Network Working Group M. Montemurro, Ed.
Internet-Draft A. Allen
Intended status: Informational Research in Motion (RIM)
Expires: August 11, 2013 D. McDonald
unaffiliated
P. Gosden
GSM Association
February 7, 2013
A Uniform Resource Name Namespace for the GSM Association (GSMA) and the
International Mobile station Equipment Identity (IMEI)
draft-montemurro-gsma-imei-urn-12
Abstract
This specification defines a Uniform Resource Name namespace for the
GSMA (GSM Association)and a sub-namespace for the IMEI (International
Mobile station Equipment Identity), and associated parameter for the
IMEISV (International Mobile station Equipment Identity and Software
Version number). The IMEI is 15 decimal digits long and the IMEISV
is 16 decimal digits long and both are encoded using Binary Encoded
Decimal (BCD). The IMEI and IMEISV were introduced as part of the
specification for Global System for Mobile communications(GSM) and
are also now incorporated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP) as part of the 3GPP specification for GSM, the Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and 3GPP LTE (Long Term
Evolution). The IMEI and IMEISV are used to uniquely identify Mobile
Equipment within these systems and are managed by the GSMA.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on August 11, 2013.
Copyright Notice
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Namespace Registration Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. GSMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1. IMEI Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.1. Type Allocation Code (TAC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.2. Serial Number (SNR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.3. Spare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2. IMEISV Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.1. Type Allocation Code (TAC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.2. Serial Number (SNR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.3. Software Version Number (SVN) . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. Community considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6. Namespace considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7. IANA considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8. Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
9. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10.1. Normative references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
10.2. Informative references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
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1. Introduction
This specification defines a Uniform Resource Name namespace for the
GSMA (GSM Association) and a sub-namespace for the IMEI
(International Mobile station Equipment Identity), and associated
parameter for the Software Version number from the IMEISV
(International Mobile station Equipment Identity and Software Version
number) as per the namespace registration requirement found in [1].
The namespace gsma is a namespace for identities used by Mobile
Equipment used in GSM, UMTS and LTE networks. The IMEI and the
IMEISV are managed by the GSMA, so this namespace would be managed by
the GSMA. Whilst this specification currently specifies only the
IMEI sub-namespace under the GSMA URN namespace additional sub-
namespaces under the GSMA namespace may be specified in the future by
the GSMA through the publication of future informational RFCs.
The IMEI is 15 decimal digits long and includes a Type Allocation
Code (TAC) of 8 decimal digits and the Serial Number (SNR) of 6
decimal digits plus a Spare decimal digit. The TAC identifies the
type of the Mobile Equipment and is chosen from a range of values
allocated to the Mobile Equipment manufacturer in order to uniquely
identify the model of the Mobile Equipment. The SNR is an individual
serial number that uniquely identifies each Mobile Equipment within
the TAC. The Spare digit is used as a security check to combat
potential spoofing and is always set to the value 0 when transmitted
by the Mobile Equipment.
The IMEISV is 16 decimal digits long and includes the TAC and SNR
same as for the IMEI but also a 2 decimal digit Software Version
Number (SVN) which is allocated by the Mobile Equipment manufacturer
to identify the software version of the Mobile Equipment.
The information here is meant to be a concise guide for those wishing
to use the IMEI and IMEISV as URNs. Nothing in this document should
be construed to override 3GPP TS 23.003 [2] that defines the IMEI and
IMEISV.
The GSM Association (GSMA) is a global trade association representing
more than 750 GSM mobile phone operators across 220 territories and
countries of the world. The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure
mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily
accessible. Further details about the GSMA role in allocating the
IMEI and the IMEISV and the IMEI and IMEISV allocation guidelines can
be found in GSMA TS 06 [3]
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2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [4].
