





Network Working Group                                        M. Mealling
Request for Comments: 5134                      Refactored Networks, LLC
Category: Informational                                     January 2008


                 A Uniform Resource Name Namespace for
   the EPCglobal Electronic Product Code (EPC) and Related Standards

Status of This Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This document describes URN namespaces that will identify various
   objects within the EPCglobal system for identifying products within
   ecommerce and supply chain management applications.

1.  Introduction

   The EPCglobal Architecture Framework [6] is a set of specifications
   for reading, managing, and acting on object codes and other sensor
   data as physical objects pass through a supply chain.  Events and
   metadata about physical objects are exchanged via EPCglobal
   Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) that are
   essentially web services that implement agreed upon schema and
   interfaces.

   Each object that is tracked by the EPCglobal Architecture Framework
   is identified by one or more managed identifiers.  In many cases,
   these identification systems existed prior to the Internet becoming
   widely used.  One such namespace is the Global Trade Item Number, or
   GTIN [7].  GTINs are widely used in global commerce and are managed
   by GS1.  In order for the EPCglobal Architecture Framework to
   leverage the Internet to the fullest extent possible, the GTIN
   namespace (and others, such as Global Location Numbers (GLNs),
   Serialized Shipping Container Code (SSCC), etc. [7]) need to be
   directly compatible with the URI family of identifiers.

   The use of GTINs, GLNs, and SSCCs are all managed by GS1.  Their use
   within the EPCglobal Architecture Framework is managed by the GS1
   subsidiary known as EPCglobal, Inc.  For these, and possibly future







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RFC 5134                      The EPC URN                   January 2008


   identification systems, a single Uniform Resource Name (URN)
   Namespace ID (NID) is being requested: 'epc'.  Each of the identifier
   namespaces mentioned will have a separate sub-space beneath the top
   level 'epc' NID.

   In addition to physical object identifiers, the EPCglobal
   Architecture Framework requires new namespaces for naming system
   components.  In many cases, an interface within the EPCglobal
   Architecture Framework is XML [11] based and as such will require
   naming schemes for its XML schema [9] and various namespaces [10].
   For these uses, another Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace ID
   (NID) is being requested: 'epcglobal'.  Each specification or system
   component within the EPCglobal Architecture Framework will have a
   separate sub-space beneath the top level 'epcglobal' NID.

   Since the EPCglobal Architecture Framework is engineered for
   widespread and general use, this namespace specification is a formal
   one, and the namespace IDs that are being requested are 'epc' and
   'epcglobal'.  It is important to note that it is the explicit intent
   that various sub-namespaces of the 'epc' NID actually name real,
   physical objects and/or corporeal entities.  In contrast, sub-
   namespaces of the 'epcglobal' NID name logical or software
   constructs, such as schema namespaces.

2.  'epc' Registration Template

   Namespace ID:

         "epc"

   Registration Information:

         Registration Version Number: 1
         Registration Date: 2008-01-16

   Declared registrant of the namespace:

         EPCglobal, Inc. is a subsidiary of GS1
         Princeton Pike Corporate Center
         1009 Lenox Drive, Suite 202
         Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, USA
         bhogan@epcglobalinc.org
         Tel: +1-609-620-4585








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   Declaration of structure:

         The normative specification of the structure of the 'epc'
         namespace is "EPC Tag Data Standards" [5].  The examples given
         below are not normative.

         The 'epc' namespace is a set of sub-namespaces that can be
         extended in the future.  The following ABNF [2] defines how the
         sub-namespaces are identified and any restrictions on their
         syntax (definitions not specified below can be found in RFC
         2141 [1]):

   EPC-URN     = "urn:epc:" sub-ns-name ":" sub-ns
   sub-ns-name = let-num [ 1*let-num-hyp ]
   sub-ns      = 1*<URN chars>
   let-num     = upper / lower / number
   let-num-hyp = upper / lower / number / "-"
   upper       = %x41-5A ; "A" - "Z"
   lower       = %x61-7A ; "a" - "z"
   number      = "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" /
                 "8" / "9"

         For example, the sub-namespace 'sgtin' has the following
         definition (this ABNF is non-normative):

