RFC 7818

URN Namespace for MEF Documents

📅 published March 2016, from ietf

RFC 7818: URN Namespace for MEF Documents 🎀

Who wrote it: M. Jethanandani from Cisco Systems, Inc 💅
Category: Informational (published for information, not a Standards Track spec) 📚
Date: March 2016 📅
ISSN: 2070-1721
Obsoletes / Updates: the title block doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates 🙅‍♀️

Abstract 🦋

okay so this doc describes the Namespace Identifier (NID) "mef" for Uniform Resource Names (URNs) 🫶 it's used to identify resources published by MEF Forum (https://www.mef.net). MEF makes and manages resources that use this URN identification model. Management for these and other resource types is handled by the manager of the MEF Assigned Names and Numbers (MANN) registry ✨

Status of This Memo 🌸

this one is not an Internet Standards Track spec. it's published just for info 🧚

it's a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 💖 it represents the consensus of the IETF community and got public review. the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) approved it for publication. not every IESG-approved doc is a candidate for any level of Internet Standard, so check Section 2 of RFC 5741 if you're curious 🤓

for the current status, any errata, and how to give feedback, go to http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7818 🔥

Copyright Notice 💜

this doc is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) as they stood on the publication date. read those carefully, because they spell out your rights and restrictions for this doc 📜 any Code Components pulled out of this doc must include Simplified BSD License text, as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions. they come without warranty, as described in the Simplified BSD License ⭐

Table of Contents 🍓

1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
  1.1.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
2.  URN Specification for MEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
3.  Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
6.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5

1. Introduction 💅

the MEF Forum (MEF) is a nonprofit international industry standards org dedicated to the worldwide adoption of Carrier Ethernet (CE) networks and services 🌍 they make specs in Services, Architecture, and Operations and Management 📋

as part of those specs, they need identifiers in a managed namespace that are unique and persistent ✨ to make sure that uniqueness is absolute, this doc specifies a registration of a specific URN Syntax [RFC2141] Namespace Identifier (NID) for MEF to use 🫶

1.1. Terminology 🩷

here's the acronym cheat sheet 🧠

           +---------+--------------------------------+
           | Acronym | Meaning                        |
           +---------+--------------------------------+
           | CE      | Carrier Ethernet               |
           |         |                                |
           | MANN    | MEF Assigned Names and Numbers |
           |         |                                |
           | MEF     | MEF Forum                      |
           |         |                                |
           | NID     | Namespace Identifier           |
           |         |                                |
           | NSS     | Namespace-Specific String      |
           |         |                                |
           | RDS     | Resolution Discovery System    |
           |         |                                |
           | URN     | Uniform Resource Name          |
           +---------+--------------------------------+

2. URN Specification for MEF 🎀

this is the main event, the full spec for the "mef" namespace 👑

Namespace ID: mef

Registration information:

registration version number: 1
registration date: 2016-02-08

Declared registrant of the namespace: 🏢

Registering organization
Name: MEF Forum
Address: 6033 W. Century Boulevard, Suite 1107, Los Angeles, CA 90045, United States
Designated contact:
- Role: Manager, MEF Namespace
- Email: namespace@mef.net

Declaration of syntactic structure: the syntax of namespace-specific strings for the "mef" namespace is <NSS> in RFC 2141 🧩

Relevant ancillary documentation: MEF publishes info on the registered resources in the MEF Assigned Names and Numbers (MANN) registry (https://www.mef.net/MANN) 📚

Identifier uniqueness considerations: MEF will manage resource classes using the "mef" NID and will be the authority for managing resources and their associated subsequent strings. MEF is expected to guarantee the uniqueness of the strings themselves, or it may permit secondary responsibility for certain defined resources 🔐

MEF could allow for use of experimental type values for testing purposes only. Heads up: using experimental types may create collisions, since multiple users may use the same values for different resources and specific strings 💀

Identifier persistence considerations: MEF will update the MEF Assigned Names and Numbers (MANN) registry to document the registered resources that will use the "mef" NID 🦋

Process of identifier assignment: assignment of a URN from the MEF namespace will be documented as part of the MANN registry 📝

Process of identifier resolution: the namespace is not listed with a Resolution Discovery System (RDS), so this process is not relevant 🙈

Rules for Lexical Equivalence: the entire URN is case-insensitive 🔤

Conformance with URN Syntax: no special considerations 🫧

Validation mechanism: none specified. URN assignment will be handled by procedures implemented in support of MEF activities 🛠️

Scope: Global 🌐

3. Examples 🧚

these are examples of URNs that MEF is looking to assign:

urn:mef:yang:mef-services

urn:mef:yang:mef-interfaces

4. Security Considerations 🔥

ok this one is serious, bestie 😭 there are no security considerations other than the ones that normally come with using and resolving URNs in general. those are covered in "Function Requirements for Uniform Resource Names" [RFC1737] and "URN Syntax" [RFC2141] 🛡️

5. IANA Considerations 🌷

per this doc, IANA added a new entry ("mef") in the "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespaces" registry, which you can find on the IANA site (https://www.iana.org) ✅

6. Normative References 📖

[RFC1737]  Sollins, K. and L. Masinter, "Functional Requirements for
           Uniform Resource Names", RFC 1737, DOI 10.17487/RFC1737,
           December 1994, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1737>.

[RFC2141]  Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, DOI 10.17487/RFC2141,
           May 1997, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2141>.

Author's Address 💌

Mahesh Jethanandani
Cisco Systems, Inc
170 W. Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA  95134
United States

Phone: +1 408.526.8763
Email: mjethanandani@gmail.com

📦 where this page comes from

ietf: rfc7818 2016-03
💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on 2026-10-18: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms