Network Working Group H. Schulzrinne
Request for Comments: 4589 Columbia U.
Category: Standards Track H. Tschofenig
Siemens
July 2006
Location Types Registry
Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
Abstract
This document creates a registry for describing the types of places a
human or end system might be found. The registry is then referenced
by other protocols that need a common set of location terms as
protocol constants. Examples of location terms defined in this
document include aircraft, office, and train station.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Terminology .....................................................3
3. Location Types ..................................................3
4. Schema ..........................................................6
5. IANA Considerations .............................................7
5.1. Registering Tokens .........................................7
5.2. URN Sub-Namespace Registration for
urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:location-type .......................8
5.3. Schema Registration for Schema
urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:location-type .......................9
6. Internationalization Considerations .............................9
7. Security Considerations .........................................9
8. Acknowledgements ................................................9
9. References .....................................................10
9.1. Normative References ......................................10
9.2. Informative References ....................................10
Schulzrinne & Tschofenig Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 4589 Location Types Registry July 2006
1. Introduction
This document creates a registry for location type tokens. We
anticipate that the network, through configuration or management
protocols, tells a mobile device what kind of location it finds
itself in. The device and associated software can then tailor its
behavior to the environment. For example, this document defines the
terms "classroom", "place-of-worship", and "theater". A considerate
owner of a cell phone might program the device to switch from ringer
to vibrate mode in such environments. Just knowing the geographic
location, be it as civic (street address) or geospatial coordinates,
would generally not allow the device to make a similar decision.
Naturally, the number of descriptive terms for physical environments
is almost unbounded. This registry tries to identify common terms
that are likely to be useful for communications devices and for
controlling and guiding communications behavior. The terms roughly
correspond to the level of details of location descriptions and icons
found on geographic maps, for example, and are meant to be in common
use across a variety of cultures and countries. The registration
process described in the IANA Considerations section allows this list
to be extended as needed, while aiming to prevent an unnecessary
explosion in the registry.
The use of tokens (i.e., protocol constants) makes it easier to build
systems across multiple languages. A user interface can readily
translate a finite set of tokens to user-appropriate textual or
iconic representations. Protocols using this registry are encouraged
to provide additional mechanisms to accommodate location types not
currently registered via free-text fields with appropriate language
and character set labeling.
The terms defined in this registry do not attempt to provide a
hierarchy of location descriptions, except in certain special cases.
For example, the term "restaurant" is defined to include the term
"cafe", and the term "public" encompasses a range of descriptors, as
noted below. The registry makes these more generic terms available
as often the more detailed distinctions may not be available, or
privacy concerns suggest the use of less precise terms that are still
sufficient to guide communications behavior or evaluate the source of
a phone call or message, say.
In many cases, a location might be described by multiple terms that
apply at the same time. For example, the combination of "restaurant"
and "airport" is immediately recognizable. This registry makes no
attempt to limit the number of terms that can be used to describe a
single place or to restrict what combinations are allowed, given that
there are few combinations that are physically impossible. Common
Schulzrinne & Tschofenig Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 4589 Location Types Registry July 2006
sense is probably a better guide here; the authors would not want to
rule out creative business models such as combinations of "parking"
and "restaurant" or "bar" and "hospital". The number of terms that
can be used within the same protocol element is left to the protocol
description.
This document does not describe how the values of the registry are to
be used, as this description is provided by other documents. For
example, [5] describes options for carrying civic address
information, including the place type attributes listed in this
document, using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv4 and
DHCPv6). A usage for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service
(RADIUS) is described in [6], where this information is conveyed from
the RADIUS client to the RADIUS server. Rich presence (RPID [4])
also utilizes the values of the location types registry.
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 [1].
3. Location Types
This section describes types of locations where an entity is located.
The entity is not further specified and can be a person or an object
such as a network access point or end system.
aircraft: A device that is used or intended to be used for flight in
the air, such as an airplane, helicopter, gyroplane, glider, or
lighter-than-air devices like a balloon.
airport: A place from which aircrafts operate, such as an airport or
heliport.
arena: Enclosed area used for sports events.
automobile: An automotive vehicle, usually four-wheeled, designed
for passenger transportation, such as a car.
bank: Business establishment in which money is kept for saving,
commercial purposes, is invested, supplied for loans, or
exchanged.
bar: A bar or saloon.
bicycle: A vehicle with two wheels tandem, a steering handle, a
saddle seat, and pedals by which it is propelled.
Schulzrinne & Tschofenig Standards Track [Page 3]
RFC 4589 Location Types Registry July 2006
bus: A large motor vehicle designed to carry passengers.
bus-station: Terminal that serves bus passengers, such as a bus
depot or bus terminal.
cafe: Usually a small and informal establishment that serves various
refreshments (such as coffee); coffee shop.
classroom: Academic classroom or lecture hall.
club: Dance club, nightclub, or discotheque.
construction: Construction site.
convention-center: Convention center or exhibition hall.
government: Government building, such as those used by the
legislative, executive, or judicial branches of governments,
including court houses, police stations, and military
installations.
hospital: Hospital, hospice, medical clinic, mental institution, or
doctor's office.
hotel: Hotel, motel, inn, or other lodging establishment.
industrial: Industrial setting, such as a manufacturing floor or
power plant.
library: Library or other public place in which literary and
artistic materials, such as books, music, periodicals, newspapers,
pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading,
reference, or lending.
motorcycle: A two-wheeled automotive vehicle, including a scooter.
office: Business setting, such as an office.
other: A place without a registered place type representation.
outdoors: Outside a building, in or into the open air, such as a
park or city streets.
parking: A parking lot or parking garage.
place-of-worship: A religious site where congregations gather for
religious observances, such as a church, chapel, meetinghouse,
mosque, shrine, synagogue, or temple.
