Using Universal Content Identifier (UCI) as Uniform Resource Names (URN)
draft-sangug-uci-urn-02

Network Working Group                                       Sang-ug Kang
Internet-Draft                           National Computerization Agency
Expires: July 1, 2005                                         March 2005

      Using Universal Content Identifier as Uniform Resource Names
                    draft-sangug-uci-urn-02.txt

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   in accordance with RFC 3668.

Abstract

   This document describes a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace for   
   the National Computerization Agency (NCA) for naming persistent 
   digital resources such as musics, videos, texts, images, e-books and 
   other types of digital resources produced or managed by NCA.

   
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1. Introduction

   NCA is a non-profit organization with a mandate to develop and   
   promote information infrastructure and manage public digital 
   contents in Korea and possibly worldwide. 
   NCA has been supervising digitalization projects with various 
   organizations. The contents involved in such projects include 
   millions of technical papers, cultural properties, educational
   materials, scientific research reports. Those organizations manage
   the digital contents in a standardized way set by NCA and provide
   users with various content services via internet.

   NCA wishes to issue globally unique and persistent IDs to digital 
   resources and assign relevant organizations as its registration 
   agencies under Universal Content Identifier (UCI) scheme. It is 
   beneficial for NCA, its registration agencies, and the value chain 
   players in e-commerce, to have the UCI URN namespace, under which all
   the contents and components NCA produces and manages are digitally 
   registered, identified and resolved.
   
   NCA has been developing and operating the UCI system that provides 
   registration, resolution, search, and administration functionalities.
   The functionalities are going to be added and modified once the use
   of UCI URN namespace is approved. NCA would like to assign unique, 
   permanent, and location-independent names based on the URNs for the
   resources it produces or manages. See http://www.nca.or.kr/eindex.htm
   for more information on NCA.

   This namespace specification is for a formal namespace.

2. Specification Template

   Namespace ID:

      "UCI"

   Registration Information:

      Registration Version Number: 1       Registration Date: 2004-07-xx

   Declared registrant of the namespace:

      Name       : Sang-ug Kang       
      Affiliation: National Computerization Agency       
      Address    : NCA Bldg. 77 Mookyo-Dong, Chung-Ku, Seoul, Korea       
      Phone      : +82 (2) 2131-0443       
      Email      : <sukang@nca.or.kr>       
      Web        : <http://www.nca.or.kr> or <http://home.uci.or.kr>

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   Declaration of syntactic structure:

      The Namespace specific string of all URNs assigned by NCA conforms
      to the syntax defined in section 2.2. of RFC2141, "URN Syntax"[1]. 
      The syntax convention is described in the form of ABNF rules [2]
      as the following.                 
      
      UCI = prefix "-" instance *1(":" qualifier)
      
      prefix = 1*(alphaDigit) *1(":" 1*(alphaDigit)) 
               *1("+" 1*(alphaDigit))
      instance = 1*(trans / "%" HEXDIG HEXDIG)
      qualifier = head 1*(alphaDigit) *2("-" head 1*(alphaDigit))     
      trans = alphaDigit / other
      alphaDigit = ALPHA / DIGIT
      head = "C" / "R" / "F"             
      other = "(" / ")" / "+" / "," / "-" / "." / "=" / "@" /
              ";" / "$" / "_" / "!" / "*" / "'"       

      The UCI identifier consists of two parts : prefix code and
      content code. The content code is also divided into instance code
      and qualifier code which is optional. A prefix code is given to a
      registration agency, subordinate registration agency, and/or its 
      registrants such as 'G3000+music', 'I600', 'I500+paper' and so 
      forth. A content code is issued to each individual digital 
      resource such as 'cii90007', '8987409' and so on.

   Relevant ancillary documentation:

      None.         
      
   Identifier uniqueness considerations:

      It is the responsibility of registration authority, or NCA, to
      guarantee the uniqueness of identifiers and the names of 
      subordinate naming authorities. For example, a 
      software tool developed and used by NCA checks if a UCI identifier
      is being reassigned and verifies that it is assigned to at most 
      one resource, during the registration process. 
     
