RFC 3953 PROPOSED STANDARD ENUM · PRESENCE · DNS

ENUM for Presence: Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) Service Registration for Presence Services

How a phone number in the DNS can point to the address where that person's presence can be checked.

On rfc-editor.org ↗
PUBLISHED
January 2005
AUTHORS
J. Peterson
STREAM
IETF
UPDATED BY
RFC 6118 — Update of Legacy IANA Registrations of Enumservices
REGISTERED ENUMSERVICE
E2U+pres
URI SCHEME
pres:
INTENDED USAGE
COMMON
BASELINE PIDF STATES
OPEN and CLOSED
NUMBER USED IN THE EXAMPLE
+12025332600
DOI
10.17487/RFC3953

RFC text

Contents
Original text · RFC Editor View on rfc-editor.org ↗
Network Working Group                                        J. Peterson
Request for Comments: 3953                                       NeuStar
Category: Standards Track                                   January 2005


                Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) Service
                  Registration for Presence Services

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 (2005).

Abstract

   This document registers a Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) service for
   presence.  Specifically, this document focuses on provisioning pres
   URIs in ENUM.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
   2. ENUM Service Registration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
   3. Presence for E.164 Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
   4. The 'E2U+pres' Enumservice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   5. Example of E2U+pres Enumservice  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   6. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   7. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
      8.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
      8.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   Author's Address. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   Full Copyright Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1. Introduction

   ENUM (E.164 Number Mapping, RFC 3761 [1]) is a system that uses DNS
   (Domain Name Service, RFC 1034 [8]) to translate telephone numbers,
   such as +12025332600, into URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers, RFC
   2396 [9]), such as pres:user@host.com.  ENUM exists primarily to
   facilitate the interconnection of systems that rely on telephone
   numbers with those that use URIs to identify resources.

   Presence is a service defined in RFC 2778 [2] that allows users of a
   communications service to monitor one another's availability and
   disposition in order to make decisions about communicating.  Presence
   information is highly dynamic and generally characterizes whether a
   user is online or offline, busy or idle, away from communications
   devices or nearby, and the like.

   The IETF has defined a generic URI used to identify a presence
   service for a particular resource: the 'pres' URI scheme (defined in
   CPP [4]).  This document describes an enumservice for advertising
   presence information associated with an E.164 number.

2.  ENUM Service Registration

   As defined in [1], the following is a template covering information
   needed for the registration of the enumservice specified in this
   document:

      Service name: "E2U+pres"

      URI scheme(s): "pres:"

      Functional Specification: See section 4.

      Security considerations: See section 6.

      Intended usage: COMMON

      Author: Jon Peterson (jon.peterson@neustar.biz)

      Any other information that the author deems interesting: See
      section 3.

3.  Presence for E.164 Numbers

   This document specifies an enumservice field that allows presence
   information to be provided for an E.164 number.  This may include
   presence states associated with telephones, or presence of non-
   telephony communications services advertised by ENUM.

   Endpoints that participate in a presence architecture are known
   (following the framework in RFC 2778 [2]) as watchers and
   presentities.  Watchers subscribe to the presence of presentities and
   are notified when the presence of a presentity changes.  Watchers
   generally monitor the presence of a group of presentities with whom
   they have an ongoing association.  As an example, consider how this
   might apply to a telephony service.  Most cellular telephones today
   have an address book-like feature, a small database of names and
   telephone numbers.  Such a telephone might act as a watcher,
   subscribing to the presence of some or all of the telephone numbers
   in its address book.  The display of the telephone might then show
   its user, when a presence-enabled telephone number is selected, the
   availability of the destination.  With this information, the user
   might change their calling habits to correspond better to the
   availability of his or her associates.

