registry and
may have its own sub-registry. In particular, new "NENAclass"
registry entries will require a full NENA Technical Standard
document.
The NRS will maintain a website at a stable address that provides XML
and text renderings of the urn:nena registry.
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Process of identifier assignment:
The NRS processes and procedures for identifier assignment are
documented in NENA 07-001 [NENA70-001]. The registry that will
control the urn:nena namespace is defined in NENA 08-003
[NENA08-003]. In particular, assignments to the "NENAclass"
registry will require a NENA Technical Standard document.
Subregistries for particular "NENAclasses" may be established by
such technical standards. Subregistries may be defined to have
more liberal management policies as defined in NENA 70-001
[NENA70-001], but must be NRS managed and will not be permitted to
be delegated to any other organization or registry. Thus, the NRS
will manage the entire urn:nena tree.
Process for identifier resolution:
The namespace is not currently listed with a Resolution Discovery
System (RDS), but 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 of
[RFC 2141] apply.
Conformance with URN syntax:
No special considerations.
Validation mechanism:
None specified. URN assignment will be handled by procedures
implemented in support of NENA activities.
Scope:
Global
3. Examples
The following examples are representative URNs that could be assigned
by the NRS. They may not be the actual strings that would be
assigned.
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NENAresource "psaproute"
Syntax: "urn:nena:emergencyresponders:<responder name>"
ResourceSpecificString: simple string with name of responder,
defined in a subregistry
Use: Defines the URN to be used for queries to an NG9-1-1 Emergency
Call Routing Function that provides URIs for responding agencies.
Examples:
urn:nena:emergencyresponders:ambulance
urn:nena:emergencyresponders:fire
urn:nena:emergencyresponders:police
urn:nena:emergencyresponders:poison
urn:nena:emergencyresponders:coastguard
urn:nena:emergencyresponders:marine
4. Namespace Considerations
The National Emergency Number Association has developed standards for
emergency calling in North America for several decades. NENA is
developing a variety of applications and services using Internet
protocols built upon IETF standards. Some of these services require
that supporting information (e.g., data descriptions, attributes,
etc.) be fully specified. For proper operation, descriptions of the
needed supporting information must exist and be available in a
unique, reliable, and persistent manner. These dependencies provide
the basis of the need for namespaces, in one form or another, and
will enable NENA to define URNs that are to assign cleaner, more
general, more permanent, more reliable, and more controllable
namespace names related to NENA standards, while keeping URNs defined
by NENA properly separate from the IETF-defined URNs.
As the National Emergency Number Association work is ongoing and
covers many technical areas, the possibility of binding to various
other namespace repositories has been deemed impractical. Each
object or description, as defined in NENA, could possibly be related
to multiple different namespaces, so further conflicts of association
could occur. Thus, the intent is to utilize the National Emergency
Number Association Registry System, operated by NENA, as the naming
authority for NENA-defined objects and descriptions.
5. Community Considerations
The North American public safety organizations will benefit from
publication of this namespace by having permanent and reliable URNs
to be used with protocols defined by NENA. The objects and
descriptions required for services defined by NENA are generally
available for use by other organizations. The National Emergency
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Number Association will provide access and support for name requests
by these organizations within the constraints of the defined NRS
processes and the specific urn:nena registry and subregistries. This
support can be enabled in a timely and responsive fashion as new
objects and descriptions are produced. These will be enabled in a
fashion similar to current IANA processes, as documented in
NENA70-001 [NENA70-001].
The NRS establishes registries when called for in a NENA Technical
Standard. Such standards must provide the NRS with clear and concise
instructions on creating and maintaining such registries. Defined
management policies include "NENA Technical Standard Required", "NENA
Document Required", "Expert Review", and "First Come First Served",
which correspond to similar IANA management policies. NENA is
establishing a website that provides controlled entry of new
registries and entries in registries, and automatically produces HTML
and XML descriptions of registry contents that are used by vendors
and other consumers of the content.
6. Security Considerations
There are no additional security considerations other than those
normally associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general.
7. IANA Considerations
This document adds a new entry in the URN Namespaces registry. The
namespace is "nena". The defining document is this RFC. The entry
can be found in the Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespaces registry
available from http://www.iana.org and any associated mirrors.
8. Acknowledgements
The author thanks Alfred Hoenes (TR-Sys) for his careful reading and
extensive comments and suggestions. The author also acknowledges
that the text from [RFC 4358] formed the basis of this document.
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9. References
9.1. Normative References
[RFC 2141] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.
9.2. Informative References
[NENA08-003] NENA, "Detailed Functional and Interface Specification
for the NENA i3 Solution - Stage 3", NENA Standard
08-003, September 2010.
[NENA70-001] NENA, "NENA Registry System Standard", NENA
Standard 70-001, September 2009.
[RFC 3406] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P.
Faltstrom, "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace
Definition Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406,
October 2002.
[RFC 4358] Smith, D., "A Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace
for the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)", RFC 4358,
January 2006.
Author's Address
Brian Rosen
NeuStar, Inc.
470 Conrad Dr.
Mars, PA 16046
US
EMail: br@brianrosen.net
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