An Ontology for RFCs

Abstract

This document defines an ontology that describes the specifications published by the RFC Editor, together with ancillary documents.¶

1. Introduction

This document defines an ontology that describes the specifications published by the RFC Editor, together with ancillary documents like errata and RFC series.¶

This effort is the continuation of the RFC-Prolog [RFC-Prolog] database that was described in one of the position papers presented at the IAB Workshop on Analyzing IETF Data (AID) [RFC9307]. The schema in that database was simplified and reformulated as an ontology.¶

Note that for the time being, the file containing the ontology is available in the git repository described in Appendix A.2.¶

2. The RFC Ontology

The RFC Ontology extends the Bibliographic Ontology [BIBO] and reuse elements from the Friend of a friend [FOAF] and DCMI Metadata Terms [DCTERMS] ontologies.¶

3. IANA Considerations

No IANA considerations in this document.¶

4. Security Considerations

The information in that document are derived from publicly available databases, so they do not present more security risk.¶

5. Informative References

[BIBO]

D'Arcus, B., Giasson, F., and DCMI Usage Board, "Bibliographic Ontology", 11 November 2009, <https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/bibo/>.

[DCTERMS]

DCMI Usage Board, "DCMI Metadata Terms", 20 January 2020, <https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/>.

[Flora-2]

Department of Computer Science Stony Brook University, "Knowledge Representation Reasoning with Flora-2", August 2022, <https://flora.sourceforge.net>.

[FOAF]

Brickley, D. and L. Miller, "FOAF Vocabulary Specification 0.99", 14 January 2014, <https://web.archive.org/web/20220518003509/http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/20140114.html>.

[RFC-Prolog]

Petit-Huguenin, M., "The RFC Prolog Database", September 2021, <https://www.iab.org/wp-content/IAB-uploads/2021/11/Petit-Huguenin.txt>.

[RFC9307]

ten Oever, N., Cath, C., Kühlewind, M., and C. S. Perkins, "Report from the IAB Workshop on Analyzing IETF Data (AID) 2021", RFC 9307, DOI 10.17487/RFC9307, September 2022, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9307>.

Appendix A. Implementation

An implementation of the RFC ontology using the programming language Flora-2 [Flora-2] is provided.¶

The "rfcs.flr" file contains the list of all RFCs, BCPs, STDs, and FYIs.¶

The following example shows an RFC metadata encoded in Flora-2:¶

\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9306":rfc#Rfc
  [ rfc#number -> 9306
  , terms#title ->
'Vendor-Specific LISP Canonical Address Format (LCAF)'
  , terms#creator -> {\#1, \#2, \#3, \#4, \#5}
  , bibo#authorList -> [\#1, \#2, \#3, \#4, \#5]
  , terms#date -> '2022-10'
  , terms#format ->
{'text/html', 'text/plain', 'application/pdf', 'text/xml'}
  , rfc#keyword -> {'lisp', 'lcaf', 'internal', 'domain',
'organization', 'private'}
  , bibo#abstract -> 'This document describes a ...'
  , terms#isVersionOf ->
\"https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-lisp-vendor-lcaf-12"
  , rfc#updates -> {\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8060"}
  , rfc#publicationStatus -> rfc#experimental
  , rfc#currentStatus -> rfc#experimental
  , rfc#stream -> rfc#ietf
  , rfc#area -> 'rtg'
  , rfc#wg -> 'lisp'
  , bibo#doi -> '10.17487/RFC9306'
  , rfc#normativelyReferences ->
    { \"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6847097"
    , \"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119"
    , \"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8060"
    , \"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8126"
    , \"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174"
    , \"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9300"
    , \"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9301"
    }
    ]
  , \#1:foaf#Person
    [ foaf#name -> 'Alberto Rodriguez-Natal'
    , foaf#familyName -> 'Rodriguez-Natal'
    , rfc#initials -> 'A.'
    ]
  , \#2:foaf#Person
    [ foaf#name -> 'Vina Ermagan'
    , foaf#familyName -> 'Ermagan'
    , rfc#initials -> 'V.'
    ]
  , \#3:foaf#Person
    [ foaf#name -> 'Anton Smirnov'
    , foaf#familyName -> 'Smirnov'
    , rfc#initials -> 'A.'
    ]
  , \#4:foaf#Person
    [ foaf#name -> 'Vrushali Ashtaputre'
    , foaf#familyName -> 'Ashtaputre'
    , rfc#initials -> 'V.'
    ]
  , \#5:foaf#Person
    [ foaf#name -> 'Dino Farinacci'
    , foaf#familyName -> 'Farinacci'
    , rfc#initials -> 'D.'
    ]
  .

Comments on some non-obvious encoding:¶

• "terms#creator" contains the set of authors. This uses a Skolem symbol to represents the fact that we do not have a resource for the person, but we want to define it only once (equivalent to a blank node). The mathematically inclined can think of this as an existential quantifier ("there exists a person named...​").¶
• "terms#editor", not present in this example, would contain the set of editors.¶
• "bibo#authorList" contains the ordered list of all authors and editors.¶
• "rfc#normativelyReferences" or "rfc#informativeReferences" are difficult to parse in RFCs that were not published in xml2rfc format, so this is currently work in progress.¶

The following example shows a BCP encoded in Flora-2:¶

\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp0003":rfc#Bcp
  [ rfc#number -> 3
  , bibo#hasPart ->
    { \"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1915"
    }
  ].

STD and FYI are encoded similarly, substituting respectively "rfc#Std" and "rfc#Fyi" to "rfc#Bcp".¶

The "errata.flr" file contains the list of all Errata.¶

The following example shows an Errata encoded in Flora-2:¶

\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid5866":rfc#Errata
  [ rfc#id -> 5866
  , rfc#corrects -> \"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc0005"
  , rfc#type -> rfc#editorial
  , rfc#status -> rfc#verified
  , rfc#reportedBy -> \#:foaf#Person[foaf#name -> 'Martin Thomson']
  , rfc#reportedOn -> "2019-09-26"^^\date
  , rfc#processedBy -> \#:foaf#Person[foaf#name -> 'Benjamin Kaduk']
  , rfc#processedOn -> "2019-09-26"^^\date
  ].

[schema,+rfcs,+errata].

?:rfc#Rfc[rfc#number -> ?rfc, terms#date -> ?_d],
  ?_d[endsWith('-04-01')]@\btp.

?_abnf:rfc#Rfc[rfc#number -> 5234], ?:rfc#Rfc[bibo#cites -> ?_abnf,
  rfc#number -> ?rfc, terms#title -> ?rfc].

git clone git://shalmaneser.org/VejlapAknul1 rfc-ontology-flora2

Acknowledgements

Thanks to John Levine and Robert Sparks for their help in gathering the information used for populating the knowledge graphs.¶