Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespaces for Broadband Forum
Unique naming identifiers for Broadband Forum specifications and resources
Stark, B., Sinicrope, D., and W. Lupton, "Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespaces for Broadband Forum", RFC 8057, DOI 10.17487/RFC8057, January 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8057>.
@misc{rfc8057,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 8057,
howpublished = {RFC 8057},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC8057},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8057},
author = {B. Stark and D. Sinicrope and W. Lupton},
title = {{Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespaces for Broadband Forum}},
pagetotal = 11,
year = 2017,
month = jan,
} RFC text
Contents
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) B. Stark
Request for Comments: 8057 AT&T
Category: Informational D. Sinicrope
ISSN: 2070-1721 Ericsson
W. Lupton
Broadband Forum
January 2017
Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespaces for Broadband Forum
Abstract
This document describes the Namespace Identifiers (NIDs) "bbf",
"broadband-forum-org", and "dslforum-org" for Uniform Resource Names
(URNs) used to identify resources published by Broadband Forum (BBF).
BBF specifies and manages resources that utilize these three URN
identification models. Management activities for these and other
resource types are handled by BBF.
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 7841.
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/rfc8057.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2017 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.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. bbf Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. broadband-forum-org Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. dslforum-org Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Namespace Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7. Community Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1. Introduction
Broadband Forum (BBF) is a non-profit industry alliance driving
broadband wireline solutions and empowering converged packet networks
worldwide to better meet the needs of vendors, service providers, and
their customers. BBF develops multi-service broadband packet
networking specifications that address interoperability,
architecture, and management. Its work enables home, business, and
converged broadband services, encompassing customer, access, and
backbone networks.
Occasionally, BBF specification efforts require identifiers in a
managed namespace so that they are unique and persistent. To ensure
that the uniqueness is absolute, the registration of three specific
Uniform Resource Name (URN) [RFC2141] Namespace Identifiers (NIDs)
for use by BBF are being specified in this document, in full
conformance with the NID registration process specified in [RFC3406].
The "bbf" NID is for new work efforts related to data models for
protocols other than the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) WAN
Management Protocol (CWMP) [TR-069]. The "broadband-forum-org" and
"dslforum-org" NIDs are used for all data models related to CWMP
[TR-069]. BBF has used the latter two NIDs for many years without
formally registering them and has published widely implemented
specifications that use these NIDs. Use of the "dslforum-org" NID
started prior the organization's 2008 name change from DSL Forum to
Broadband Forum.
1.1. Terminology
+-----+-----------------------------+
| BBF | Broadband Forum |
| NID | Namespace Identifier |
| NSS | Namespace Specific String |
| RDS | Resolution Discovery System |
| URN | Uniform Resource Name |
+-----+-----------------------------+
2. bbf Registration
Namespace ID:
bbf
Registration Information:
registration version number: 1
registration date: 2016-12-05
Declared registrant of the namespace:
Registering organization
Name: Broadband Forum
Address: 5177 Brandin Court, Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Designated contact
Role: Manager, Namespace
Email: help@broadband-forum.org
Declaration of syntactic structure:
The syntax of namespace-specific strings for the "bbf" namespace
is <NSS> in [RFC2141].
Relevant ancillary documentation:
BBF publishes information regarding the registered resources on
the BBF Assigned Resources web page [BBF-RESOURCES].
Identifier uniqueness considerations:
BBF will manage resource classes using the "bbf" NID and will be
the authority for managing resources and associated subsequent
strings. BBF is expected to guarantee the uniqueness of the
strings themselves, or it may permit secondary responsibility for
certain defined resources.
BBF may, at the namespace resource manager's discretion,
designate/allocate experimental type values for testing purposes
only. Note that using experimental types may create collisions,
as multiple users may use the same values for resources and
specific strings.
Identifier persistence considerations:
BBF will update the BBF Assigned Resources web page
[BBF-RESOURCES] to document the registered resources that use the
"bbf" NID.
