Namespace ID: "mrn" Requested of IANA Version: 2 Date: 2024-08-26 Registrant: Name: Minsu Jeon E-mail: minsu.jeon&iala-aism.org, contact&iala-aism.org International Organization of Marine Aids to Navigation (IALA) 10 rue des Gaudines, 78100, St Germain en Laye, France The International Organization of Marine Aids to Navigation (IALA) is a leading intergovernmental organization specializing in Marine Aids to Navigation. Established in 1957, IALA unites Marine Aids to Navigation authorities, manufacturers, consultants, and scientific and training institutions worldwide. Its mission is to harmonize Marine Aids to Navigation globally, ensuring safe, efficient, and cost-effective vessel movements while safeguarding the marine environment. On 22 August, 2024, IALA officially transitioned from a non-governmental organization (NGO) to an intergovernmental organization (IGO). Purpose: Many standardized identification schemes exist for vessels, buoys, mariners and other maritime resources already, but there is no single system that allows people to specify such an identifier in a uniform and unambiguous way. We believe that it makes sense to introduce a naming scheme that can uniquely identify any maritime resource on a global scale. A "maritime resource" can be anything that has an identity, including organizations, employees, people, physical objects, virtual objects (such as electronic documents), buoys, ships, mariners, nautical charts and electronic services (e.g., "today's weather report for the Oresund Strait"). Of course, not all resources are "retrievable" in an electronic sense; human beings, corporations, and buoys would be obvious examples. However, all of these can still be considered resources. Having a uniform naming scheme will pave the way for new maritime digital information services, facilitating innovation, integration, trade, safety, and security in the maritime sector. Syntax: The basic syntax for a MRN is defined using the Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) as specified in [RFC5234]: MRN= "urn" ":" "mrn" ":" OID ":" OSS [ rq-components ] [ "#" f-component ] OID= (alphanum) 0*20(alphanum / "-") (alphanum) ; Organization ID OSS= OSNID ":" OSNS ; Organization-specific string OSNID = (alphanum) 0*32(alphanum / "-") (alphanum) ; Organization-specific namespace ID OSNS = pchar *(pchar / "/") ; Organization-specific namespace string Rules not defined here: alphanum and pchar as defined in [RFC3986]. rq-components and f-component as defined in [RFC8141]. The namespace, “mrn”, OID, and OSNID tokens are conventionally written in lower case. Q-component, F-component and R-component are not generally defined by this specification. Organization specific namespace strings might choose to make use of them where applicable. If adopting existing non-URN based identifier systems that includes characters not allowed by the URN syntax as specified in [RFC8141]. The representation of these characters should be handled by percent-encoding the character as specified in Section 2.1 of the URI specification [RFC3986]. For the efficient use of the namespace, “mrn”, IALA has established a guideline G1143 on unique identifiers for maritime resources. Rules for Lexical Equivalence: In addition to the URN equivalence rules defined in Section 2.1 of the URN specification [RFC8141]. Case normalization must be applied to both the OID and OSNID part before determining lexical equivalence. Rules for equality comparisons of the OSNS part must be clearly documented by the governing organization, and be consistent with sections 3.1 and 6.4.2 of [RFC8141]. Examples: All the examples provided in this section are hypothetical. Real world naming schemes will most likely look different. Using the MRN identifier scheme, a vessel with an IMO number of 9743368 could be identified as follows: > urn:mrn:imo:imo-number:9743368 The governing organization that assigns IMO numbers is the International Maritime Organization (IMO). IMO may delegate the actual assignment of numbers to another organization, but it is still the organization that determines that an IMO number is unique. Within the context of maritime resource names, the organization ID (OID) refers to the organization that governs the syntax and rules of a particular resource type. In the example above, the organization ID is "imo". Each organization further divides the organization-specific string (OSS), which is the part following "imo", into two parts. The first part is an organization-specific namespace ID (OSNID), which is a unique identifier within the governing organization for a particular type of resource. In this example, we have used "imo- number," but this could just as well have been "imonumber" or even simply "number". The second part is the organization-specific namespace string (OSNS). This is the only part that differs for resources of the same type; in this case it is "9743368". The organization-specific namespace string is, as the name implies, specific to a particular combination of OID and OSNID. In this case, the organization-specific namespace string is always a 7-digit IMO number. Another way to identify the same vessel might be to use its MMSI number. Here the identifier could look like this: > urn:mrn:itu:mmsi:538070999 In this case ITU is the governing body because MMSI numbers are based on ITU recommendation M.585. It is possible that national bodies might do the actual assignment of MMSI numbers, but ITU is the governing body for the standardization of MMSI