Schulzrinne & Tschofenig Standards Track [Page 4]
RFC 4589 Location Types Registry July 2006
prison: Correctional institution where persons are confined while on
trial or for punishment, such as a prison, penitentiary, jail,
brig.
public: Public area such as a shopping mall, street, park, public
building, train station, or airport or in public conveyance such
as a bus, train, plane, or ship. This general description
encompasses the more precise descriptors 'street', 'public-
transport', 'aircraft', 'bus', 'bus-station', 'train', 'train-
station', 'airport', 'shopping-area', 'outdoors', and
'watercraft'.
public-transport: Any form of public transport, including aircraft,
bus, train, or ship.
residence: A private or residential setting, not necessarily the
personal residence of the entity, e.g., including a friend's home.
restaurant: Restaurant, coffee shop, or other public dining
establishment.
school: School or university property, but not necessarily a
classroom or library.
shopping-area: Shopping mall or shopping area. This area is a
large, often enclosed, shopping complex containing various stores,
businesses, and restaurants usually accessible by common
passageways.
stadium: Large, usually open structure for sports events, including
a racetrack.
store: Place where merchandise is offered for sale, such as a shop.
street: A public thoroughfare, such as an avenue, street, alley,
lane, or road, including any sidewalks.
theater: Theater, lecture hall, auditorium, classroom, movie
theater, or similar facility designed for presentations, talks,
plays, music performances, and other events involving an audience.
train: Train, monorail, maglev, cable car, or similar conveyance.
train-station: Terminal where trains load or unload passengers or
goods; railway station, railroad station, railroad terminal, train
depot.
Schulzrinne & Tschofenig Standards Track [Page 5]
RFC 4589 Location Types Registry July 2006
truck: An automotive vehicle suitable for hauling, used primarily to
carry goods rather than people.
underway: In a land-, water-, or aircraft that is underway (in
motion).
unknown: The type of place is unknown.
warehouse: Place in which goods or merchandise are stored, such as a
storehouse or self-storage facility.
water: In, on, or above bodies of water, such as an ocean, lake,
river, canal, or other waterway.
watercraft: On a vessel for travel on water such as a boat or ship.
4. Schema
This registry can be used in two ways, first, as a list of tokens, to
be referenced by appropriate protocols that accept textual tokens,
and second, as a schema, with its own namespace, referenced by other
schema, either explicitly or via namespace="##other".
5. IANA Considerations
5.1. Registering Tokens
This document creates new IANA registries for location types as
listed in Section 3, starting with 'aircraft' and finishing with
'watercraft'.
IANA will maintain this registry both in the form of an XML schema
and a list of tokens, with the same content.
Schulzrinne & Tschofenig Standards Track [Page 7]
RFC 4589 Location Types Registry July 2006
Following the policies outline in RFC 2434 [2], new tokens are
assigned after Expert Review. The Expert Reviewer will generally
consult the IETF GeoPRIV working group mailing list or its designated
successor. Updates or deletions of tokens from the registration
follow the same procedures.
The expert review should be guided by a few common sense
considerations. For example, tokens should not be specific to a
country, region, organization, or company; they should be well-
defined and widely recognized. The expert's support of IANA will
include providing IANA with the new token(s) when the update is
provided only in the form of a schema, and providing IANA with the
new schema element(s) when the update is provided only in the form of
a token.
To ensure widespread usability across protocols, tokens MUST follow
the character set restrictions for XML Names [3].
Each registration must include the name of the token and a brief
description similar to the ones offered herein for the initial
registrations contained this document:
Token Identifier: Identifier of the token.
Description: Brief description indicating the meaning of the token,
including one or more examples where the term encompasses several
more precise terms.
XML namespace: Tokens MAY be used as elements within other
appropriate XML documents. Each token lists the namespace it is
part of, typically urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:location-type:ext, where
'ext' is the name of the extension.
Note that the usage of these tokens is not limited to XML and the
'Token Identifier' is the XML element content and not the XML element
name.
5.2. URN Sub-Namespace Registration for
urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:location-type
URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:location-type
Description: This is the XML namespace for XML elements defined by
RFC4589 to describe location types within XML documents.
Registrant Contact: IETF, GEOPRIV working group, geopriv@ietf.org,
Henning Schulzrinne, hgs@cs.columbia.edu
Schulzrinne & Tschofenig Standards Track [Page 8]
RFC 4589 Location Types Registry July 2006
XML:
BEGIN
See RFC4589.