   SGTIN-URI        = "urn:epc:id:sgtin:" SGTINURIBody
   SGTINURIBody     = 2*(PaddedNumericComponent ".") NumericComponent
   NumericComponent = ZeroComponent / NonZeroComponent
   ZeroComponent    = "0"
   NonZeroComponent = NonZeroDigit *Digit
   PaddedNumericComponent = *Digit
   Digit = "0" / NonZeroDigit
   NonZeroDigit = "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" / "9"

   This equates to a namespace that has three period separated series of
   digits:

                        urn:epc:id:sgtin:900100.0003456.1234567

   The first series is a company prefix, the second denotes a product
   reference assigned by that company, and the third is a serial number
   for a specific instance of their product.  Note that leading zeros
   are significant.








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   Relevant ancillary documentation:

         The standards that define the EPCglobal Architecture Framework
         and the processes for creating new sub-namespaces are managed
         by EPCglobal, Inc. and can be found on its website.  Several
         sub-namespaces are defined in the "EPC Tag Data Standards" [5].

   Identifier uniqueness considerations:

         The namespaces that make up the 'epc' namespace are all managed
         by an organization with almost 50 years of namespace management
         experience.  In all cases (existing or new), the uniqueness of
         each namespace is an inherent part of the EPCglobal
         Architecture Framework.

   Identifier persistence considerations:

         The assignment process guarantees that names are not reassigned
         and that the binding between the name and its resource is
         permanent, regardless of any standards or organizational
         changes.

   Process of identifier assignment:

         Names are assigned by the EPCglobal standards publication
         process and by any entities that are sub-delegated by
         EPCglobal.  It is important to note that in many cases the
         names assigned will explicitly denote physical objects and not
         an electronic representation of that object.

   Process of identifier resolution:

         Certain sub-namespaces are resolved via the Object Naming
         Service, defined in "Object Naming Service (ONS) Version 1.0"
         [4], which is a valid implementation of the Dynamic Delegation
         Discovery System that is defined in RFC 3401 [3].

   Rules for Lexical Equivalence:

         The entire URN is case-sensitive.

   Conformance with URN Syntax:

         There are no additional characters reserved except as noted in
         the ABNF above.






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   Validation mechanism:

         In the case of each sub-namespace, there will be namespace-
         specific rules for determining validity.  In each case, the
         reader is referred to the appropriate EPCglobal-maintained
         documentation.

   Scope:

         Global

3.  'epcglobal' Registration Template

   Namespace ID:

         "epcglobal"

   Registration Information:

         Registration Version Number: 1
         Registration Date: 2007-03-06

   Declared registrant of the namespace:

         EPCglobal, Inc. is a subsidiary of GS1
         Princeton Pike Corporate Center
         1009 Lenox Drive, Suite 202
         Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, USA
         bhogan@epcglobalinc.org
         Tel: +1-609-620-4585

   Declaration of structure:

         The normative specifications for the structure of the
         'epcglobal' namespace are various standards available at
         EPCglobal's public website.  The examples given below are not
         normative.

         The 'epcglobal' namespace is a set of sub-namespaces that can
         be extended in the future.  The following ABNF defines how the
         sub-namespaces are identified and any restrictions on their
         syntax (definitions not specified below can be found in RFC
         2141 [1]):








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   EPCGLOBAL-URN = "urn:epcglobal:" subnsname ":" subns
   subnsname     = let-num [ 1*let-num-hyp ]
   subns         = 1*<URN chars>
   let-num       = upper / lower / number
   let-num-hyp   = upper / lower / number / "-"
   upper         = %x41-5A ; "A" - "Z"
   lower         = %x61-7A ; "a" - "z"
   number        = "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" /
                   "8" / "9"

   For example, the identifier "urn:epcglobal:ale:xsd:1" is defined in
   the "Application Level Events 1.0 Specification" [8] for use as an
   XML namespace identifier for XML documents conforming to that
   specification.

   Relevant ancillary documentation:

         The standards that define the EPCglobal Architecture Framework
         and the processes for creating new sub-namespaces are managed
         by EPCglobal, Inc. and can be found on its website.

   Identifier uniqueness considerations:

         The namespaces that make up the 'epcglobal' namespace are all
         managed by an organization with almost 50 years of namespace
         management experience.  In all cases, the uniqueness of each
         namespace is an inherent part of the EPCglobal Architecture
         Framework.