3. Namespace Registration Template
3.1. GSMA
Namespace ID: "gsma" requested
Registration Information:
Registration version number: 1
Registration date: 2011-07-08
Declared registrant of the namespace: GSM Association, 1st Floor,
Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn, London, England
Declaration of syntactic structure:
The identifier is expressed in ASCII characters and has a
hierarchical structure expressed using the augmented Backus-Naur
Form (ABNF) defined in [8] as follows:
gsma-urn = "urn:gsma:" gsma-specifier
*(":" gsma-specifier-defined-substring)
*(";" gsma-specifier-param)
gsma-specifier = "imei" / gsma-specifier-defined-string
gsma-specifier-defined-string = gsma-approved-nonempty-string
gsma-specifier-defined-substring = gsma-approved-nonempty-string
gsma-specifier-defined-param-name = gsma-approved-nonempty-string
gsma-specifier-defined-param-val = gsma-approved-string
gsma-specifier-param =
"svn" "=" software-version-string /
"vers" "=" gsma-format-version-string /
gsma-specifier-defined-param-name "="
gsma-specifier-defined-param-val
software-version-string = 2DIGIT
gsma-format-version-string = DIGIT
gsma-approved-string = *unreserved
gsma-approved-nonempty-string = 1*unreserved
unreserved = ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / "_"
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The GSMA namespace includes a predefined namespace for IMEI and
may be in the future extended to include other identifiers used by
Mobile Equipment used in GSM, UMTS or LTE networks or future
networks deployed by members of the GSMA.
An IMEI is an identifier under the GSMA namespace that uniquely
identifies Mobile Equipment used in GSM, UMTS and LTE networks.
The internal representation of a IMEI is a specific sequence of
bits in memory, as described in 3GPP TS 23.003 [2]. To accurately
represent a IMEI as a URN, it is necessary to convert the BCD bit
sequence to a string representation. Each field BCD bit sequence
has its value printed as a decimal digit string with the most
significant digit first.
The following augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) includes the set
of core rules in RFC 5234 [8], and are not repeated here.
A URN with the "imei" gsma-specifier contains exactly one gsma-
specifier-defined-substring, and its formal definition is provided
by the following ABNF [8]:
IMEI = tac "-" snr "-" spare
tac = 8DIGIT
snr = 6DIGIT
spare = 1DIGIT
For example:
urn:gsma:imei:90420156-025763-0;vers=0
The optional "vers" parameter is included for extensibility of the
namespace, for example if the IMEI format is extended in the
future (such as with additional digits or using hex digits). A
value of "vers" equal to 0 or the absence of the "vers" parameter
means the URN format is compliant with the format specified here.
Any change to the format specified here requires the publication
of a future informational RFC.
The IMEISV is an identifier that uniquely identifies Mobile
Equipment and associated software versions used in GSM and UMTS
networks. The internal representation of a IMEISV is a specific
sequence of bits in memory, as described in 3GPP TS 23.003 [2]
To represent the IMEISV the URN parameter "svn" is appended to the
IMEI URN and set equal to the decimal string representation of the
two software version number (svn) bits in the IMEISV and the spare
digit in the IMEI gsma-specifier-defined-substring is set to zero.
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For example:
urn:gsma:imei:90420156-025763-0;svn=42
The <gsma-specifier>, <gsma-specifier-defined-string>, <gsma-
specifier-defined-substring>, <gsma-specifier-defined-param-name>
and <gsma-specifier-defined-param-val> can comprise any ASCII
characters compliant with the above ABNF. The exclusion of the
colon from the list of other characters means that the colon can
only occur as a delimiter between string values. The exclusion of
the semicolon from the list of other characters means that the
semicolon can only occur as a delimiter for parameter values. The
exclusion of the "=" character from the list of other characters
means that the "=" character can only occur as an operator for
parameter values.
The GSMA will take responsibility for the gsma-specifier "imei"
and manage the URNs in its sub-namespace.
Additional gsma-specifiers may be added in the future through
informational RFCs.
Relevant ancillary documentation:
See IMEI Allocation and Approval Guidelines [3] and 3GPP TS 23.003
[2].
Identifier uniqueness considerations:
Identifiers in the "gsma" namespace are defined and assigned in
the requested namespace by the GSMA after ensuring that the URNs
to be assigned are unique. Uniqueness is achieved by checking
against the registry of previously assigned names.
Procedures are in place to ensure that each IMEI is uniquely
assigned by the Mobile Equipment manufacturer so that it is
guaranteed to uniquely identify that particular Mobile Equipment.
Procedures are in place to ensure that each IMEISV is uniquely
assigned by the Mobile Equipment manufacturer so that it is
guaranteed to uniquely identify that particular Mobile Equipment
and the specific software version installed.
Identifier persistence considerations:
The GSMA is committed to maintaining uniqueness and persistence of
all resources identified by assigned URNs.
As the NID sought is "gsma" and GSMA is the long standing acronym
for the trade association that represents the mobile phone
operators the URN should also persist indefinitely (at least as
long as there is a need for its use). The assignment process
guarantees that names are not reassigned. The binding between the
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name and its resource is permanent.
