ISO/IEC 20944-4:2013

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 20944-4
First edition
2013-01-15
Information technology — Metadata
Registries Interoperability and Bindings
(MDR-IB) —
Part 4:
Protocol bindings
Technologies de l'information — Interopérabilité et liaisons des registres
de métadonnées (MDR-IB) —
Partie 4: Liaisons de protocoles

Reference number
©
ISO/IEC 2013
©  ISO/IEC 2013
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ii © ISO/IEC 2013 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword . iv
Introduction . v
1  Scope . 1
2  Normative references . 1
3  Terms and definitions . 1
4  Intended use of this part of ISO/IEC 20944 . 1
5  Abstract model . 2
5.1  General . 2
5.2  Participant model . 2
5.3  Data model . 2
5.4  Control Model . 2
5.5  Connections . 3
5.6  State model . 3
6  Services . 5
6.1  Use of ISO/IEC 13886 . 5
6.2  Session establishment services . 5
6.3  Session parameter services . 6
6.4  Security services . 7
6.5  Data transfer services . 8
6.6  Data sharing services . 9
6.7  Miscellaneous . 10
7  Bindings . 12
8  Administration . 12
9  Conformance . 12
9.1  Protocol conformance paradigm . 12
9.2  Protocol server service . 12
9.3  Protocol client service . 12
9.4  Conformance labels . 13
10  Reserved for future standardization . 13
11  HTTP/1.1 protocol binding . 13
11.1  Session services . 13
11.2  Service list . 13
11.3  Conformance label prefix . 14
12  WebDAV protocol binding . 14
12.1  Session services . 14
12.2  Service list . 14
12.3  Conformance label prefix . 16

© ISO/IEC 2013 – All rights reserved iii

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of
ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees
established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC
technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of information
technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of the joint technical committee is to prepare International Standards. Draft International
Standards adopted by the joint technical committee are circulated to national bodies for voting. Publication as
an International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the national bodies casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/IEC 20944-4 was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 32, Data management and interchange.
ISO/IEC 20944 consists of the following parts, under the general title Information technology — Metadata
Registries Interoperability and Bindings (MDR-IB):
 Part 1: Framework, common vocabulary, and common provisions for conformance
 Part 2: Coding bindings
 Part 3: API bindings
 Part 4: Protocol bindings
 Part 5: Profiles
iv © ISO/IEC 2013 – All rights reserved

Introduction
The ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards provides the bindings and their interoperability for
metadata registries, such as those specified in the ISO/IEC 11179 series of International Standards.
This part of ISO/IEC 20944 contains provisions that are common to protocol bindings (Clauses 4-10) and the
protocol bindings themselves (Clause 11 onward). The protocol bindings have commonality in their
conceptualization of the services provided. For example, common features include:
 common data transfer semantics;
 harmonized session services for connection-oriented and connection-less protocols.
Clause 11 and onward are the actual protocol bindings themselves. The clauses of this part of ISO/IEC 20944
are organized such that future amendments are possible, which would include additional protocol bindings.

© ISO/IEC 2013 – All rights reserved v

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 20944-4:2013(E)

Information technology — Metadata Registries Interoperability
and Bindings (MDR-IB) —
Part 4:
Protocol bindings
1 Scope
The ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards describe codings, application programming interfaces
(APIs), and protocols for interacting with an ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry (MDR).
This part of ISO/IEC 20944 specifies provisions that are common across protocol bindings for the
ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards, and provides the individual protocol bindings themselves.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO/IEC 11404:2007, Information technology — General-Purpose Datatypes (GPD)
ISO/IEC 13886:1996, Information technology — Language-Independent Procedure Calling (LIPC)
ISO/IEC 20944-1:2013, Information technology — Metadata Registries Interoperability and Bindings
(MDR-IB) — Part 1: Framework, common vocabulary, and common provisions for conformance
ISO/IEC 20944-2:2013, Information technology — Metadata Registries Interoperability and Bindings
(MDR-IB) — Part 2: Coding bindings
IETF RFC 2616, Hypertext Transfer Protocol — HTTP/1.1, June 1999
IETF RFC 4918, HTTP Extensions for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), June 2007
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC 20944-1 apply.
4 Intended use of this part of ISO/IEC 20944
The purpose of this part of ISO/IEC 20944 is to provide a common set of services (common protocol
provisions) and standardized protocol bindings such that interoperable systems can be created to access the
MDR repositories. These systems are interoperable in that they should be able to access MDR repositories
that conform to this International Standard.
© ISO/IEC 2013 – All rights reserved 1

5 Abstract model
5.1 General
The protocol bindings have commonality in their conceptualization of data access services. For example,
common features include:
 common data transfer semantics
 harmonized session services for connection-oriented and connection-less protocols
The conceptual model is divided into two parts: the data model and the control model. The data model
describes the logical structure of information as it is transferred. The control model describes the structure of
the transactions, events, and protocol state.
5.2 Participant model
The senders and receivers of messages are called participants. The protocol binding permits client-server,
peer-to-peer, publish-subscribe, multicast, and broadcast modes of participation. The underlying
communication system determines which modes of participation are supported.
5.3 Data model
The data structure of ISO/IEC 20944-2 is incorporated via normative reference.
5.4 Control Model
The control model refers to the methods of causing actions among the parties communicating. The following
concepts characterize the control model.
5.4.1 Event
Assuming prior arrangement and appropriate authorization, each participant may send events. For the sender,
an event is a one-way message with no expected response. In programming languages, an event is
analogous to a "go to". For the receiver, an incoming event is processed by an event handler. The semantics
of event handling is outside the scope of this part of ISO/IEC 20944.
5.4.2 Wait
Assuming prior arrangement and appropriate authorization, a participant can ask another participant to wait
for an event, e.g., node A asks node B to wait for event E. In operating system kernel technology, this is
equivalent to "sleeping on an event".
5.4.3 Call
Assuming prior arrangement and appropriate authorization, a participant can send a "call" message, similar to
a remote procedure call. A "call" is equivalent to (1) sending data (input parameters) from caller to callee,
(2) sending a "start" event to the "callee", (3) posting a "wait" on the callee's "finish" event, (4) receiving data
(output parameters) from callee to caller. The advantage of "call" over combined "event" and "wait" is that
"call" handles the storage of temporary information in the "event" and "wait" services.
5.4.4 Parameters
The "event", "wait", and "call" messages may pass parameters. Parameters are passed in a list along with the
target event.
2 © ISO/IEC 2013 – All rights reserved

EXAMPLE A hypothetical function named ls is called with two function properties: (1) the options to the command,
and (2) three parameters to the command (the third parameter has properties, too). The following is illustration shows the
syntax:
{ call ls .listing-ty
...