GEOPRIV -- Geographic A. Mayrhofer Location/Privacy Working Group nic.at Internet-Draft C. Spanring Expires: March 5, 2010 September 01, 2009 A Uniform Resource Identifier for Geographic Locations ('geo' URI) draft-ietf-geopriv-geo-uri-02 Status of this Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF Contributions published or made publicly available before November 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process. Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other than English. 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." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on March 5, 2010. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 1] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents in effect on the date of publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info). Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Abstract This document specifies an Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for geographic locations using the 'geo' scheme name. A 'geo' URI identifies a physical location in a two- or three-dimensional coordinate reference system in a compact, simple, human-readable, and protocol independent way. The default coordinate reference system used is WGS-84. Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 2] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3. IANA Registration of 'geo' URI Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1. URI Scheme Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.2. Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.3. URI Scheme Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.4. URI Scheme Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.4.1. Coordinate Reference System Identification . . . . . . 8 3.4.2. Component Description for WGS-84 . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.4.3. Location Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.4.4. URI Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.4.5. Interpretation of Undefined Altitude . . . . . . . . . 10 3.5. Encoding Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.6. Applications/Protocols that use this URI Scheme . . . . . 10 3.7. Interopability Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.8. Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.9. Author/Change controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4. 'geo' URI Parameters Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5. URI Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 6. Use Cases and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6.1. Plain 'geo' URI Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6.2. Hyperlink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6.3. 'geo' URI in 2-dimensional barcode . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 7. GML Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 7.1. 2D GML 'Point' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.2. 3D GML 'Point' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.3. GML 'Circle' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.4. GML 'Sphere' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8.1. 'geo' URI Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8.2. URI Parameter Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 8.2.1. Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 8.2.2. Registration Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 9.1. Invalid Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 9.2. Location Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 3] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Appendix A. Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 4] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 1. Introduction An increasing number of Internet protocols and data formats are extended by specifications for adding spatial (geographic) location. In most cases, latitude as well as longitude of simple points are added as new attributes to existing data structures. However, all those methods are very specific to a certain data format or protocol, and don't provide a protocol independent, compact and generic way to refer to a physical geographic location. Over the past few years, fast emerging location aware applications and location based services were observable on the Internet. Most web search engines use geographic information, and a vivid open source mapping community brought an enormous momentum into location aware technology. A wide range of tools and data sets which formerly were accessible to professional only became available for a wider audience. The 'geo' URI scheme is another step into that direction and aims to facilitate, support and standardize the problem of location identification in geospatial services and applications. Accessing information about a particular location on earth or trigger further services shouldn't be any harder than clicking on a 'mailto:' link and write an email straight away. According to [RFC3986], a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is "a compact sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource". The 'geo' URI scheme defined in this document identifies geographic locations (a physical resource) in a coordinate references system (CRS), per default in