   Identifier persistence considerations:

      Registration Agencies are all eligible to maintain the usability
      of the UCI URNs for a reasonably long period. As a government
      sponsored organization, NCA will operate a backup service and 
      make an effort to find a substitute in case a registration agency 
      becomes out of operation. 
        

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   Process of identifier assignment:

      Assignment of UCI identifier is delegated to the registration 
      agencies. NCA appoints UCI registration agencies and provides its 
      namespace by assigning a unique registration agency code which is
      a part of NSS. Followed by the authorized namespace, each 
      registration agency sets its own identifier scheme that conforms
      to the UCI syntactic structure.
      
      An UCI for a digital resource is issued by the registration agency, 
      upon a request of a regitrant. The following is an example 
      identifier.
            
      e.g., urn:uci:I700-2987098
      
      where, I700 is a registration agency code and 2987098 is an
      identifier assigned to a digital content.

   Process for identifier resolution:

      Resolution is controlled by NCA and its delegatees. The list of 
      UCI registration agency codes is maintained by the regitration
      authority. Each registration agency maintains the list of
      subordinate registrant codes and identifiers registered to the
      registration agency. 
      
      Identifier resolution steps are as follows.
      
      - (Step1)Global resolution : NCA resolves which RA is dealing with
        the associated resource by parsing the registration agency code 
        of the UCI.
      - (Step2) Local resolution : The corresponding RA parses and 
        resolves the rest of the identifier 
 
      The global resolution is performed by UCI resolution server that 
      is open to public. (Currently http://rootadmin.uci.or.kr:9000/
      {UCI identifier} will give you resolution results.)

   Rules for Lexical Equivalence:

      The "prefix" is case-insensitive. So there will not be two 
      registration agencies whose names differ only in case. 
      
         urn:uci:{prefix code}:
         
      is case-insensitive for matches. Remainder of the identifier is 
      case-sensitive.    

  

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   Conformance with URN Syntax:

      The UCI syntax fully conforms to RFC2141 syntax rules for both NSS
      and NID.

   Validation mechanism:

      Valid list of prefix code will be available via both on-line and
      off-line upon request. The validity of the rest of identifier can 
      be offered via on-line service. (Currently at http://rootadmin.
      uci.or.kr:9000/{UCI identifier} by typing a query UCI identifier)

   Scope:

      Global.   

3. Security Considerations

   There are no additional security considerations beyond those 
   normally associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general.
    
4.  Namespace Considerations

   The Korean government has been funding the UCI project with the 
   vision that it will be an essential component in realizing 
   interoperability of digital contents owned by individual institutes
   and organizations. The resolution service provided by NCA and its
   registration agencies via networks will play a central role in 
   achieving such a goal. Moreover, the resolution service is open to 
   the public without discrimination. 
   
   The assignment and use of identifiers is performed according to the
   rules established by NCA. It abides by the URN requirements and 
   syntax. Within a UCI namespace, a registration agency manages 
   subordinate namespaces and maintains the metadata of digital 
   contents. 
   
   For making the service available to the public, a global resolution 
   service is run by NCA through a service server and local resolution 
   service is provided by the corresponding registration agency. 

5.  Community Considerations

   The assignment and use of identifiers within the namespace are open 
   and the related rule is established by NCA. Registration agencies 
   are evaluated and selected fairly and shall have the responsibility 
   for processing registrant's requests for registering digital 
   contents. Registration authority and registration agencies shall 
   operate resolution servers for UCI namespace and subordinate

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   namespaces, respectively. Digital content users can access to the 
   resolution servers to fetch resolution results. The reference 
   software is developed and resolution servers are now in operation.
    
6.  IANA Considerations

   This document requests the registration of the "UCI" namespace in 
   the IANA registry of URN NIDs.   

7.  Normative References

   [1]  Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.

   [2]  Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax        
        Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
        
   [3]  Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R. and P. Faltstrom, "URN        
        Namespace Definition Mechanisms", BCP 33, RFC 2611, June 1999.

8.  Authors' Addresses

   Kang, Sang-ug    
   NCA Bldg. 77 Mookyo-Dong,    
   Joong-Ku, Seoul, 
   Korea

   Phone: 82-2-2131-0443
   EMail: sukang@nca.or.kr
 
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