The TAC and SNR portions of IMEISVs are stored in the Mobile
Equipment so they remain persistent. The SVN may be modified by
software when new versions are installed but should be persistent
for the duration of the installation of that specific version of
software.
Process of identifier assignment:
GSMA will manage the <gsma-specifier> (including "imei"), <gsma-
defined-string>, <gsma-specifier-defined-substring>, <gsma-
specifier-param>, <gsma-specifier-defined-param-name> and <gsma-
specifier-defined-param-val> identifier resources to maintain
uniqueness.
The process for IMEI and IMEISV assignment is documented in GSMA
TS 06[3]
Process for identifier resolution:
Since the GSMA namespace is not globally resolvable, this is not
applicable.
Rules for Lexical Equivalence:
Two IMEI URNs are equivalent if the single gsma-defined-substrings
in the two URNs are the same, and the sequences of gsma-specifier-
params are the same and in the same order, with the exception that
the gsma-specifier-param "vers=0" is to be ignored for purposes of
comparison. All of these comparisons are to be case-insensitive.
Any identifier in GSMA namespaces can be compared using the normal
mechanisms for percent-encoded UTF-8 strings.
Conformance with URN Syntax:
The string representation of the GSMA URN and of the IMEI sub-
namespace is fully compatible with the URN syntax.
Validation Mechanism:
The IMEI can be validated using the mechanism defined in Annex B
of 3GPP TS 23.003 [2]. There is no mechanism defined to validate
the SVN field of the IMEISV.
Scope: GSMA URN is global in scope.
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4. Specification
4.1. IMEI Format
The IMEI format is 15 decimal digits encoded in 8 octets using BCD as
defined in 3GPP TS 24.008 [5]. The most significant digit is coded
in the most significant bits of octet 1. The least significant digit
is coded in the least significant bits of octet 8.
14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Decimal Digits
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| | | S|
| T | S | p|
| A | N | a|
| C | R | r|
| | | e|
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Octets
4.1.1. Type Allocation Code (TAC)
The TAC is a 8 decimal digit value. The TAC identifies the type of
the Mobile Equipment and is chosen from a range of values allocated
to the Mobile Equipment manufacturer in order to uniquely identify
the model of the Mobile Equipment.
4.1.2. Serial Number (SNR)
The SNR is a 6 decimal digit value. The SNR is an individual serial
number that uniquely identifies each Mobile Equipment within the TAC.
4.1.3. Spare
The Spare is a single decimal digit. When the IMEI is stored on the
Mobile Equipment and network equipment it contains a value that is
used as a Check Digit and is intended to avoid manual reporting
errors, (e.g. when customers register stolen mobiles at the
operator's customer care desk) and also to help guard against the
possibility of incorrect entries being provisioned in the network
equipment. The Spare is always set to zero when transmitted by the
Mobile Equipment, (including when in the IMEI URN format). Annex B
of 3GPP TS 23.003 [2] defines a mechanism for computing the actual
check digit in order to validate the TAC and SNR.
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4.2. IMEISV Format
The IMEISV format is 16 decimal digits encoded in 8 octets using BCD
as defined in 3GPP TS 24.008 [5]. The most significant digit is
coded in the most significant bits of octet 1. The least significant
digit is coded in the least significant bits of octet 8.
15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Decimal Digits
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| | | |
| T | S | S |
| A | N | V |
| C | R | N |
| | | |
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Octets
4.2.1. Type Allocation Code (TAC)
The TAC is the same as for the IMEI in Section 5.1.1.
4.2.2. Serial Number (SNR)
The SNR is the same as for the IMEI in Section 5.1.2.
4.2.3. Software Version Number (SVN)
The Software Version Number is allocated by the Mobile Equipment
manufacturer to identify the software version of the Mobile
Equipment.
5. Community considerations
GSM, UMTS and LTE mobile devices will be interoperating with Internet
devices for a variety of voice and data services. To do this, they
need to make use of Internet protocols that will operate end to end
between devices in GSM/UMTS/LTE networks and those in the general
internet. Some of these protocols require the use of URN's as
identifiers. Within the GSM/UMTS/LTE networks, mobile devices are
identified by their IMEI and IMEISV. Internet users will need to be
able to receive and include the GSMA URN in various Internet protocol
elements to facilitate communication between pure internet based
devices and GSM/UMTS/LTE mobile devices. Thus the existence and
syntax of these namespaces needs to be available to the general
internet community and the namespace needs to be reserved with IANA
in order to guarantee uniqueness and prevent potential namespace
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conflicts both within the internet and within GSM/UMTS/LTE networks.