World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS-84) [WGS84]. The scheme provides the textual representation of the location's spatial coordinates in either two or three dimensions (latitude, longitude, and optionally altitude for the default CRS of WGS-84). Such URIs are independent from a specific protocol, application, or data format, and can be used in any other protocol or data format that supports inclusion of arbitrary URIs. For the sake of usability, the definition of the URI scheme is strictly focused on the simplest, but also most common representation of a spatial location - a single point in a well known CRS. The provision of more complex geometries or locations described by civic addresses is out of scope of this document. The optional "crs" URI parameter described below may be used by future specifications to define the use of CRSes other than WGS-84. This is primarily intended to cope with the case of another CRS Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 5] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 replacing WGS-84 as the predominantly used one, rather than allowing the arbitrary use of thousands of CRSes for the URI (which would clearly affect interopability). The definition of "crs" values beyond the default of "wgs84" is therefore out of scope of this document. Note: The choice of WGS-84 as the default CRS is based on the widespread availability of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, which use the WGS-84 reference system. It is anticipated that such devices serve as one of the primary data sources for authoring 'geo' URIs, hence the adoption of the native GPS reference system for the URI scheme. Also, many other data formats for representing geographic locations use the WGS-84 reference system, which makes transposing from and to such data formats less error prone (no re- projection involved). It is also believed that the burden of potentially required spatial transformations should be put on the author rather then the consumer of 'geo' URI instances. 2. Terminology Geographic locations in this document are defined using WGS 84 (World Geodetic System 1984), equivalent to the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) Surveying and Positioning Committee EPSG (European Petroleum Survey Group) code 4326 (2 dimensions) and 4979 (3 dimensions). This document does not assign responsibilities for coordinate transformations from and to other Spatial Reference Systems. A 2-dimensional WGS-84 coordinate value is here represented as a comma-delimited latitude/longitude pair, measured in decimal degrees (un-projected). A 3-dimensional WGS-84 coordinate value is here represented by appending a comma-delimited altitude value in meters to such pairs. Latitudes range from -90 to 90 and longitudes range from -180 to 180. Coordinates in the Southern and Western hemispheres as well as altitudes below the WGS-84 reference geoid are signed negative with a leading dash. 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 [RFC2119]. 3. IANA Registration of 'geo' URI Scheme This section contains the fields required for the URI scheme Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 6] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 registration, following the guidelines in section 5.4 of [RFC4395]. 3.1. URI Scheme Name geo 3.2. Status permanent 3.3. URI Scheme Syntax The syntax of the 'geo' URI scheme is specified below in Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) [RFC5234]: geo-URI = geo-scheme ":" geo-path geo-scheme = "geo" geo-path = coordinates *p coordinates = coord-a "," coord-b [ "," coord-c ] coord-a = num coord-b = num coord-c = num p = crsp / uncp / parameter crsp = ";crs=" crslabel crslabel = "wgs84" / labeltext uncp = ";u=" pnum parameter = ";" pname [ "=" pvalue ] pname = labeltext pvalue = 1*paramchar paramchar = p-unreserved / unreserved / pct-encoded labeltext = 1*( alphanum / "-" ) pnum = 1*DIGIT [ "." 1*DIGIT ] num = [ "-" ] pnum unreserved = alphanum / mark mark = "-" / "_" / "." / "!" / "~" / "*" / "'" / "(" / ")" pct-encoded = "%" HEXDIG HEXDIG p-unreserved = "[" / "]" / "/" / ":" / "&" / "+" / "$" alphanum = ALPHA / DIGIT Both "crs" and "u" parameters MUST NOT appear more than once each. The "crs" and "u" parameters MUST be given before any other parameters that may be defined in future extensions. The "crs" parameter MUST be given first if both "crs" and "u" are used. The definition of other parameters, and "crs" values beyond the default Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 7] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 value of "wgs84" is out of scope of this document. Section 8.2 discusses the IANA registration of such additional parameters and values. In case the URI identifies a location in the default CRS of WGS-84, its sub-components are further restricted as follows: coord-a = latitude coord-b = longitude coord-c = altitude latitude = [ "-" ] 1*2DIGIT [ "." 1*DIGIT ] longitude = [ "-" ] 1*3DIGIT [ "." 1*DIGIT ] altitude = [ "-" ] 1*DIGIT [ "." 