numbers. These two examples show how multiple identities can identify the same entity; in this case, the same vessel can be identified by either an IMO number or MMSI number. This is similar to how an individual might be identified either by a driver license number or a social security ID. Note that some parameters that are frequently used for identification, such as human names, do not generally qualify as identifiers because they are not guaranteed to be unique. A single identifier must refer to one and only one entity. URNs range from very coarse-grained to very fine-grained. For example, a container ship might be identified by one of the two previous URNs. The containers aboard the ship might be identified with an URN adapting the ISO 6346 identifier scheme for container ids. > urn:mrn:bic:container-id:csqu3054383 Finally, individual items in a single container might be identified by another URN scheme. It might even be possible to integrate with URNs defined outside of the urn:mrn namespace. For example, all items in a container might be identified by an electronic product code ([RFC5134]). In other words, the use of URNs as identifiers is not limited to those defined within this document. In the future, other non-maritime sectors might even adopt similar naming schemes based on URNs to facilitate easier integration across sector boundaries. As mentioned earlier, an identifier does not need to be a physical object; it can be a virtual item such as an electronic document. For example, IMO might decide that all of their documents should use a "publications" prefix. The publication "IMO SOLAS Consolidated Spanish Edition, 2014 IF110S" might be referred to as: > urn:mrn:imo:publications:if110s On the other hand, an organization such as IALA might decide that their publications should follow another format where the category of the publication is included in the identifier. For example, a recommendation could be: > urn:mrn:iala:publications:recommendation:e-nav-140 The identifier of a guideline might be written as: > urn:mrn:iala:publications:guideline:synchronisation-of-lights-1069 As can be seen from the previous example, the organization-specific namespace string can be split into multiple hierarchies. The governing organization can decide how it wants to structure its identifiers. Another example of identifiers with multiple hierarchies could be seen in an identifier scheme for lights and buoys. Here IALA could choose to let the OSNS consist of :. For example: > urn:mrn:iala:aton:us:1234x5 There are no requirements that organizations be permanent entities. For example, the European STM Validation Project could choose to use "stm" as its organization ID. A voyage ID in this project might look like this: > urn:mrn:stm:voyage:id:xcus231230 Within the project, the group may use "xcus231230" to refer to a voyage plan. However, the full URN can be used when working with external systems or other projects, in case another type of identifier is also used for a particular voyage. As can be seen from all of these examples, the scheme is highly adaptable. Each organization can choose its own layout for a specific type of identifier. It is easy to fit existing identifiers into the naming scheme, and it provides good context information about the type of the identifier, unlike something simple such as a random UUID. It is important to note that even though IALA is the maintainer of the MRN URN namespace it cannot define MRNs outside of the "urn:mrn:iala" namespace. All of the above examples that are not in the "urn:mrn:iala" namespace, requires that the relevant organization explicitly requests an Organization ID with IALA. Assignment: Assignment of Organization IDs is done by filling out and sending in the registration template, as detailed on https://www.iala-aism.org/technical/data-modelling-mrn/. IALA will ensure the uniqueness of organization IDs by ensuring that an ID can only be assigned once. Records of all successful registrations will be maintained in a public version control repository as detailed on the website. The assignment procedures for MRN strings under a particular Organization-specific namespace ID are the responsibility of the maintaining organization. The considerations provided by https://www.iala-aism.org/technical/data-modelling-mrn/ as well as Section 6.4.3 of the URN specification [RFC8141] must be taken into account when defining the actual assignment procedure. The detailed procedures are defined in the IALA publication G1164 on the Management of Maritime Resource Name Organisation Identifiers. Security and Privacy: Around 90% of world trade is carried by the international shipping industry and security incidents can result in major disruption to world trade or life threatening situations for crew or passengers. Since individual organizations manage their own organizational namespace, security and privacy must be evaluated on a case by case basis. Interoperability: Interoperability with existing standards for identifying maritime resources is one of the main drivers for this proposal. Since individual organizations manage their own organizational namespace, interoperability must be evaluated on a case by case basis. Resolution: No general available resolution mechanisms are anticipated at the moment. However, organizations might choose to make use of specific resolution mechanisms on a case by case basis. Documentation: For further documentation see https://www.iala-aism.org/technical/data-modelling-mrn/