Conversely, Internet implementations will not generally possess IMEI
identifiers. The identifiers generated by such implementations will
typically be URNs within namespaces other than "gsma," and may,
depending on context, even be non-URN URIs. Implementations are
advised to be ready to process URIs other than "gsma"-namespaced
URNs, so as to aid in interoperability.
6. Namespace considerations
A URN was considered the most appropriate URI to represent the IMEI
and IMEISV as these identifiers may be used and transported similarly
to the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)which is defined as a URN
in [9]. Since specifications for protocols that are used to
transport device identifiers often require the device identifier to
be globally unique and in the URN format it is necessary that the URN
formats are defined to represent the IMEI and IMEISV.
7. IANA considerations
In accordance with BCP 66 [1], IANA is asked to register the Formal
URN Namespace 'GSMA' in the Registry of URN Namespaces, using the
registration template presented in Section 3 of this document.
8. Security considerations
IMEIs (but with the Spare value set to the value of the Check Digit)
are displayable on most Mobile Equipment; therefore, they must not be
used as security capabilities (identifiers whose mere possession
grants access), for example.
Revealing the specific software version of the terminal might make
the terminal more vulnerable to attacks against software that is
known to contain security holes. Care therefore SHOULD be taken
regarding use of the IMEISV as it could help a malicious device
identify Mobile Equipment running software that is known to be
vulnerable to certain attacks. This is a similar concern to the use
of the User-Agent header in SIP as specified in RFC 3261 [10]. It is
therefore RECOMMENDED that the IMEISV (that is, the IMEI URN with svn
parameter) is not delivered to devices that are not trusted.
Further, because IMEIs can be loosely correlated to a user, they need
to be treated as any other personally identifiable information. In
particular, the IMEI URN MUST NOT be included in messages intended to
convey any level of anonymity.
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Additional security considerations are specified in 3GPP TS 22.016
[6]. Specifically the IMEI is to be incorporated in a module which
is contained within the terminal. The IMEI SHALL NOT be changed
after the terminal's production process. It SHALL resist tampering,
i.e. manipulation and change, by any means (e.g. physical, electrical
and software).
9. Acknowledgements
This document draws heavily on the 3GPP work on Numbering, Addressing
and Identification in 3GPP TS 23.003 [2] and also on the style and
structure used in RFC 4122 [9]. The authors would like to thank
Cullen Jennings, Lisa Dusseault, Dale Worley, and Ivo Sedlacek for
their help and comments.
10. References
10.1. Normative references
[1] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
"Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition Mechanisms",
BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002.
[2] 3GPP, "TS 23.003: Numbering, addressing and identification
(Release 8)", 3GPP 23.003, September 2008,
<ftp://ftp.3gpp.org/Specs/archive/23_series/23.003/>.
[3] GSMA Association, "IMEI Allocation and Approval Guidelines",
PRD TS.06 (DG06) version 6.0, July 2011, <http://www.gsma.com/
newsroom/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/
ts0660tacallocationprocessapproved.pdf>.
[4] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[5] 3GPP, "TS 24.008: Mobile radio interface Layer 3 specification;
Core network protocols; Stage 3 (Release 8)", 3GPP 24.008,
September 2008,
<ftp://ftp.3gpp.org/Specs/archive/24_series/24.008/>.
[6] 3GPP, "TS 22.016: International Mobile station Equipment
Identities (IMEI)(Release 7)", 3GPP 22.016, May 2007,
<ftp://ftp.3gpp.org/Specs/archive/22_series/22.016/>.
[7] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.
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10.2. Informative references
[8] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.
[9] Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, "A Universally Unique
IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace", RFC 4122, July 2005.
[10] Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, A.,
Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E. Schooler, "SIP:
Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261, June 2002.
Authors' Addresses
Michael Montemurro (editor)
Research in Motion (RIM)
4701 Tahoe Dr
Mississauga, Ontario L4W 0B4
Canada
Phone: unlisted
Fax: unlisted
Email: mmontemurro@rim.com
Andrew Allen
Research in Motion (RIM)
1200 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway
Sunrise, Florida 33323
USA
Phone: unlisted
Fax: unlisted
Email: aallen@rim.com
David McDonald
unaffiliated
Phone: unlisted
Fax: unlisted
Email: mcdonalddm@hotmail.com
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Paul Gosden
GSM Association
1st Floor, Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn,
London
England
Phone: unlisted
Fax: unlisted
Email: pgosden@gsm.org
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