1*DIGIT ] 3.4. URI Scheme Semantics Data contained in a 'geo' URI identifies a physical resource: A spatial location on earth identified by the geographic coordinates encoded in the URI. 3.4.1. Coordinate Reference System Identification The semantics of the 'coordinates' component depends on the CRS of the URI. The CRS itself is identified by the optional 'crs' parameter. A URI instance uses the default WGS-84 CRS if the 'crs' parameter is either missing, or contains the value of 'wgs84'. Other 'crs' values are currently not defined, but may be specified by future documents. Interpretation of coordinates in a wrong CRS produces invalid location information. Consumers of 'geo' URIs therefore MUST NOT ignore the 'crs' parameter if given, and MUST NOT interpret the 'coordinates' component without considering and understanding the 'crs' parameter value. The following component description refers to the use of the default CRS (WGS-84) only. Future documents specifying other 'crs' parameter values MUST provide similar descriptions for the 'coordinates' sub- components in the described CRS. 3.4.2. Component Description for WGS-84 The "latitude", "longitude" and "altitude" components as specified in the URI scheme syntax ( Section 3.3) are to be used as follows: Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 8] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 o The "latitude" component MUST contain the latitude of the identified location in decimal degrees in the reference system WGS-84. o The "longitude" component MUST contain the longitude of the identified location in decimal degrees in the reference system WGS-84. o If present, the OPTIONAL "altitude" component MUST contain the identified altitude in meters in the reference system WGS-84. If the altitude of the location is unknown, the "altitude" component MUST NOT be present in the URI. Specifically, unknown altitude MUST NOT be represented by setting the 'altitude' component to "0" (or any other arbitrary value). The "longitude" components of coordinate values reflecting the poles (latitude set to -90 or 90 degrees) SHOULD be set to "0", although consumers of "geo" URIs MUST accept such URIs with any longitude value from -180 to 180. 'geo' URIs with longitude values outside the range of -180 to 180 decimal degrees or with latitude values outside the range of -90 to 90 degrees MUST be considered invalid. 3.4.3. Location Uncertainty The 'u' ("uncertainty") parameter indicates the amount of uncertainty in the location as a value in meters. Where a geo URI is used to identify the location of a particular subject, uncertainty indicates the uncertainty with which the identified location of the subject is known. The 'u' parameter is optional and it can appear only once. If uncertainty is not specified, this indicates that uncertainty is unknown or unspecified. If the intent is to indicate a specific point in space, uncertainty MAY be set to zero. Zero uncertainty and absent uncertainty are never the same thing. Note: The number of significant digits of the value in the 'coordinates' component MUST NOT be interpreted as an indication to uncertainty. 3.4.4. URI Comparison Two 'geo' URIs are equal when they use the same CRS, and their 'coord-a', 'coord-b', 'coord-c' and 'u' values are mathematically identical. Two URIs use the same CRS if both have the 'crs' parameter omitted, Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 9] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 or both have the same 'crs' parameter value, or one has the 'crs' parameter omitted while the other URI specifies the default CRS explicitely with a 'crs' parameter value of "wgs84". For the default CRS of WGS-84, the following definitions apply in addition: o Where the 'latitude' component of a 'geo' URI is set to either 90 or -90 degrees, the 'longitude' component MUST be ignored in comparison operations ("poles case"). o A 'longitude' component of 180 degrees MUST be considered equal a 'longitude' component of -180 degrees for the purpose of URI comparison ("date line" case). An URI with undefined (missing) 'coord-c' (altitude) value MUST NOT be considered equal to an URI containing an 'coord-c' value, even if the remaining values 'coord-a', 'coord-b' and 'u' are equivalent. 3.4.5. Interpretation of Undefined Altitude A consumer of a 'geo' URI in the WGS-84 CRS with undefined 'altitude' MAY assume that the URI refers to the respective location on earth's physical surface at the given 'latitude' and 'longitude' coordinate. However, as defined above, altitudes are relative to the WGS-84 reference geoid rather than earth's surface. Hence, an altitude value of 0 MUST NOT be mistaken to refer to "ground elevation". 3.5. Encoding Considerations The 'coordinates' path component of the 'geo' URI (see Section 3.3) uses a comma (",") as a delimiter for subcomponents. This delimiter MUST NOT be percent encoded. It is RECOMMENDED that for readability the contents of 'coord-a', 'coord-b' and 'coord-c' subcomponents, as well as the 'crs' and 'u' parameters are never percent encoded. Regarding internationalization, the currently specified components do allow for ASCII characters exclusively, and therefore don't require internationalization- Future specifications of additional parameters might allow for introduction of non-ASCII values. Such specifications MUST describe internationalization considerations for those parameters and their values. 3.6. Applications/Protocols that use this URI Scheme As many other URI scheme definitions, the 'geo' URI provides resource identification independent of a specific application or protocol. Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 10] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 Examples of potential protocol mappings and use cases can be found in Section 6. 3.7. Interopability Considerations Like other new URI schemes, the 'geo' URI requires support in client applications. Users of applications which are not aware of the 'geo' scheme are likely unable to make direct use of the information in the URI. However, the simple structure of the 'geo' URI would even allow manual dereference by humans. Clients MUST NOT attempt to dereference URIs given in an CRS that is unknown to the client, because doing so would produce entirely bogus results. Authors of 'geo' URIs should carefully check that coordinate components are set in the right CRS and in the specified order, since wrong order of those components (or use of coordinates in a different CRS without transformation) are commonly observed mistakes producing completely bogus locations. The number of digits in the coordinates values MUST NOT be interpreted as an indication to a certain level of accuracy or uncertainty. 3.8. Contact Alexander Mayrhofer Christian Spanring 3.9. Author/Change controller The 'geo' URI scheme is registered under the IETF part of the URI tree. As such, change control is up to the IETF. 3.10. References RFC XXXX [change to RFC number once assigned] 4. 'geo' URI Parameters Registry This specification creates a new IANA Registry named "'geo' URI Parameters Registry". Parameters for the 'geo' URI and values for these parameters MUST be registered with IANA to prevent namespace collisions, and provide interopability. Some parameters accept values that are constrained by a syntax Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 11] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 definition only, while others accept values from a predefined set only. Some parameters might not accept any values at all ("flag" type parameter). The registration of values is REQUIRED for parameters that accept values from a predefined set only. The specification of a parameter MUST fully explain the syntax, intended usage and semantics of the parameter. This ensures interopability between independent implementations. For parameters that are neither restricted to a set of predefined values nor of the "flag" type described above, the syntax of allowed values MUST be described in the specification, for example by using ABNF. Documents defining new parameters (or new values for existing parameters) MUST register them with IANA, as explained in Section 8.2. The 'geo' URI Parameter Registry contains a column named "Value Restriction" that describes whether or not a parameter accepts a value, and whether values are restricted to a predefined set. That column accepts the following values: o "No value": The parameter does not accept any values, and is to be used as a "flag" only. o "Predefined": The parameter does accept values from a predefined set only, as specified in a RFC or other permanent and readily available public specification. o "Constrained": The parameter accepts arbitrary values that are only constrained by a syntax as specified in a RFC or other permanent and readily available public specification. 5. URI Operations Currently, just one operation on a 'geo' URI is defined - location dereference: In that operation, a client dereferences the URI by extracting the geographical coordinates from the URI path component ('geo-path' in the ABNF). Further use of those coordinates (and the uncertainty value from the 'u' parameter) is then up to the application processing the URI, and might depend on the context of the URI. An application may then use this location information for various purposes, for example: Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 12] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 o A web browser could use that information to open a web mapping service of the user's choice, and display a map of the location o A navigational device such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver could offer the user to start navigation to the location. Note that the examples and use cases aboves as well as in the next section are non-normative, and provided for information only. 6. Use Cases and Examples 6.1. Plain 'geo' URI Example The following 3-dimensional 'geo' URI example references to the office location of one of the authors in Vienna, Austria: geo:48.2010,16.3695,183 A user could type the data extracted from this URI into a electronic navigation device, or even use it to locate the identified location on a paper map. 6.2. Hyperlink 'geo' URIs (like any other URI scheme) could also be embedded as hyperlinks in web pages. A Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) snippet with such a hyperlink could look like:

