Network Working Group                                   D. McWalter, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5131                           Data Connection Ltd
Category: Standards Track                                  December 2007


              A MIB Textual Convention for Language Tags

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.

Abstract

  This MIB module defines a textual convention to represent BCP 47
  language tags.  The intent is that this textual convention will be
  imported and used in MIB modules that would otherwise define their
  own representation.

Table of Contents

  1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  3.  The Internet-Standard Management Framework  . . . . . . . . . . 2
  4.  Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
    8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
    8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

















McWalter                    Standards Track                     [Page 1]

RFC 5131                     LANGTAG TC MIB                December 2007


1.  Introduction

  This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB)
  for use with network management protocols in the Internet community.
  It defines a textual convention to represent BCP 47 [RFC4646]
  language tags.

  The LangTag TEXTUAL-CONVENTION defined by this RFC replaces the
  similar LanguageTag TEXTUAL-CONVENTION defined by RFC 2932 [RFC2932].

  The old LanguageTag TEXTUAL-CONVENTION is used by some existing MIB
  modules.  New MIB modules should use the LangTag TEXTUAL-CONVENTION,
  which has been created (and is to be preferred) for the following
  reasons:

  o  Its syntax description is current, and is more comprehensive.

  o  It is short enough to use as an index object without subtyping,
     yet is of adequate length to represent any language tag in
     practice.

  o  It is provided in a dedicated MIB module to simplify module
     dependencies.

  It is not possible to apply changes in syntax and length to an
  existing textual convention.  This is why the creation of a new
  textual convention with a new name was necessary.

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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

3.  The Internet-Standard Management Framework

  For a detailed overview of the documents that describe the current
  Internet-Standard Management Framework, please refer to section 7 of
  RFC 3410 [RFC3410].

  Managed objects are accessed via a virtual information store, termed
  the Management Information Base or MIB.  MIB objects are generally
  accessed through the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
  Objects in the MIB are defined using the mechanisms defined in the
  Structure of Management Information (SMI).  This memo specifies a MIB
  module that is compliant to the SMIv2, which is described in STD 58,
  RFC 2578 [RFC2578], STD 58, RFC 2579 [RFC2579] and STD 58, RFC 2580
  [RFC2580].



McWalter                    Standards Track                     [Page 2]

RFC 5131                     LANGTAG TC MIB                December 2007


4.  Definitions

LANGTAG-TC-MIB DEFINITIONS ::= BEGIN

IMPORTS
   MODULE-IDENTITY, mib-2             FROM SNMPv2-SMI      -- [RFC2578]
   TEXTUAL-CONVENTION                 FROM SNMPv2-TC;      -- [RFC2579]

langTagTcMIB MODULE-IDENTITY
   LAST-UPDATED "200711090000Z" -- 9 November 2007
   ORGANIZATION "IETF Operations and Management (OPS) Area"
   CONTACT-INFO "EMail: [email protected]
                 Home page: http://www.ops.ietf.org/"
   DESCRIPTION
           "This MIB module defines a textual convention for
           representing BCP 47 language tags."
   REVISION     "200711090000Z" -- 9 November 2007
   DESCRIPTION
          "Initial revision, published as RFC 5131.

           Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).  This version of this
           MIB module is part of RFC 5131; see the RFC itself for full
           legal notices."
   ::= { mib-2 165 }

LangTag ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
  DISPLAY-HINT "1a"
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
           "A language tag, constructed in accordance with BCP 47.

           Only lowercase characters are allowed.  The purpose of this
           restriction is to provide unique language tags for use as
           indexes.  BCP 47 recommends case conventions for user
           interfaces, but objects using this TEXTUAL-CONVENTION MUST
           use only lowercase.

           Values MUST be well-formed language tags, in conformance
           with the definition of well-formed tags in BCP 47.  An
           implementation MAY further limit the values it accepts to
           those permitted by a 'validating' processor, as defined in
           BCP 47.

           In theory, BCP 47 language tags are of unlimited length.
           The language tag described in this TEXTUAL-CONVENTION is of
           limited length.  The analysis of language tag lengths in BCP
           47 confirms that this limit will not pose a problem in
           practice.  In particular, this length is greater than the



McWalter                    Standards Track                     [Page 3]

RFC 5131                     LANGTAG TC MIB                December 2007


           minimum requirements set out in Section 4.3.1.

           A zero-length language tag is not a valid language tag.
           This can be used to express 'language tag absent' where
           required, for example, when used as an index field."
  REFERENCE "RFC 4646 BCP 47"
  SYNTAX      OCTET STRING (SIZE (0 | 2..63))

END

5.  Security Considerations

  This MIB module does not define any management objects.  Instead, it
  defines a textual convention that may be imported by other MIB
  modules and used for object definitions.

  Meaningful security considerations can only be written in the MIB
  modules that define management objects.  This document therefore has
  no impact on the security of the Internet.

6.  IANA Considerations

  LANGTAG-TC-MIB is rooted under the mib-2 subtree.  IANA has assigned
  { mib-2 165 } to the LANGTAG-TC-MIB module specified in this
  document.

7.  Acknowledgements

  This MIB module is a reworking of existing material from RFC 2932.

  This module was generated by editing together contributions from
  Randy Presuhn, Dan Romascanu, Bill Fenner, Juergen Schoenwaelder,
  Bert Wijnen, Doug Ewell, and Ira McDonald.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

  [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

  [RFC2578]  McCloghrie, K., Ed., Perkins, D., Ed., and J.
             Schoenwaelder, Ed., "Structure of Management Information
             Version 2 (SMIv2)", STD 58, RFC 2578, April 1999.

  [RFC2579]  McCloghrie, K., Ed., Perkins, D., Ed., and J.
             Schoenwaelder, Ed., "Textual Conventions for SMIv2",
             STD 58, RFC 2579, April 1999.



McWalter                    Standards Track                     [Page 4]

RFC 5131                     LANGTAG TC MIB                December 2007


  [RFC2580]  McCloghrie, K., Perkins, D., and J. Schoenwaelder,
             "Conformance Statements for SMIv2", STD 58, RFC 2580,
             April 1999.

  [RFC4646]  Phillips, A. and M. Davis, "Tags for Identifying
             Languages", BCP 47, RFC 4646, September 2006.

8.2.  Informative References

  [RFC2932]  McCloghrie, K., Farinacci, D., and D. Thaler, "IPv4
             Multicast Routing MIB", RFC 2932, October 2000.

  [RFC3410]  Case, J., Mundy, R., Partain, D., and B. Stewart,
             "Introduction and Applicability Statements for Internet-
             Standard Management Framework", RFC 3410, December 2002.

Author's Address

  David McWalter (editor)
  Data Connection Ltd
  100 Church Street
  Enfield  EN2 6BQ
  United Kingdom

  EMail: [email protected]


























McWalter                    Standards Track                     [Page 5]

RFC 5131                     LANGTAG TC MIB                December 2007


Full Copyright Statement

  Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).

  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, THE IETF TRUST 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.

Intellectual Property

  The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
  Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
  pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
  this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
  might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
  made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
  on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
  found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

  Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
  assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
  attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
  such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
  specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
  http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

  The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
  copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
  rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
  this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at
  [email protected].












McWalter                    Standards Track                     [Page 6]