RFC 7467

URN Namespace for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

📅 published April 2015, from ietf

Okay bestie, let's talk about RFC 7467 🫶🌈 It's called URN Namespace for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 💖 It was written by A. Murdock from the NATO C&I Agency 💅 and dated April 2015 🎀. It's Informational, so it's published for information and isn't a Standards Track spec ✨. The ISSN is 2070-1721 🦋. It doesn't list any RFCs that it obsoletes or updates 🌸.

Status of This Memo ✨

Okay so this one is not an Internet Standards Track specification 🎀 It's published for informational purposes only 💅

This is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 🌈 It reflects what the IETF community agreed on, got public review, and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) 🫶 Not everything the IESG approves is a candidate for any level of Internet Standard, so check Section 2 of RFC 5741 for the details 🔥

Want the current status, any errata, or a way to send feedback? Head to http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7467 💖

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) as they stand on the publication date 💅 Please read these carefully, because they spell out your rights and restrictions for this document ✨ Code Components pulled out of this document must include the Simplified BSD License text, as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they come without warranty, as described in the Simplified BSD License 🫶

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 🌸

Okay so historically, NATO has used standardized character-oriented message text formats (MTF) to work together, report stuff, and swap info. That happens between its commands and with national entities, commercial partners, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) 💖 These MTFs get generated with the NATO Message Text Formatting System (FORMETS), following the rules, constructions, and vocabulary in the Allied Data Publication Number 3 (ADatP-3) 🫶 Almost 400 NATO-defined messages that follow ADatP-3 live in the Allied Procedural Publication Number 11 (APP-11) NATO Message Catalogue [7] 📚✨

Before 2008, these messages were only slash-delimited textual messages 🍓 Since 2008, the APP-11 catalogue also has XML-MTF definitions for them, which means we need a URN namespace to name the XML namespaces 🔥 So this document asks for a formal URN space type to be assigned, as described in Section 4.3 of RFC 3406 👑

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 🧚

Every URN that uses the "nato" NID shall have a Namespace Specific String (NSS) with this structure 🫶 Here's the grammar:

<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> ::= "(" | ")" | "+" | "," | "-" | "." |
                  "=" | "@" | ";" | "$" |"_" | "!" | "*" | "'"

The "Type" is the top-level segment of the NSS 👑 It's a required US-ASCII string that still has to follow the above syntax and the URN syntax rules (see RFC 2141 [1]) 💅 It names a category or type of named resources, like "mtf" ✨

The "Source" is the second-level segment, and it belongs under the "Type" 🦋 Not every "Type" has "Source" children yet, so "Source" is optional 🌸 When it's there, it's a US-ASCII string that follows the above syntax and conforms to the URN syntax requirements (see RFC 2141 [1]) 🫶 "Source" identifies a particular standard, catalogue, or other relevant specification 📚

The NATO Naming and Registration Authority (NRA) works as a Local Internet Registry under RIPE NCC 🔥 It's also the responsible registrar for assigning the first two levels of segments in the NSS ("Type" and "Source") 💖 The NRA can assign segments below those levels directly, or delegate that job for anything below the second level (that is, below "Source") whenever it likes 👑 Either way, the NRA will make sure a registry of the resulting namespace is maintained 🎀

4. Community Considerations ✨

okay so bestie, this is the part where we talk about the actual humans 🫶 The NATO standards development community, plus everyone implementing those standards, is going to be lowkey thriving from this namespace. Why? Because they get more permanent and reliable names for the XML namespaces defined inside STANAGs, the MTF catalogue (APP-11), and other published standards [5]. Main character energy for stable naming 💅

Now, these are NATO-published standards [5], but they aren't just one building's vibe. They represent the consensus of multi-national working groups, they're implemented in commercial products, and partners across the international community actually use them 🌍 It's giving real-world impact, no cap.

For MTF standards [7], the responsibility for 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] 🌸 So yeah, very inclusive group chat energy.

5. Security Considerations 💀

okay this section is serious bestie, so listen up 🙈 Since the URNs in this namespace are opaque, there are no additional security considerations other than the ones normally associated with using and resolving URIs and URNs in general. Go check the Security Considerations in Internet STD 66 [4], RFC 2141 [1], and BCP 66 [2] for those 📖

Heads up: resolution algorithms and rules for handling invalid URNs are opaque. So if someone tries to resolve a NATO URN through a resolver that NATO didn't operate or delegate, the results may be outdated, incorrect, or confusing. Not it 😭

Distribution of NATO information in any form is subject to its security policies. Nonetheless, this specification is for public use and is not subject to any NATO security policies 🔒 So yes, it's public, but the information itself still follows NATO's rules, iykyk.

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. Literally the whole vibe 👑

8. References 📚

8.1. Normative References

8.2. Informative References

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
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