Subject: draft-ietf-urn-ddds-00.txt

From: Michael Mealling <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 13:05:13 -0400

Network Working Group                                      M.M. Mealling
Internet-Draft                                   Network Solutions, Inc.
Expires: January 12, 2001                                  July 14, 2000

               Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS)
                         draft-ietf-urn-ddds-00

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as
   Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
   months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents
   at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   To view the entire list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories, see
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 12, 2001.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document describes a the Dynamic Delegation Discovery System or
   DDDS which, when applied to a unique string will produce a series of
   rules that describe the various delegations that may exist based on
   the syntax of that string. Since the DDDS is an abstract algorithm,
   this specification does not define either an application or a rule
   database.

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 1]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  The Algorithm  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.1 Components of a Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.2 Substitution Expression Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.3 The Complete Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   4.  Specifying An Application  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   5.  Specifying A Database  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   6.  Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   6.1 An Automobile Parts Identification System  . . . . . . . . . . 10
   6.2 A Document Identification Service  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 2]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

1. Introduction

   The Dynamic Delegation Discovery System is used to map some unique
   string to data stored within the DDDS by iteratively applying string
   transformation rules until a terminal condition is reached. This
   document describes the general algorithm, not any particular
   application or usage scenario. It is up to other documents to
   describe how they use the DDDS algorithms.

   The DDDS's history is an evolution from work done by the Uniform
   Resource Name Working Group.  When Uniform  Resource Names[1] were
   originally formulated there was the desire to locate an
   authoritative server for a URN which by design contained no
   information about network locations. A system was formulated that
   could use a database of rules that could be applied to a URN to find
   out information about specific chunks of syntax. This system was
   originally called the Resolver Discovery System[2] and only applied
   to URNs.

   Over time other systems began to apply this same algorithm and
   infrastructure to other, non-URN related, systems. This caused some
   of the underlying assumptions to change and need clarification. This
   document, which is one of a series, is an update of those original
   URN specifications in order to allow new applications and rule
   databases to be developed in a standardized manner.

   A direct result of these clarifications and generalizations is that
   this document, along with [4] and [5], obsoletes RFC 2168[6] and
   updates RFC 2276[2].

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 3]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

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 RFC 2119.

   Application Unique String
      A string that is the target of the rewrite rules. Each possible
      value of the string must be unique within the space for which it
      is valid in order for the rewrite rules to apply.

   Rewrite Rule
      An object containing several pieces of data that, when combined
      and applied to an Application Unique String, produces a new key
      that exists in the Rule Database. Also simply known as a Rule.

   First Well Known Rule
      This is a rewrite rule that is defined by the application and not
      actually in the Rule Database. It is used to produce the first
      valid key.

   Terminal Rule
      This Rule is one where the Flags specify that the iterative
      process is over and that the output of applying this Rule to the
      Application Unique String will be the intended output of the
      entire process.

   Application
      A set of protocols and specifications that specify actual values
      for the various generalized parts of the DDDS algorithm. An
      Application must define the syntax and semantics of the
      Application Unique String, the First Well Known Rule, and which
      Databases are valid for the Application.

   Database
      Any store of Rules such that a unique key can identify a set of
      Rules that specify the delegation step used when that particular
      Key is used.

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 4]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

3. The Algorithm

   The DDDS algorithm is based on the concept of Rewrite Rules. These
   rules are given unique Keys that are collected into a database that
   is known as a DDDS Rule Database.  A given Rule, when applied to an
   Application Unique String, transforms that String into new Key that
   can be used to retrieve a new Rule from the Rule Database. This new
   rule is then re-applied to the original Application Unique String
   and the cycle repeats itself until a terminating condition is
   reached.

3.1 Components of a Rule

   A Rule is made up of 4 pieces of information:

   A Priority
      Simply a number used to show which of two otherwise equal rules
      may have precedence. This allows the database to express rules
      that are equivalent but weighted for load balancing reasons.

   A set of Flags
      Flags are used to specify attributes of the rule that determine
      if this rule is the last one to be applied. The last rule is
      called the terminal rule and its output should be the intended
      result for the application.

