Network Working Group
Request for Comments: 3349
BCP: 59
Category: Best Current Practice

M. Rose
Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.
July 2002

A Transient Prefix for Identifying Profiles under Development by the

Working Groups of the Internet Engineering Task Force

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

Abstract

As a part of their deliverables, working groups of the IETF may develop BEEP profiles. During the development process, it is desirable to assign a transient identifier to each profile. If the profile is subsequently published as an RFC, then a permanent identifier is subsequently assigned by the IANA.

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
       References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   A.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   B.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6

1. Introduction

Each BEEP profile [1] is identified by a URI [2]. The BEEP specification uses URIs to identify a BEEP profile both:

statically, when a profile is formally defined (RFC 3080's Section 5.1); and,

dynamically, during channel management (RFC 3080's Section 2.3.1).

If the BEEP profile appears on the standards-track [3], then the IANA is responsible for assigning the URI associated with the BEEP profile. Otherwise, the entity specifying the BEEP profile is free to assign a URI under its administration to the profile.

If a working group of the IETF is developing a BEEP profile, then, during the development process, it is desirable to use a transient identifier for the profile. Further, it is desirable that the transient identifier be associated with the working group.

This memo defines the practice for making such an assignment. Note that this practice does not apply to activities outside of working groups -- anyone able to assign a URL is capable of defining a URI for the purposes of identifying the BEEP profiles that they develop.

2. Practice

When a working group is formed, the IETF secretariat assigns a brief mnemonic prefix to the working group, e.g., "provreg" or "sacred".

When a working group begins development of a document which specifies a BEEP profile, the working group chair assigns a transient identifier of the form "http://iana.org/beep/transient/XXX/YYY" where "XXX" is the working group's mnemonic and "YYY" is a unique string. Although the resulting URI must conform to the URI syntax, the "YYY" portion is otherwise arbitrary. For example, it may contain a sub- hierarchy (e.g., "epp/1.0").

For example,

       http://iana.org/beep/transient/provreg/epp/1.0
       http://iana.org/beep/transient/sacred/pdm

might be assigned by the chairs of the "provreg" and "sacred" working groups, respectively.

Following this, the working group chair completes a BEEP profile registration template, and submits this information to the IANA.

Note that although the IETF hasn't established a practice with respect to the use of capitalization in URLs employed for namespace purposes, the W3C has a lowercase-only policy. Working group chairs are encouraged to consider this when making assignments.

3. Security Considerations

This document describes an administrative convention and raises no additional security considerations. Of course, each BEEP-based protocol has its own set of security considerations, which should be described in the relevant specification.

References

   [1]  Rose, M., "The Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol Core", RFC
        3080, March 2001.
   
   [2]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R. and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource
        Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August 1998.
   
   [3]  Hovey, R. and S. Bradner, "The Organizations Involved in the
        IETF Standards Process", BCP 11, RFC 2028, October 1996.

Appendix A. Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of: Dan Kohn and Bob Wyman.

Appendix B. IANA Considerations

The IANA maintains a registry of transient identifiers used for BEEP profiles under development in the IETF, using the profile registration template defined in Section 5.1 of [1].

Note that unlike the registration procedures defined in Appendix B of [1], the working group chair (instead of the IESG) is responsible for authorizing the registration.

Author's Address

   Marshall T. Rose
   Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.
   POB 255268
   Sacramento, CA  95865-5268
   US
   
   Phone: +1 916 483 8878
   EMail: mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us

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Acknowledgement

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