   The presence information that is shared varies by communications
   service.  The IETF has defined a Presence Information Data Format (or
   PIDF [6]) for describing the presence data associated with a
   presentity.  The baseline PIDF specification declares only two
   presence states: OPEN and CLOSED (these terms are defined in RFC 2778
   [2]); the former suggests that the destination resource is able to
   accept communication requests, the latter that it is not.  These two
   states provide useful but rudimentary insight into the communications
   status of a presentity.  For that reason, PIDF is an extensible
   format, and new sorts of statuses can be defined for specific
   communications services.  For example, a telephony-based presence
   service might define a status corresponding to 'busy'.  Extending
   PIDF for telephony services is, however, outside the scope of this
   document.

4.  The 'E2U+pres' Enumservice

   Traditionally, the services field of an NAPTR record (as defined in
   [10]) contains a string composed of two subfields: a 'protocol'
   subfield and a 'resolution service' subfield.  ENUM in particular
   defines an 'E2U' (E.164 to URI) resolution service.  This document
   defines an 'E2U+pres' enumservice for presence.

   The scheme of the URI that will appear in the regexp field of an
   NAPTR record using the 'E2U+pres' enumservice SHOULD be the 'pres'
   URI scheme.  Other URI schemes appropriate to presence services MAY
   be used; however, the use of the 'pres' URI scheme ensures a greater
   level of compatibility than would the use of any URI specific to a
   particular presence protocol.  The purpose of a pres URI is to
   provide a generic way to locate a presence service.  Techniques for
   dereferencing the pres URI to locate a presence service are given in
   [5].

   The 'pres' URI scheme does not identify any particular protocol that
   will be used to handle presence operations (such as subscriptions and
   notifications).  Rather, the mechanism in [5] details a way to
   discover whether the presence protocol(s) supported by the watcher
   is/are also supported by the presentity.  SIP [7] is one protocol
   that can be used to convey presence information and manage
   subscriptions/notifications.

5.  Example of E2U+pres enumservice

   The following is an example of the use of the enumservice registered
   by this document in an NAPTR resource record.

$ORIGIN 3.8.0.0.6.9.2.3.6.1.4.4.e164.arpa.
   IN NAPTR 100 10 "u" "E2U+pres" "!^.*$!pres:jon.peterson@example.net!"

6.  Security Considerations

   DNS does not make policy decisions about the records it shares with
   an inquirer.  All DNS records must be assumed to be available to all
   inquirers at all times.  The information provided within an ENUM
   record set must therefore be considered open to the public -- which
   is a cause for some privacy considerations.

   Revealing a pres URI in and of itself is unlikely to introduce many
   privacy concerns, although, depending on the structure of the URI, it
   might reveal the full name or employer of the target.  The use of
   anonymous URIs mitigates this risk.  More serious privacy concerns
   are associated with the unauthorized distribution of presence
   information.  For this reason, presence protocols have a number of
   security requirements (detailed in RFC 2779 [3]) that call for
   authentication of watchers, integrity and confidentiality properties,
   and similar measures to prevent abuse of presence information.  Any
   presence protocol used in conjunction with the 'pres' URI scheme is
   required to meet these requirements.

   Unlike a traditional telephone number, the resource identified by a
   pres URI may require that callers provide cryptographic credentials
   for authentication and authorization before presence information is
   returned.  In concert with presence protocols, ENUM can actually
   provide far greater protection from unwanted callers than does the
   existing PSTN, despite the public availability of ENUM records.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document registers the 'E2U+pres' enumservice under the
   enumservice registry described in the IANA considerations in RFC
   3761.  Details of the registration are given in section 2.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [1]  Faltstrom, P. and M. Mealling, "The E.164 to Uniform Resource
        Identifiers (URI) Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS)
        Application", RFC 3761, April 2004.

   [2]  Day, M., Rosenberg, J., and H. Sugano, "A Model for Presence and
        Instant Messaging", RFC 2778, February 2000.

   [3]  Day, M., Aggarwal, S., Mohr, G., and J. Vincent, "Instant
        Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements", RFC 2779, February
        2000.

   [4]  Peterson, J., "Common Profile for Presence (CPP)", RFC 3859,
        August 2004.

   [5]  Peterson, J., "Address Resolution for Instant Messaging and
        Presence", RFC 3861, August 2004.