   A description of Services
      Services are used to specify attributes of a particular
      delegation branch. For example, two rules may equally apply to a
      specific delegation decision for a string. One rule can lead to a
      terminal rule that produces information for use in high
      availability environments while another may lead to an archival
      service that may be slower but is more stable over long periods
      of time.

   A Substitution Expression
      This is the actual string modification part of the rule. It is a
      combination of a POSIX Extended Regular Expression[3] and a
      replacement string similar to SED search-replace function. See
      Section 3.2.

3.2 Substitution Expression Syntax

   The syntax of the Substitution Expression part of the rule is a
   sed-style substitution expression. True sed(1) substitution
   expressions are not appropriate for use in this application for a
   variety of reasons, therefore the contents of the regexp field MUST
   follow this grammar:

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 5]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

      subst_expr   = delim-char  ere  delim-char  repl  delim-char  *flags
      delim-char   = "/" / "!" / ... (Any non-digit or non-flag character.
                     All ocurances of a delim_char in a subst_expr must
                     be the same character.)
      ere          = POSIX Extended Regular Expression
      repl         = string / backref / repl string / repl backref
      string       = anychar escapeddelim / escapeddelim anychar
      anychar      = ; any character other than delim-char
      escapeddelim = "\" delim-char
      backref      = "\" POS_DIGIT
      flags        = "i"
      POS_DIGIT    = "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" / "9"

   The result of applying the substitution expression to the String
   MUST result in a key which obeys the rules of the Database. Since it
   is possible for the regular expression to be improperly specified,
   such that a non-conforming key can be constructed, client software
   SHOULD verify that the result is a legal database key before using
   it.

   Backref expressions in the repl portion of the substitution
   expression are replaced by the (possibly empty) string of characters
   enclosed by '(' and ')' in the ERE portion of the substitution
   expression. N is a single digit from 1 through 9, inclusive. It
   specifies the N'th backref expression, the one that begins with the
   N'th '(' and continues to the matching ')'.  For example, the ERE

                         (A(B(C)DE)(F)G)

    has backref expressions:

                         \1  = ABCDEFG
                         \2  = BCDE
                         \3  = C
                         \4  = F
                         \5..\9  = error - no matching subexpression

   The "i" flag indicates that the ERE matching SHALL be performed in a
   case-insensitive fashion. Furthermore, any backref replacements MAY
   be normalized to lower case when the "i" flag is given.

   The first character in the substitution expression shall be used as
   the character that delimits the components of the substitution
   expression.  There must be exactly three non-escaped occurrences of
   the delimiter character in a substitution expression. Since escaped
   occurrences of the delimiter character will be interpreted as
   occurrences of that character, digits MUST NOT be used as
   delimiters. Backrefs would be confused with literal digits were this
   allowed. Similarly, if flags are specified in the substitution

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 6]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

   expression, the delimiter character must not also be a flag
   character.

3.3 The Complete Algorithm

   The following is the exact DDDS algorithm:

   1.  The First Well Known Rule is applied to the Application Unique
       String which produces a Key

   2.  That Application asks the Database for the ordered set of Rules
       that are bound to that Key

   3.  The Substitution Expression of each Rule in the list of Rules is
       applied to the String in the order in which they were received.
       In some applications and/or databases the result set can express
       the case where two or more Rules are considered equal. These
       Rules are treated as the same Rule, each one possibly having a
       Priority which is used to weight a random selection among the
       equivalent Rules (this allows for Rules to 'load balance'
       themselves).

   4.  The first/next Rule with a Substitution Expression that produces
       anything other than the empty string is examined to see if the
       parameters in the Services part of the Rule meet the
       requirements of the Application.

   5.  If the parameters in the Service part of the Rule do not match
       those required by the Application then go back to Step 4.

   6.  If the Flags part of the Rule designate that this Rule is
       Terminal, then apply the Substitution Expression to the String
       and then go to Step 8.

   7.  Apply the Substitution Expression to the String. The output of
       this rewrite becomes the new Key. To begin the next iteration,
       return to Step 2 and use this new Key as the Key in that step.

   8.  Notify the Application that the process has finished and provide
       the Application with the Flags and Services part of the Rule
       along with the output of the last Substitution Expression.