one of Vienna's popular sights is the Karlskirche. A web browser could extract the coordinates from the HTML snippet, and offer the user various options (based on configuration, context), for example: o Display a small map thumbnail when the mouse pointer hovers over the link. o Switch to a mapping service of the user's choice once the link is selected. o Locate nearby resources, for example by comparing the 'geo' URI with locations extracted from GeoRSS feeds the user has subscribed to. Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 13] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 o Convert the coordinates to a format suitable for uploading to a navigation device. Note that the URI in this example also makes use of the explicit specification of the CRS by using the 'crs' parameter. 6.3. 'geo' URI in 2-dimensional barcode Due to it's short length, a 'geo' URI could easily be encoded in 2-dimensional barcodes. Such barcodes could be printed on business cards, flyers, paper maps and subsequently used by mobile devices, for example as follows: 1. User identifies such a barcode on a flyer and uses the camera on his mobile phone to photograph and decode the barcode 2. The mobile phone dereferences the 'geo' URI, and offers the user to calculate a navigation route to the identified location. 3. Using the builtin GPS receiver, the user follows the navgiation instructions to reach the location 7. GML Mappings The Geographic Markup Language (GML) by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a set of XML schemas to represent geographical features. Since GML is widely accepted, this document includes instructions on how to transpose 'geo' URIs from and to GML documents. The instructions in this section are not normative. For the following sections, "%lat%", "%lon%", "%alt%" and "%unc%" are placeholders for latitude, longitude, altitude and uncertainty values. The mappings use WGS-84, and are defined in the following sections. Note: GML documents in other reference systems could be used as well if a transformation into "urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4979" or "urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326" is defined and applied before the mapping step. Such transformations are typically not lossless. GML uses the 'double' type from XML schema, and the mapping examples assume that numbers in the form of "3.32435e2" in GML are properly converted to decimal when placed in the 'geo' URI. Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 14] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 7.1. 2D GML 'Point' A 2D GML 'Point' [RFC5491] is constructed from a 'geo' URI that has two coordinates and an uncertainty ("u") parameter that is absent or zero. A GML point is always converted to a 'geo' URI that has no uncertainty parameter. 'geo' URI: geo:%lat%,%lon% GML document: %lat% %lon% Note that a 'geo' URI with an uncertainty value of zero is converted to a GML 'Point', but a GML 'Point' cannot be translated to a 'geo' URI with zero uncertainty. 7.2. 3D GML 'Point' A 3D GML 'Point' [RFC5491] is constructed from a 'geo' URI that has three coordinates and an uncertainty parameter that is absent or zero. A GML point is always converted to a 'geo' URI that has no uncertainty parameter. 'geo' URI: geo:%lat%,%lon%,%alt% GML document: %lat% %lon% %alt% 7.3. GML 'Circle' A GML 'Circle' [RFC5491] is constructed from a 'geo' URI that has two coordinates and an uncertainty parameter that is present and non- zero. Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 15] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 'geo' URI: geo:%lat%,%lon%;u=%unc% GML document: %lat% %lon% %unc% 7.4. GML 'Sphere' A GML 'sphere' [RFC5491] is constructed from a 'geo' URI that has three coordinates and an uncertainty parameter that is present and non-zero. 'geo' URI: geo:%lat%,%lon%,%alt%;u=%unc% GML document: %lat% %lon% %alt% %unc% 8. IANA Considerations 8.1. 'geo' URI Scheme This document requests assignment of the 'geo' URI scheme in the IETF part of the URI scheme tree, according to the guidelines in BCP 115 (RFC 4395) [RFC4395]. The definitions required for the assignment are contained in Section 3. Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 16] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 8.2. URI Parameter Registry This document creates a new IANA Registry named "geo URI Parameters", according to the information in Section 4 and the definition in this section. 8.2.1. Registry Contents When registering a new 'geo' URI Parameter, the following information MUST be provided: o Name of the Parameter. o Whether the Parameter accepts no value ("No value"), values from a predefined set ("Predefined"), or values constrained by a syntax only ("Constrained"). o Reference to the RFC or other permanent and readily available public specification defining the parameters and the new values. When registering a new value for an existing 'geo' URI Parameter, the following information MUST be provided: o Name of the Parameter. o Reference to the RFC or other permanent and readily available public specification defining the new values. The following table provides the initial values for this registry: Parameter Name Value Restriction Reference(s) ---------------------------------------------------------- crs Predefined [RFCxxxx] u Constrained [RFCxxxx] [Note to RFC Editor: Replace RFCxxxx with reference to this document] 8.2.2. Registration Policy The Registration Policy for 'geo' URI Parameters and their value definitions shall be "Specification Required, Designated Expert", as defined in [RFC5226]. 