# Protocol Action: URL to Proposed and IRL- and URN-Reqs to Informational

IESG Secretary (iesg-secretary@CNRI.Reston.VA.US)
Fri, 04 Nov 94 08:50:15 -0500

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    To: "IETF-Announce:;"<>

    From: IESG Secretary <iesg-secretary@CNRI.Reston.VA.US>

    Subject: Protocol Action: URL to Proposed and IRL- and URN-Reqs to Informational

    Date: Fri, 04 Nov 94 08:50:15 -0500

    Message-Id:  <9411040850.aa02586@IETF.CNRI.Reston.VA.US>

The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft:
o "Uniform Resource Locators (URL)" <draft-ietf-uri-url-08.txt>

as a Proposed Standard. In addition, the IESG recommends to the
RFC Editor that:

o "Functional Requirements for Internet Resource Locators"
<draft-ietf-uri-irl-fun-req-01.txt>

o "Requirements for Uniform Resource Names"
<draft-ietf-uri-urn-req-01.txt>

be published as Informational RFC.

This documents are the product of the Uniform Resource Identifiers
Working Group. The IESG contact person is Erik Huizer.
Technical Summary

Many protocols and systems for document search and retrieval are
currently in use, and many more protocols or refinements of existing
protocols are to be expected in a field whose expansion is explosive.
To allow end users, who may be using different protocols for search
and retrieval, to exchange references to objects on the network a
standard for naming and addressing these objects is required.
The <draft-ietf-uri-irl-fun-req-01.txt> paper discusses the
requirements on a universal syntax which can be used to refer to
objects available on the network using existing protocols, and may be
extended with technology. <draft-ietf-uri-url-08.txt> makes a
recommendation for a generic syntax, and for specific forms for
"Uniform Resource Locators" (URLs) of objects accessible using
existing Internet protocols.
The <draft-ietf-uri-urn-req-00.txt> discusses the requirements for a
universal syntax of an identifier which can be used to uniquely
identify a resource, and is designed to provide persistent naming for
networked objects. This name would stay the same no matter what the
current location(s) of the object was.

Working Group Summary

The papers are the result of two years of in depth discussions on the
architecture, syntax and semantics of the URN, URL and URCs. The most
serious point of discontent was whether the URL syntaxt needed to
include the "URL:" label or not. The working group resolved this at
the last meeting in Toronto.

Protocol Quality

While these documents represent major steps forward in the definition
and standardization of information resource location and
identification, they do not address at least two issues that will
become increasingly important as the Internet continues to grow:

- Scaling and replication
- Protocol-dependence

The necessity for solving these problems is generally understood in
the community and it is usually assumed that the solution lies in URNs
and URCs, but the URN requirements document does not yet cover them.
Resolution of the issues will be a precondition for moving of the
standards-track documents to Draft Standard.

The current documents, however, create a firm basis to gain
implementation experience while work on other parts of the information
resource location and identification goes on.

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