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 7]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

4. Specifying An Application

   In order for this algorithm to have any usefulness, a specification
   must be written describing an application and one or more databases.
   In order to specify an application the following pieces of
   information are required:

   Application Unique String:
      This is the original string that the rewrite rules will apply to.
      The string must have some regular structure and be unique within
      the application such that anyone applying Rules taken from the
      same Database will end up with the same Keys. For example, the
      URI Resolution application would define the Application Unique
      String to be a URI.

      No application is allowed to define an Application Unique String
      such that the Key obtained by a rewrite rule is treated as the
      Application Unique String for input to a new rule. This leads to
      sendmail style rewrite rules which are fragile and error prone.

   First Well Known Rule:
      This is the first rule that, when applied to the Application
      Unique String, produces the first valid Key. It can be expressed
      in the same form as a Rule or it can be something more complex.
      For example, the URI Resolution application might specify that
      the rule is that the sequence of characters in the URI up to but
      not including the first colon (the URI scheme) is the first Key.

   Valid Databases:
      The application can define which Databases are valid. For each
      Database the Application must define how the First Well Known
      Rule's output (the first Key) is turned into something that is
      valid for that Database. For example, the URI Resolution
      application could use the Domain Name System (DNS) as a Database.
      The operation for turning this first Key into something that was
      valid for the database would be to to turn it into some DNS-valid
      domain-name.

   Expected Output:
      The Application must define what the expected output of the
      Terminal Rule should be. For example, the URI Resolution
      application is concerned with finding servers that contain
      authoritative data about a given URI. Thus the output of the
      terminal rule would be information (hosts, ports, protocols, etc)
      that would be used to contact that authoritative server.

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 8]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

5. Specifying A Database

   Additionally, any Application must have at least one corresponding
   Database from which to retrieve the Rules. A Database specification
   must include the following pieces of information:

   General Specification:
      The Database must have a general specification. This can
      reference other standards (SQL, DNS, etc) or it can fully specify
      a novel database system.

   Lookup Procedure:
      This specifies how a query is formulated and submitted to the
      database. In the case of databases that are used for other
      purposes (such as DNS), the specification must be clear as to how
      a query is formulated specifically for the database to be a DDDS
      database. For example, a DNS based Database must specify which
      Resource Records or Query Types are used.

   Key Format:
      If any operations are needed in order to turn a Key into
      something that is valid for the database then these must be
      clearly defined. For example, in the case of a DNS database, the
      Keys must be constructed as valid domain-names.

   Rule Format:
      The specification for the output format of a rule.

   Rule Insertion Procedure:
      A specification for how a Rule is inserted into the database.
      This can include policy statements about whether or not a Rule is
      allowed to be added.

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001                [Page 9]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

6. Examples

   The examples given here are for pedagogical purposes only. They are
   specifically taken from fictious applications that have not been
   specified in any published document.

6.1 An Automobile Parts Identification System

   In this example imagine a system setup where by all automobile
   manufacturers come together and create a standardized part numbering
   system for the various parts (nuts, bolts, frames, instruments, etc)
   that make up the automobile manufacturing and repair process. The
   problem with such a system is that the auto industry is a very
   distributed system where parts are built by various third parties
   distributed around the world. In order to find information about a
   given part a system must be able to find out who makes that part and
   contact them about it.

   To facilitate this distributed system the identification number
   assigned to a part is assigned hierarchically such that the first 5
   digits make up a parts manufacturer ID number. The next 3 digits are
   an auto line identifier (Ford, Toyota, etc). The rest of the digits
   are assigned by the parts manufacturer according to rules that the
   manufacturer decides.

   The auto industry decides to use the DDDS to create a distributed
   information retrieval system that routes queries to the actual owner
   of the data. The industry specifies a database and a query syntax
   for retrieving rewrite rules (the APIDA Network) and then specifies
   the Auto Parts Identification DDDS Application (APIDA).