Process of identifier assignment:
BBF procedures for URN assignment are provided at [BBF-RESOURCES].
Process for identifier resolution:
The namespace is not listed with a resolution discovery system;
this is not applicable for this URN registration.
Rules for Lexical Equivalence:
No special considerations; the rules for lexical equivalence of
[RFC2141] apply.
Conformance with URN Syntax:
No special considerations.
Validation mechanism:
None specified. URN assignment will be handled by procedures
implemented in support of BBF activities.
Scope:
Global
3. broadband-forum-org Registration
Namespace ID:
broadband-forum-org
Registration Information:
registration version number: 1
registration date: 2016-12-05
Declared registrant of the namespace:
Registering organization
Name: Broadband Forum
Address: 5177 Brandin Court, Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Designated contact
Role: Manager, Namespace
Email: help@broadband-forum.org
Declaration of syntactic structure:
The syntax of namespace-specific strings for the
"broadband-forum-org" namespace is <NSS> in [RFC2141].
Relevant ancillary documentation:
BBF publishes information regarding the registered resources on
the BBF Assigned Resources web page [BBF-RESOURCES].
Identifier uniqueness considerations:
BBF will manage resource classes using the "broadband-forum-org"
NID and will be the authority for managing resources and
associated subsequent strings. BBF is expected to guarantee the
uniqueness of the strings themselves, or it may permit secondary
responsibility for certain defined resources.
BBF may, at the namespace resource manager's discretion,
designate/allocate experimental type values for testing purposes
only. Note that using experimental types may create collisions,
as multiple users may use the same values for resources and
specific strings.
Identifier persistence considerations:
BBF will update the BBF Assigned Resources web page
[BBF-RESOURCES] to document the registered resources that use the
"broadband-forum-org" NID.
Process of identifier assignment:
BBF procedures for URN assignment are provided at [BBF-RESOURCES].
Process for identifier resolution:
The namespace is not listed with a resolution discovery system;
this is not applicable for this URN registration.
Rules for Lexical Equivalence:
No special considerations; the rules for lexical equivalence of
[RFC2141] apply.
Conformance with URN Syntax:
No special considerations.
Validation mechanism:
None specified. URN assignment will be handled by procedures
implemented in support of BBF activities.
Scope:
Global
4. dslforum-org Registration
Namespace ID:
dslforum-org
Registration Information:
registration version number: 1
registration date: 2016-12-05
Declared registrant of the namespace:
Registering organization
Name: Broadband Forum
Address: 5177 Brandin Court, Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Designated contact
Role: Manager, Namespace
Email: help@broadband-forum.org
Declaration of syntactic structure:
The syntax of namespace-specific strings for the "dslforum-org"
namespace is <NSS> in [RFC2141].
Relevant ancillary documentation:
BBF publishes information regarding the registered resources on
the BBF Assigned Resources web page [BBF-RESOURCES].
Identifier uniqueness considerations:
BBF will manage resource classes using the "dslforum-org" NID and
will be the authority for managing resources and associated
subsequent strings. BBF is expected to guarantee the uniqueness
of the strings themselves, or it may permit secondary
responsibility for certain defined resources.
BBF may, at the namespace resource manager's discretion,
designate/allocate experimental type values for testing purposes
only. Note that using experimental types may create collisions,
as multiple users may use the same values for resources and
specific strings.
Identifier persistence considerations:
BBF will update the BBF Assigned Resources web page
[BBF-RESOURCES] to document the registered resources that use the
"dslforum-org" NID.
Process of identifier assignment:
BBF procedures for URN assignment are provided at [BBF-RESOURCES].
Process for identifier resolution:
The namespace is not listed with a resolution discovery system;
this is not applicable for this URN registration.
Rules for Lexical Equivalence:
No special considerations; the rules for lexical equivalence of
[RFC2141] apply.
Conformance with URN Syntax:
No special considerations.
Validation mechanism:
None specified. URN assignment will be handled by procedures
implemented in support of BBF activities.
