| Internet-Draft | 5580-uncertainty | October 2025 |
| Grayson & Gundavelli | Expires 20 April 2026 | [Page] |
This document describes a new location profile for use with the RADIUS Location-Data Attribute. The new profile is used to carry a geospatial location profile that includes location uncertainty.¶
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The Location-Data Attribute specified in [RFC5580] defines the ability to encode a geospatial location format where the geospatial location information is encoded as an opaque object, with the format being based on the Location Configuration Information (LCI) format defined in Section 2 of [RFC3825].¶
[RFC3825] has been obsoleted by [RFC6225], where the encoding of the geospatial location format has been enhanced to enable signalling of uncertainty parameters for latitude, longitude and altitude.¶
This specification defines the ability to transport the GeoLocation (GeoLoc) profile defined in [RFC6225] in the Location-Data Attribute specified in [RFC5580], enabling location uncertainty values to be signaled.¶
Individual use-cases operating using this location profile may require the location uncertainty is below some threshold value. Details of such use-cases and how a RADIUS Server responds when receiving a Location-Data Attribute with uncertainty that exceeds any defined threshold are out of scope of this document.¶
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶
Uncertainty:¶
The uncertainty of a location estimate is the distance from the actual location the estimate is likely to fall within. The lower the value the more accurate the estimate.¶
Confidence:¶
An estimated upper bound on the probability that a "true" value is found within the extents defined by the uncertainty.¶
This section defines the geospatial location-information profile corresponding to the value (TBC) indicated in the Code field of the Location-Information Attribute, as specified in [RFC5580].¶
Geospatial location information with uncertainty is encoded as an opaque object. The format is based on the DHCPv4 GeoLoc Option 144, as specified in Section 2.2.2 of [RFC6225], but starts with the third octet (i.e., the code for the DHCP option and the length field is not included).¶
Whereas [RFC6225] defines a means for representing uncertainty, it does not specify a corresponding value for the confidence. Following Section 3.4 of [RFC7459], a default value of 95% confidence SHOULD be assumed for the combination of the uncertainty on each axis.¶
Providing uncertainty information can reveal information about the process by which location information is generated.¶
IANA is requested to allocate the value TBC to signal the encoding of this type in the Code field of the Location-Information Attribute, as specified in [RFC5580], and to update the Location Profiles Registry with the new value:¶
IANA is requested to allocate the value TBC to add a new entry in the Location-Capable Attribute as specified in [RFC5580]:¶
Value (TBC): Capability Token corresponds to GEO_UNCERTAINTY_LOCATION¶
IANA is requested to allocate the value TBC to add a new entry in the Requested-Location-Info Attribute as specified in [RFC5580]:¶
Value (TBC): Capability Token corresponds to GEO_UNCERTAINTY_LOCATION¶