   The APIDA specification would define the following:

   o  Application Unique String: the part number

   o  First Well Known Rule: take the first 5 digits (the manufacturers
      ID number) and use that as the Key

   o  Valid Databases: The APIDA Network

   o  Expected Output: EDIFAC information about the part

   The APIDA Network Database specification would define the following:

   o  General Specification: a network of EDI enabled databases and
      services that, when given a subcomponent of a part number will
      return an XML encoded rewrite rule

   o  Lookup Procedure: following normal APIDA Network protocols, ask

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001               [Page 10]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

      the network for a rewrite rule for the Key.

   o  Key Format: no conversion is required

   o  Rule Format: see APIDA Network documentation for the XML DTD

   o  Rule Insertion Procedure: determined by the authority that has
      control over each section of the part number. I.e. in order to
      get a manufacturer ID you must be a member of the Auto Parts
      Manufacturers Association

   In order to illustrate how the system would work, imagine the part
   number "4747301AB7D". The system would take the first 5 digits,
   '47473' and ask the network for that Rewrite Rule. This Rule would
   be provided by the parts manufacturers database and would allow the
   manufacturer to either further sub-delegate the space or point the
   querier directly at the EDIFAC information in the system.

   In this example lets suppose that the manufacturer returns a Rule
   that states that the next 3 digits should be used as part of a query
   to their service in order to find a new Rule. This new Rule would
   allow the parts manufacturer to further delegate the query to their
   parts factories for each auto line. In our example part number the
   number '01A' denotes the Toyota line of cars. The Rule that the
   manufacturer returns further delegates the query to a supply house
   in Japan. This rule also denotes that this Rule is terminal and thus
   the result of this last query will be the actual information about
   the part.

6.2 A Document Identification Service

   This example is very similar to the last since the documents in this
   system can simply be thought of as the auto part in the last
   example. The difference here is that the information about the
   document is kept very close to the author (usually on their
   desktop). Thus there is the probability that the number of
   delegations can be very deep. Also, in order to keep from having a
   large flat space of authors, the authors are organized by
   organizations and departments.

   Let's suppose that the Application Unique String in this example
   looks like the following:

   The Application specification would look like this:

   o  Application Unique String: the Document ID string given above

   o  First Well Known Rule: the characters up to but not including the
      first '-' is treated as the first Key.

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001               [Page 11]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

   o  Valid Databases: the DIS LDAP Directory

   o  Expected Output: a record from an LDAP server containing
      bibliographic information about the document in XML

   The Database specification for the DIS LDAP Directory would look
   like this:

   o  General Specification: the Database uses the LDAP directory
      service. Each LDAP server has a record that contains the Rewrite
      Rule. Rules refer to other LDAP servers using the LDAP URL scheme.

   o  Lookup Procedure: using standard LDAP queries, the client asks
      the LDAP server for information about the Key.

   o  Key Format: no conversion is necessary.

   o  Rule Format: See the LDAP Rewrite Rule specification

   o  Rule Insertion Procedure: See the procedures published by the
      entity that has authority over that section of the DIS tree. The
      first section, the organization, is owned by the DIS Agency.

   In this example, the first lookup is for the organization's Rule. At
   that point the organization may point the client directly at some
   large, organization wide database that contains the expected output.
   Other organizations may decentralize this process so that Rules end
   up delegating the query all the way down to the authors document
   management environment of choice.

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001               [Page 12]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

References

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

   [2]  Sollins, K., "Architectural Principles of Uniform Resource Name
        Resolution", RFC 2276, January 1998.

   [3]  The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, "IEEE
        Standard for Information Technology - Portable Operating System
        Interface (POSIX) - Part 2: Shell and Utilities (Vol. 1)", IEEE
        Std 1003.2-1992, ISBN 1-55937-255-9, January 1993.

   [4]  Mealling, M.M., "A DDDS Database Using The Domain Name System",
        Internet-Draft draft-ietf-urn-dns-ddds-database-00.txt, May
        2000.

   [5]  Mealling, M.M., "URI Resolution using the Dynamic Delegation
        Discovery System", Internet-Draft
        draft-ietf-urn-uri-res-ddds-00.txt, July 2000.

   [6]  Danie1, R. and M. Mealling, "Resolution of Uniform Resource
        Identifiers using the Domain Name System", RFC 2168, June 1997.

Author's Address

   Michael Mealling
   Network Solutions, Inc.
   505 Huntmar Park Drive
   Herndon, VA  22070
   US

   Phone: +1 770 935 5492
   EMail: [email-masked]
   URI:   http://www.netsol.com

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001               [Page 13]

Internet-Draft                    DDDS                         July 2000

Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph
   are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
   English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.

Mealling                Expires January 12, 2001               [Page 14]