Internet-Draft The geo Link-Format Attribute October 2013
Fossati Expires 4 May 2014 [Page]
Workgroup:
Internet Engineering Task Force
Internet-Draft:
draft-fossati-core-geo-link-format-attribute-01
Published:
Intended Status:
Standards Track
Expires:
Author:
T.F. Fossati
KoanLogic

A Link-Format Attribute for Locating Things

Abstract

This memo proposes a new CoAP link format attribute, "geo", that can be used to associate positioning metadata to a CoAP resource.

Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

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This Internet-Draft will expire on 4 April 2014.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

This memo proposes a new CoAP link-format attribute, "geo", that can be used to associate positioning metadata to a CoAP resource, and make this information available to other endpoints that, directly or indirectly, participate in to CoAP link-format discovery [RFC6690].

The ability for a consuming application to access positioning information about a sensing resource is crucial in a number of use cases, especially those in which one or more sensor networks provide input to an emergency handling service (e.g. fire, flood, etc.).

This spec reuses the geo URI syntax [RFC5870], which is capable to describe physical locations in two or three dimensions (also supporting underground and underwater localisation using negative numbers) in a compact, simple and human readable way.

1.1. Requirements Language

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 [RFC2119].

2. Motivation and Use Cases

Location-aware applications and location-based services like seismic networks, gas pipeline monitoring deployments, fire or flood detection systems, etc., need to precisely locate the source of sensed stimulus in order to react in a sensible way.

{TODO collect other use cases}

This section defines a new Web Linking [RFC5988] link-param, "geo", to be used within the [RFC6690] framework, having the following syntax:

  link-extension  = "geo" "=" geo-path
  geo-path          ; defined in Section 3.3. of RFC 5870

The geo attribute MUST NOT appear more than once in a link.

(NOTE about Link-Format queries: non exact matches cannot be easily/effectively queried.)

4. Examples

  REQ: GET /.well-known/core

  RES: 2.05 Content
  </fire>;ct=0;if="sensor;geo="40.00201,16.34007"
  REQ: GET /.well-known/core

  RES: 2.05 Content
  </water>;ct=0;if="sensor;geo="38.2953,20.6426,-20"

5. Encoding Considerations

See Section 3.5. of [RFC5870].

6. IANA Considerations

TODO

7. Security Considerations

The "geo" link-format attributes share the same security issues as any other attribute involved in the discovery process described in [RFC6690].

Further to that, the privacy considerations regarding distribution, protection, usage, retention, and storage of the location information of the target resource found in [RFC6280] fully apply.

8. Normative References

[RFC2119]
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC3694]
Danley, M., Mulligan, D., Morris, J., and J. Peterson, "Threat Analysis of the Geopriv Protocol", RFC 3694, DOI 10.17487/RFC3694, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3694>.
[RFC5870]
Mayrhofer, A. and C. Spanring, "A Uniform Resource Identifier for Geographic Locations ('geo' URI)", RFC 5870, DOI 10.17487/RFC5870, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5870>.
[RFC5988]
Nottingham, M., "Web Linking", RFC 5988, DOI 10.17487/RFC5988, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5988>.
[RFC6280]
Barnes, R., Lepinski, M., Cooper, A., Morris, J., Tschofenig, H., and H. Schulzrinne, "An Architecture for Location and Location Privacy in Internet Applications", BCP 160, RFC 6280, DOI 10.17487/RFC6280, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6280>.
[RFC6690]
Shelby, Z., "Constrained RESTful Environments (CoRE) Link Format", RFC 6690, DOI 10.17487/RFC6690, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6690>.

Author's Address

Thomas Fossati
KoanLogic