   Identifier persistence considerations:

         The assignment process guarantees that names are not reassigned
         and that the binding between the name and its resource is
         permanent, regardless of any standards or organizational
         changes.

   Process of identifier assignment:

         Names are assigned by the EPCglobal, Inc. standards publication
         process.

   Process of identifier resolution:

         No resolution mechanism is required or provided.







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   Rules for Lexical Equivalence:

         The entire URN is case-sensitive.

   Conformance with URN Syntax:

         There are no additional characters reserved except as noted in
         the ABNF above.

   Validation mechanism:

         In the case of each sub-namespace, there will be namespace-
         specific rules for determining validity.  In each case, the
         reader is referred to the appropriate EPCglobal-maintained
         documentation.

   Scope:

         Global

4.  IANA Considerations

   This document includes two URN Namespace registrations that have been
   entered into the IANA registry for URN NIDs.

5.  Namespace Considerations

   Due to EPCglobal, Inc. being a subsidiary of an internationally
   recognized authority for the identifiers embedded within the 'epc'
   namespace, as well as being the internationally recognized standards
   body for the standards that define identifiers in the 'epcglobal'
   namespace, these namespaces represent the best approach to naming
   products and entities within the world of supply chain management and
   ecommerce in general.  There are no other alternative namespaces that
   have the level of authority and industry acceptance that the EPC
   does.

6.  Community Considerations

   The EPCglobal Architecture Framework is intended to bring the
   Internet to the world of supply chain management and beyond.  It can
   be used to tie physical objects to their virtual descriptions and as
   such has many wide ranging applications for the average Internet use.
   Thus, it is very much the intent that this namespace, and the entire
   EPCglobal Architecture Framework, considers the entire Internet as
   the scope of its community.





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7.  Security Considerations

   The EPCglobal Architecture Framework is based almost exclusively on
   Internet and Web standards.  Thus, the security impacts of each of
   its underlying technologies should be examined for weaknesses and
   threats.  The primary threats will come from the fact that these
   names will identify physical things that can be of high value, thus
   the temptation to spoof metadata about that identifier (its cost,
   size, etc) will be much greater.  Therefore, the role of digital
   signatures, secure resolution mechanisms, and trust relationships is
   very fundamental to the system.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

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

   [2]   Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
         Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005.

   [3]   Mealling, M., "Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS) Part
         One: The Comprehensive DDDS", RFC 3401, October 2002.

   [4]   EPCglobal, Inc., "EPCglobal Network Object Name Service (ONS)
         1.0", August 2003.

   [5]   EPCglobal, Inc., "EPC(tm) Tag Data Standards Version 1.3",
         February 2004.

   [6]   Traub, K., Allgair, G., Barthe, H., Burstein, L., Garrett, J.,
         Hogan, B., Rodrigues, B., Sarma, S., Schmidt, J., Schramek, C.,
         Stewart, R., and K. Suen, "The EPCglobal Architecture
         Framework", July 2005.

   [7]   GS1, "GS1 General Specifications v7.1", January 2007.

   [8]   EPCglobal, Inc., "The Application Level Events (ALE)
         Specification, Version 1.0", September 2005.

8.2.  Informative References

   [9]   Thompson, H., Maloney, M., Beech, D., and N. Mendelsohn, "XML
         Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition", World Wide Web
         Consortium Recommendation REC-xmlschema-1-20041028,
         October 2004,
         <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-1-20041028>.




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   [10]  Layman, A., Tobin, R., Bray, T., and D. Hollander, "Namespaces
         in XML 1.1", World Wide Web Consortium FirstEdition REC-xml-
         names11-20040204, February 2004,
         <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-names11-20040204>.

   [11]  Bray, T., Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., and J.
         Paoli, "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Third Edition)",
         World Wide Web Consortium FirstEdition REC-xml-20040204,
         February 2004, <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204>.

Author's Address

   Michael Mealling
   Refactored Networks, LLC
   1635 Old Hwy 41
   Suite 112, Box 138
   Kennesaw, GA  30152
   US

   Phone: +1 678 581 9656
   EMail: michael@refactored-networks.com
   URI:   http://www.refactored-networks.com





























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