Network Working Group M. Mealling
Request for Comments: 3043 Network Solutions, Inc.
Category: Informational January 2001
The Network Solutions Personal Internet Name (PIN): A URN Namespace
for People and Organizations
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.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document describes a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace that
is engineered by Network Solutions, Inc. for naming people and
organizations.
1. Introduction
In many cases Network Solutions' maintained directory applications
require some unique and persistent way to talk about an individual or
organization. For example, white pages style services need to
determine if one entry is distinct from another even if some of the
data happens to be the same. Also, e-commerce authentication
mechanisms needs to identify a user and/or company uniquely and
possibly over large spans of time. In many cases a customer
relationship can last several decades. Such long term customer
relationships can outlast any specific email address, Internet
service provider, surname, or possibly even the DNS itself.
The intent for these applications is that they be used and integrated
into other, non-NSI maintained applications in much the same way that
domain-names that exist in Network Solution's database are primarily
used in application that Network Solutions is _not_ involved in. In
much the same way that ISBNs are maintained by specific entities but
used in widely varying applications, NSI's PIN namespace is intended
to be used in many applications where there is a need for a well
maintained identifier that names a person or organization.
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RFC 3043 NSI PIN URN Namespace January 2001
A URN namespace is uniquely suited to solve the persistent
identification needs of these applications since they are also
required to be unique and persistent. The availability of a
standardized resolution mechanism makes it possible for other
applications to reference and resolve PIN URNs in their own systems
in an open, non-proprietary way.
This namespace specification is for a formal namespace.
2. Specification Template
Namespace ID:
"pin" requested.
Registration Information:
Registration Version Number: 1
Registration Date: 2000-09-30
Declared registrant of the namespace:
Network Solutions
505 Huntmar Park Drive
Herndon, VA 22070
Declaration of structure:
The structure of the NSS is a flat space of alphanumeric
characters which have no knowable structure outside of the
context of Network Solutions internal resolver. Future changes
to the assignment methods may allow others to assign
sub-spaces of the flat namespace but again, this knowledge is
only valid internally and should never be inferred or relied
upon externally.
Relevant ancillary documentation:
None
Identifier uniqueness considerations:
Identifiers are assigned by Network Solutions proprietary
registration system in a way that guarantees uniqueness. At
this time the algorithm is to iterate from the last assigned
number by some positive integer. In the future this algorithm
may change to incorporate a full range of alphanumeric
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RFC 3043 NSI PIN URN Namespace January 2001
elements. In either case, the system will compare the newly
created identifier with all of the previous ones to ensure
that it has not already been assigned.
Identifier persistence considerations:
The assignment process guarantees that names are not reassigned
and that the binding between the name and the person or
organization is permanent, regardless of any personal name
changes, corporate restructuring, death or dissolution.
Process of identifier assignment:
Names are granted via Network Solutions proprietary registration
procedures.
Process of identifier resolution:
PIN URNs are resolved via URN resolvers run by Network
Solutions. Since a PIN URN identifies a person or
organization, resolving a PIN URN will only be able to return
information from an electronic proxy that is merely a
representation of the actual person or organization being
named.
Rules for Lexical Equivalence:
The entire URN is case-insensitive.
Conformance with URN Syntax:
There are no additional characters reserved.
Validation mechanism:
None additional to resolution specified
Scope:
Global
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RFC 3043 NSI PIN URN Namespace January 2001
3. Examples
The following examples are not guaranteed to be real. They are
listed for pedagogical reasons only.
URN:pin:bs4321234
URN:pin:324kj5hkj45
URN:pin:mm2136
4. Security Considerations
Since the URNs in this namespace are opaque there are no additional
security considerations other than those normally associated with the
use and resolution of URNs in general.
It is noted however that attempting to resolve a PIN URN through a
resolver other than the one provided by Network Solution is error
prone. In any case it is not considered authoritative.
References
[1] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.
Author's Address
Michael Mealling
Network Solutions, Inc.
505 Huntmar Park Drive
Herndon, VA 22070
US
Phone: +1 770 935 5492
EMail: michaelm@netsol.com
URI: http://www.netsol.com
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RFC 3043 NSI PIN URN Namespace January 2001
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
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Acknowledgement
Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
Internet Society.
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