RFC 3406 (rfc3406) - Page 2 of 22

Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition Mechanisms

RFC 3406          URN Namespace Definition Mechanisms       October 2002


   6.0 IANA Considerations .........................................  9
   7.0 References ..................................................  9
   Appendix A -- URN Namespace Definition Template ................. 11
   Appendix B -- Illustration ...................................... 15
   B.1 Example Template ............................................ 15
   B.2 Registration steps in practice .............................. 17
   Appendix C -- Changes from RFC 2611 ............................. 18
   C.1 Detailed Document Changes ................................... 19
   Authors' Addresses .............................................. 21
   Full Copyright Statement ........................................ 22

1.0 Introduction

   Uniform Resource Names (URNs) are resource identifiers with the
   specific requirements for enabling location independent
   identification of a resource, as well as longevity of reference.
   URNs are part of the larger Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) family
   [RFC 3305] with the specific goal of providing persistent naming of
   resources.

   There are 2 assumptions that are key to this document:

   Assumption #1:

      Assignment of a URN is a managed process.

      I.e., not all strings that conform to URN syntax are necessarily
      valid URNs.  A URN is assigned according to the rules of a
      particular namespace (in terms of syntax, semantics, and process).

   Assumption #2:

      The space of URN namespaces is managed.

      I.e., not all syntactically correct URN namespaces (per the URN
      syntax definition) are valid URN namespaces.  A URN namespace must
      have a recognized definition in order to be valid.

   The purpose of this document is to outline a mechanism and provide a
   template for explicit namespace definition, as well as provide the
   mechanism for associating an identifier (called a "Namespace ID", or
   NID) which is registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
   (IANA).

   Note that this document restricts itself to the description of
   processes for the creation of URN namespaces.  If "resolution" of any
   so-created URN identifiers is desired, a separate process of
   registration in a global NID directory, such as that provided by the



Daigle, et. al.          Best Current Practice