8.2.  Informative References

   [6]  Sugano, H., Fujimoto, S., Klyne, G., Bateman, A., Carr, W., and
        J. Peterson, "Presence Information Data Format (PIDF)", RFC
        3863, August 2004.

   [7]  Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, A.,
        Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E. Schooler, "SIP:
        Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261, June 2002.

   [8]  Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities", STD
        13, RFC 1034, November 1987.

   [9]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
        Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August
        1998.

   [10] Mealling, M., "Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS) Part
        Three: The Domain Name System (DNS) Database", RFC 3403, October
        2002.

Author's Address

   Jon Peterson
   NeuStar, Inc.
   1800 Sutter St.
   Suite 570
   Concord, CA  94520
   USA

   Phone: +1 925/363-8720
   EMail: jon.peterson@neustar.biz
   URI:   http://www.neustar.biz/

Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
   contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
   retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
   ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
   INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
   INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

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Acknowledgement

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   Internet Society.

ISO Plain Language

On this page
PROBLEMENUM can translate a telephone number into a URI, but there was no registered ENUM service for the 'pres' URI scheme, so a number could not be advertised with a generic way to find out whether the person behind it is reachable.
MECHANISMThe document registers an enumservice named 'E2U+pres' with the URI scheme 'pres', and says that a NAPTR record using it should carry a pres URI, which a watcher resolves to find a presence service that both sides support.
WHY IT MATTERSThe registration lets a number's NAPTR record point at a generic presence URI rather than at one particular presence protocol. RFC 3953 was later updated by RFC 6118.

§1Introduction

ENUM (E.164 Number Mapping, described in RFC 3761) is a system that uses DNS (Domain Name Service, described in RFC 1034) to translate telephone numbers, such as +12025332600, into URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers, described in RFC 2396), such as pres:user@host.com. ENUM exists primarily to make it easier to connect systems that rely on telephone numbers with systems that use URIs to identify resources.

Presence is a service defined in RFC 2778 that lets users of a communications service watch one another's availability and disposition in order to decide how to communicate. Presence information is highly dynamic. It generally says whether a user is online or offline, busy or idle, away from communications devices or nearby, and so on.

The IETF has defined a generic URI for identifying a presence service for a particular resource: the 'pres' URI scheme, defined in the Common Profile for Presence. This document describes an enumservice for advertising presence information associated with an E.164 number.

ENUM uses DNS records to turn a phone number into an address that software can use. Presence is a service that shows whether a person is free to talk. This document adds a way for a phone number to carry a generic address for checking that person's presence.

§3Presence for E.164 Numbers

The document specifies an enumservice field that allows presence information to be provided for an E.164 number. This may include presence states associated with telephones, or the presence of non-telephony communications services advertised by ENUM.

Endpoints that take part in a presence architecture are known, following the framework in RFC 2778, as watchers and presentities. Watchers subscribe to the presence of presentities and are notified when that presence changes. Watchers generally monitor the presence of a group of presentities with whom they have an ongoing association.

The example given is a telephony service. Most cellular telephones today have an address book-like feature, a small database of names and telephone numbers. Such a telephone might act as a watcher, subscribing to the presence of some or all of the telephone numbers in its address book. When a presence-enabled telephone number is selected, the display could show its user the availability of the destination, and the user might then change their calling habits to match the availability of their associates.

The presence information that is shared varies by communications service. The IETF has defined a Presence Information Data Format (PIDF) for describing the presence data associated with a presentity. The baseline PIDF specification declares only two presence states, OPEN and CLOSED, where OPEN suggests the destination resource is able to accept communication requests and CLOSED that it is not. These two states give useful but rudimentary insight into the communications status of a presentity. PIDF is therefore extensible, and new sorts of statuses can be defined for specific communications services, for example a status corresponding to 'busy' for a telephony-based presence service. Extending PIDF for telephony services is, however, outside the scope of this document.

One side watches, the other side is watched. A watcher subscribes to a presentity and is told when its state changes. The baseline format for that state has just two values, OPEN and CLOSED, though it can be extended with more detailed ones.