Scope:
Global
5. Examples
The following examples represent hypothetical URNs that could be
assigned by BBF.
urn:broadband-forum-org:cwmp:datamodel-1-5
urn:bbf:yang:fast
The first of these defines an URN to be used for CPE WAN Management
Protocol (CWMP) data models conforming to rules for BBF's CWMP suite
of specifications.
6. Namespace Considerations
BBF develops various specifications that require the use of data
models. URN namespaces are key constructs to manage the definitions
of those data models reliably with persistence and uniqueness.
The use of URNs should also help specification authors to maintain
different versions of URNs and dependencies between URNs, across
different versions of BBF specifications, if they so wish.
Three NIDs are defined. The "broadband-forum-org" and "dslforum-org"
NIDs have been used for many years by BBF without formal
registration. (Broadband Forum changed its name from DSL Forum in
2008.) As they are referenced by multiple BBF specifications
currently in common use, BBF is formalizing them. The new "bbf" NID
will be used for new work efforts that are not enhancements, updates,
or extensions to work that currently makes use of the "broadband-
forum-org" and "dslforum-org" NIDs.
7. Community Considerations
Participants involved in the development and usage of Broadband Forum
specifications will benefit from the publication of this namespace by
providing consistent and reliable names for the XML namespaces,
schema locations, and similar identifiers of physical data models
published within BBF specifications.
The BBF specifications are publicly available and are licensed to
manufacturers on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis. BBF will
maintain the allocation of resources for the "bbf", "broadband-forum-
org", and "dslforum-org" NIDs at the following publicly viewable
location: [BBF-RESOURCES]. BBF will also maintain the corresponding
specifications where the registered resources are referenced or used.
8. IANA Considerations
This document adds three new entries in the formal urn-namespaces
registry. The namespaces are "bbf", "broadband-forum-org", and
"dslforum-org". This is the defining document. The entries can be
found at <http://www.iana.org/assignments/urn-namespaces> and any
associated mirrors.
9. Security Considerations
There are no additional security considerations other than those
normally associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general.
10. References
10.1. Normative References
[RFC2141] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, DOI 10.17487/RFC2141,
May 1997, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2141>.
[RFC3406] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
"Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition
Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406, DOI 10.17487/RFC3406,
October 2002, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3406>.
10.2. Informative References
[BBF-RESOURCES]
Broadband Forum, "Broadband Forum Assigned Names", 2016,
<http://www.broadband-forum.org/assignments>.
[RFC6289] Cardona, E., Channabasappa, S., and J-F. Mule, "A Uniform
Resource Name (URN) Namespace for CableLabs", RFC 6289,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6289, June 2011,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6289>.
[TR-069] Broadband Forum, "CPE WAN Management Protocol",
<http://www.broadband-forum.org/technical/trlist.php>.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge that the text from [RFC6289] formed the basis
for the initial version of this document. Review and guidance from
Mahesh Jethanandani, Al Morton, Joel Halpern, and Yaron Sheffer were
much appreciated.
Authors' Addresses
Barbara Stark
AT&T
Atlanta, GA
United States of America
Email: barbara.stark@att.com
David Sinicrope
Ericsson
Cary, NC
United States of America
Email: david.sinicrope@ericsson.com
William Lupton
Broadband Forum
United Kingdom
Email: wlupton@broadband-forum.org
AI ELI5
On this page
§1Who Is the Broadband Forum and Why Names Matter
The Broadband Forum (BBF) is a non-profit industry alliance that develops broadband networking specifications. Its work covers home networks, access networks, and backbone networks for residential and business broadband services. Major operators and equipment vendors participate. BBF has been publishing specifications for decades, including standards for Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) management protocols.
When an organization publishes many specifications, it needs a way to give each resource (a data model, an XML schema, a protocol identifier) a unique, persistent name that does not change and does not clash with anyone else's names. Uniform Resource Names (URNs) provide this. A URN like urn:bbf:yang:broadband-forum-org:tr-181-2-0-broadband-forum-cwmp uniquely identifies a data model. The first part (the Namespace Identifier or NID) is registered with IANA; the rest (the Namespace Specific String) is managed by the organization.