9. Security Considerations Because the 'geo' URI is not tied to any specific protocol, and identifies a physical location rather than a network resource, most of the general security considerations on URIs (Section 7 of RFC 3986) do not apply. However, the following (additional) issues apply: Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 17] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 9.1. Invalid Locations The URI syntax (Section 3.3) makes it possible to construct 'geo' URIs which don't identify a valid location on earth. Applications MUST NOT use URIs with such values, and SHOULD warn the user when such URIs are encountered. An example of such an URI refering to an invalid location would be (latitude "beyond" north pole). 9.2. Location Privacy A 'geo' URI by itself is just an opaque reference to a physical location, expressed by a set of spatial oordinates. This does not fit the "Location Information" definition according to Section 5.2 of GEOPRIV Requirements [RFC3693], because there is not necessarily a "Device" involved. Because there is also no way to specify the identity of a "Target" in a 'geo' URI by itself, it does also not fit the specification of an "Location Object" (Section 5.2 of RFC3693). However, by putting a 'geo' URI into a context that allows identification of a "Target", the URI might become part of a "Location Object", and would then be subject to GEOPRIV rules. Therefore, Publishers of 'geo' URIs that are put into such contexts MUST consider privacy issues, particularly in cases where a URI instance is combined with Personally Identifyable Information (PII) with the intent to describe the location of a Target that is a person. 10. Acknowledgements Martin Thomson has provided significant text around the definition of the "uncertainty" parameter and the GML mappings. The authors further wish to acknowledge the helpful contributions from Carl Reed, Bill McQuillan, Martin Kofal, Andrew Turner, Kim Sanders, Ted Hardie, Culllen Jennings, Klaus Darilion and Bjorn Hoehrmann. 11. References Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 18] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 11.1. Normative References [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC 3986, January 2005. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC5234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008. [RFC5491] Winterbottom, J., Thomson, M., and H. Tschofenig, "GEOPRIV Presence Information Data Format Location Object (PIDF-LO) Usage Clarification, Considerations, and Recommendations", RFC 5491, March 2009. 11.2. Informative References [RFC4395] Hansen, T., Hardie, T., and L. Masinter, "Guidelines and Registration Procedures for New URI Schemes", BCP 115, RFC 4395, February 2006. [RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226, May 2008. [RFC3693] Cuellar, J., Morris, J., Mulligan, D., Peterson, J., and J. Polk, "Geopriv Requirements", RFC 3693, February 2004. [WGS84] National Imagery and Mapping Agency, "Department of Defense World Geodetic System 1984, Third Edition", NIMA TR8350.2, January 2000. Appendix A. Change Log [Note to editors: This section is to be removed before publication - XML source available on request] draft-ietf-geopriv-geo-uri-02 o Added IANA registry for 'geo' URI Parameters and values o Moved change log to appendix o Added "u" parameter to ABNF, restructred ABNF slightly o Added new section describing uncertainty o Changed mapping examples, added some for uncertainty Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 19] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 o Added text that number of digits shouldn't be confused with uncertainty or accuracy o marked GML mappings as non-normative based on URI expert review advice o added internationalization consideration section o various other changes based on Expert Review draft-ietf-geopriv-geo-uri-01 o added parameters to ABNF o added optional 'crs' parameter to allow future use of other CRSes o Many other changes to not preclude the future specification of other CRSes. o some typos fixes - credits Bill McQuillan draft-ietf-geopriv-geo-uri-00 o submitted as WG item o changed IPR text because of text used from RFC 4395 o added considerations for comparing +180/-180 longitude URIs o some editorial changes draft-mayrhofer-geopriv-geo-uri-01 o added terminology text about WGS-84 (credits Carl Reed) o removed "resolution" / "uncertainty" text o added considerations regarding poles o added text about invalid URIs draft-mayrhofer-geopriv-geo-uri-00 o Initial version under new name, reverting to "plain" lat/lon scheme, with the "tiling" scheme moved to seperate draft (potentially published as "draft-mayrhofer-geopriv-geotile-uri"). refer to draft-mayrhofer-geo-uri-01 for the history of this document. o Added GML mapping section draft-mayrhofer-geo-uri-01 o removed parameters draft-mayrhofer-geo-uri-00 o initial draft Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 20] Internet-Draft 'geo' URI Scheme September 2009 Authors' Addresses Alexander Mayrhofer nic.at GmbH Karlsplatz 1/2/9 Wien A-1010 Austria Phone: +43 1 5056416 34 Email: alexander.mayrhofer@nic.at URI: http://www.nic.at/ Christian Spanring 5 Crawford St Cambridge 02139 Phone: +1 617 800 7885 Email: christian@spanring.eu URI: http://www.spanring.eu/ Mayrhofer & Spanring Expires March 5, 2010 [Page 21]