§4The E2U+pres Enumservice

Traditionally the services field of a NAPTR record, as defined in RFC 3403, contains a string composed of two subfields: a 'protocol' subfield and a 'resolution service' subfield. ENUM in particular defines an 'E2U' (E.164 to URI) resolution service. This document defines an 'E2U+pres' enumservice for presence.

The scheme of the URI that appears in the regexp field of a NAPTR record using the 'E2U+pres' enumservice SHOULD be the 'pres' URI scheme. Other URI schemes appropriate to presence services MAY be used, but using the 'pres' URI scheme ensures a greater level of compatibility than using any URI specific to a particular presence protocol. The purpose of a pres URI is to provide a generic way to locate a presence service. Techniques for dereferencing the pres URI to locate a presence service are given in RFC 3861.

The 'pres' URI scheme does not identify any particular protocol that will be used to handle presence operations such as subscriptions and notifications. Rather, the mechanism in RFC 3861 details a way to discover whether the presence protocols supported by the watcher are also supported by the presentity. SIP is one protocol that can be used to convey presence information and manage subscriptions and notifications.

A NAPTR record for the number should carry a pres URI. That URI does not say which protocol to use; it is a generic pointer, and looking it up tells you which presence protocols both ends share.

§5Example of an E2U+pres NAPTR Record

The document gives one example of the enumservice it registers, in a NAPTR resource record. The origin is the ENUM tree for the number, and the record's services field is u E2U+pres, with the replacement expression producing a pres URI for the named user.

The example record is reproduced below exactly as the RFC prints it.

Here is the actual DNS record. The services field names the E2U+pres service, and the expression turns the number into a pres URI for one user.

THE NAPTR RECORD GIVEN IN THE RFC
E2U+pres NAPTR record
$ORIGIN 3.8.0.0.6.9.2.3.6.1.4.4.e164.arpa.
   IN NAPTR 100 10 "u" "E2U+pres" "!^.*$!pres:jon.peterson@example.net!"

§6Security Considerations

DNS does not make policy decisions about the records it shares with an inquirer. All DNS records must be assumed to be available to all inquirers at all times. The information provided within an ENUM record set must therefore be considered open to the public, which is a cause for some privacy concerns.

Revealing a pres URI in itself is unlikely to introduce many privacy concerns, although, depending on the structure of the URI, it might reveal the full name or employer of the target. The use of anonymous URIs mitigates this risk. More serious privacy concerns are associated with the unauthorized distribution of presence information. For this reason, presence protocols have a number of security requirements, detailed in RFC 2779, that call for authentication of watchers, integrity and confidentiality properties, and similar measures to prevent abuse of presence information. Any presence protocol used in conjunction with the 'pres' URI scheme is required to meet these requirements.

Unlike a traditional telephone number, the resource identified by a pres URI may require that callers provide cryptographic credentials for authentication and authorization before presence information is returned. In concert with presence protocols, ENUM can therefore provide far greater protection from unwanted callers than the existing Public Switched Telephone Network does, despite the public availability of ENUM records.

Anyone can read DNS, so the ENUM record itself is public. The protection comes later: the presence service can demand credentials before it tells anyone anything.

§7IANA Considerations and the Registration

The document registers the 'E2U+pres' enumservice under the enumservice registry described in the IANA considerations in RFC 3761. The registration details are given in section 2, using the template defined in RFC 3761: the service name is "E2U+pres", the URI scheme is "pres:", the functional specification is in section 4, the security considerations are in section 6, the intended usage is COMMON, and the author is Jon Peterson of NeuStar.

This document's main act is to add one entry to the IANA registry of ENUM services, so that the name E2U+pres means a fixed thing for anyone using it.

THE REGISTRATION AS GIVEN IN SECTION 2
  • Service nameE2U+pres
  • URI schemepres:
  • Intended usageCOMMON
  • Functional SpecificationSee section 4.
  • Security considerationsSee section 6.
  • AuthorJon Peterson

§7References