BBF writes lots of standards. They need unique names for all of them so they do not get mixed up with other groups' names.
§2The Three Registered Namespaces
BBF (Namespace ID: 'bbf') is the new primary namespace. BBF uses it for all new work efforts related to data models for protocols other than CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP). Examples might include data models for broadband access networks, home gateways, or emerging technologies. The namespace structure follows RFC 2141 syntax rules.
broadband-forum-org (Namespace ID: 'broadband-forum-org') covers all data models related to CWMP, the CPE WAN Management Protocol defined in TR-069. CWMP is the standard for remotely managing home routers and other customer equipment. This namespace has been in use for many years by BBF and is now formally registered. It manages thousands of data model definitions.
dslforum-org (Namespace ID: 'dslforum-org') is another CWMP-related namespace. BBF was formerly known as the DSL Forum before its 2008 name change. This namespace preserves backward compatibility with older CWMP-related specifications and data models published under the old name. Legacy implementations and specifications still reference this namespace.
Three naming prefixes: 'bbf' for new stuff, 'broadband-forum-org' for equipment management, 'dslforum-org' for old names from before the name change.
§3How the Namespaces Work
Each registered namespace follows RFC 3406 registration procedures. BBF is the Designated Registrant and manages all resource names within each namespace. BBF publishes the assigned resources on its Assigned Resources web page [BBF-RESOURCES].
For uniqueness: BBF guarantees that each name string assigned in its namespaces is unique. BBF may designate secondary responsibility for certain resource classes (allowing partners to assign names under BBF supervision). For experimental testing, BBF may allocate temporary experimental values, with the understanding that multiple users might use the same values for testing and names could collide.
For persistence: BBF maintains the BBF Assigned Resources web page listing all registered resources. The URN assigned to a data model remains the same forever, even if the underlying specification is updated or superseded. This persistence is crucial: code that was written five years ago can still reference a URN and find the resource.
Assignment procedures are published on the BBF web site. There is no resolution discovery system (no automatic way to look up a URN online), but the BBF web page serves as the manual registry.
BBF hands out names one at a time, writes them all down, and promises never to change them or give the same name twice.
§4Examples and Practical Use
A typical URN in the 'bbf' namespace might be: urn:bbf:yang:broadband-forum-org:tr-181-2-0-broadband-forum-cwmp, identifying a specific version of a CWMP data model defined in BBF Technical Report TR-181. The structure conveys what the resource is (a YANG data model), what it covers (CWMP), and its revision level.
For the 'broadband-forum-org' namespace (legacy CWMP resources): urn:broadband-forum-org:cwmp-dt:tr-098-1-4 might identify a data type definition in an older CWMP specification.
For the 'dslforum-org' namespace (pre-name-change): urn:dslforum-org:cwmp:tr-069-1-3 would preserve references to a TR-069 specification published when the organization was still called DSL Forum.
These URNs are used in XML schemas, YANG data models, YANG module names, and protocol specifications to uniquely identify resources. A network management system can reference a URN to know exactly which version of a data model it implements.
A name might say: 'this is a CWMP model, version 2.0, from the broadband forum, called TR-181.' That exact name never means anything else.
§5Trust and Verification
URN registration does not provide strong cryptographic verification. The registration establishes that BBF is the authoritative source for names in its namespaces, but applications using these URNs may want additional verification (such as checking the actual specification document against digital signatures). BBF's continued management of the resource registry and maintenance of the Assigned Resources web page provides practical assurance that names remain stable and consistent. The registration record itself includes contact information for BBF's namespace manager, allowing anyone with questions about a resource to reach the responsible organization. Organizations that build systems around these URNs should verify the authenticity of specifications by checking BBF's official publications, not by trusting URNs alone.
A name tells you where to look, but check the actual document to make sure it is real.