[secdir] [new-work] WG Review: A Semantic Definition Format for Data and Interactions of Things (asdf)

[The IESG <[e-mail]>]

The A Semantic Definition Format for Data and Interactions of Things (asdf)
WG in the Applications and Real-Time Area of the IETF is undergoing
rechartering. The IESG has not made any determination yet. The following
draft charter was submitted, and is provided for informational purposes only.
Please send your comments to the IESG mailing list ([e-mail]) by
2024-06-03.

A Semantic Definition Format for Data and Interactions of Things (asdf)
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Current status: Active WG

Chairs:
  Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>
  Niklas Widell <[e-mail]>

Assigned Area Director:
  Francesca Palombini <[e-mail]>

Applications and Real-Time Area Directors:
  Murray Kucherawy <[e-mail]>
  Orie Steele <[e-mail]>

Mailing list:
  Address: [e-mail]
  To subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asdf
  Archive: https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/asdf/

Group page: https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/asdf/

Charter: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/charter-ietf-asdf/

## Background

In 2019 One Data Model (OneDM) was started to bring several IoT SDOs and IoT
device and platform vendors together under a broad, multi-party liaison
agreement, with a goal of arriving at a common set of data and interaction
models that describe IoT devices. After some exploratory work this resulted
in a successful proposal to create the ASDF WG.

As a common language for writing down these models, the Semantic Definition
Format went through the IETF process, producing (draft-ietf-asdf-sdf). This
SDF Base specification has now reached WG Consensus, to be published. SDF
represents these models in JSON, enabling re-use of specification formats
such as CDDL (RFC8610) and the formats proposed at json-schema.org and their
tooling, for describing both the SDF format itself and the structure of the
data to be modelled in SDF.

SDF does not deal directly with serialization at all, modeling only the
structure and semantics of the data being interchanged, hence leaving data
serialization (and RPC semantics) to other standards, most likely defined by
existing IoT SDOs.

## The ASDF Working Group

The ASDF WG has developed SDF into a standards-track specification for thing
interaction and data modeling. In the process of developing this
specification, further functional requirements have emerged that can be
addressed as extensions to the base SDF specification.

The ASDF WG will develop these extensions in consultation with experts from
OneDM and its contributing organizations to extend SDF to cover the following:

* modeling of links and relationships between elements of models,

* modeling of non-affordance attribute (e.g., location)
information/interaction for digital twins where the corresponding physical
objects can be described with SDF,

* additional SDF modeling mechanisms to enable property mapping between
additional IoT SDOs' objects (including instances, and types), and

* information/interaction modeling and protocol mappings to enable gateway
interactions between IP and non-IP transports, with draft-brinckman-nipc-00
as a starting point.

To increase ease of use, ASDF WG will also complete work on the proposal for
a Compact Notation for SDF.

As work evolves, ASDF will observe and may want to interact with IRTF
Research Groups such as the Usable Formal Methods Research Group (UFMRG).
ASDF will work with Thing-to-Thing Research Group (T2TRG) and its WISHI (Work
on IoT Semantic/Hypermedia Interoperability, https://wishi.space) program to
engage researchers  and other SDOs in this space, such as W3C Web of Things,
which is working on Thing Models and related specifications.

Milestones:

  Sep 2024 - Submit to the IESG a standards track extension to SDF to
  describe sdfTyped links.

  Nov 2024 - Submit to the IESG a standards track extension to SDF to
  describe relationships between elements of models (beyond sdfRef).

  Jan 2025 - Submit to the IESG a standards track document on Compact
  Notation for SDF.

  May 2025 - Submit to the IESG a standards track specification on how to use
  SDF to communicate over IP with non-IP based devices.

  Aug 2025 - Submit to the IESG a standards track extension which allows for
  industry specific attributes to be associated with a common SDF model.

  Aug 2025 - Submit to the IESG a standards track specification on describing
  instances that are based on SDF models.

  Sep 2025 - Submit to the IESG a standards track extension to SDF to allow
  for inclusion of physical information and other non-affordance attribute
  information/interactions as an SDF attribute (e.g., to provide modeling
  support for digital twins).



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