UIT - Secteur de la normalisation des télécommunications

Committee T1 – Telecommunications

Standards Contribution

STANDARDS PROJECT:

TITLE: tML Framework Document

SOURCE: WorldCom, Inc.

CONTACT: Ed White

Tel#: 972-729-5509

Fax#: 972-729-6038

E-mail: ed.white@wcom.com

Editor: Ed White, WorldCom, Inc.

DATE: January 1, 2001

DISTRIBUTION: T1M1

ABSTRACT: This is a Framework for the development of tML (telecommunications Markup Language) standards for the management of telecommunications networks.

Work on this document is being advanced through interim meetings, expert meetings, and weekly meetings via phone-bridge and a Virtual Meeting facility.

This Document has been prepared to assist Standards Committees to advance this work. It is offered to the committee as a basis for discussion and is not a binding proposal on WorldCom. Information presented in this document may be subject to change after more study. WorldCom specifically reserves the right to add to, amend, or to withdraw the statements contained herein.
tML Framework Document

A1.0 Title tML Framework Document

A1.1 Introduction and Background

The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language for describing markup languages. XML is subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), an open industry standard managed by the WorldWide Web Consortium (W3C). XML specifies neither semantics nor a tag set. Instead, it simply provides a facility to define tags and the structural relationships between them. It was created out of a need for information exchange via the web or via any other mechanism.

The true value of XML is its ability to provide a standard means of exchanging information between applications, business partners, businesses and consumers. It is a critical component in application integration, e-commerce, and document management strategies. Achieving interoperable interfaces using tML requires agreed upon standards for the schema definitions. This framework promotes the use of schemas instead of DTDs.

This document provides a Framework to develop such standards for schema definitions. It provides the information and structure that will maximize the opportunities and benefits that this technology can provide. This document defines guidelines for creating interrelated components of an interoperable interface such as schema definitions (when approved as a W3C Recommendation), vocabulary, and namespaces. The framework meets the following objectives:

Minimize the redundancy in the definition of tags
Define single semantics for each tag
Reuse of the semantics available in TMN information models

The term tML in the context of this standard is a markup language derived from applying XML, a meta‑language used to derive other markup languages. tML receives its name from common telecommunications markup (tag names) defined in this document and from other markup defined in a variety of telecommunications standards developed from using this Framework.

A1.2 Purpose of tML Framework

The purpose of the tML Framework is to provide a standard definition for the development of interoperable interfaces based on the use of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), within the TMN context. The goal for use of the Framework is to guide the development of tML schemas and vocabularies and to provide a common method for the definition of tML data to be exchanged and to provide a mapping to existing standards to promote re-use whenever possible.

A1.3 Scope

The scope of the tML Framework consists of:

a set of rules and objectives to be applied in developing standardized schemas based on existing models in standards;
specification of common tML tags, namespaces, and URIs;
transformation of existing definitions in external libraries for use with tML; and
requirements for repositories and registries

This document specifies a number of alternative approaches for transferring tML compliant data across a TMN interface. The initial concentration is to support X interface. Even though multiple approaches are noted in this document, it is necessary to choose a specific method for implementing the transport infrastructure in order to exchange the tML documents. The specific approach may be documented in either a future version of this Framework or in a different standard.

The Framework document is organized according to interface types, e.g., TMN X, F, Q, and G interfaces (Figure 2), and there is a general section that includes specifications common to any of the interface types. This version of the document addresses only the X interface. (Add explanation on the differences in the three cases in Figure 2)

A2.0 References

A2.1 WorldWide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendations

Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition)	W3C Recommendation 6 October 2000
XML Schema Part 0: Primer	W3C Candidate Rec, 22 September 2000
XML Schema Part 1: Structures	W3C Candidate Rec 22 September 2000
XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes	W3C Candidate Rec 22 September 2000
Draft--Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.0	W3C Working Draft 18 October 2000
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification--Version 1.0	W3C Recommendation
XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.0	W3C Candidate Recommendation 3 July 2000
XML Pointer Language (XPointer) Version 1.0	W3C Candidate Recommendation 7 June 2000
Draft--XSL Transformations Requirements Version 1.1	W3C Working Draft 25 August 2000
Namespaces in XML	W3C Recommendation 14-Jan-1999

Note: W3C publishes several types of technical reports:

· Notes--A Note is a dated, public record of an idea, comment, or document. A Note does not represent commitment by W3C to pursue work related to the Note.

· Working Drafts--A Working Draft represents work in progress and a commitment by W3C to pursue work in this area. A Working Draft does not imply consensus by a group or W3C.

· Candidate Recommendations--A Candidate Recommendation is work that has received significant review from its immediate technical community. It is an explicit call to those outside of the related Working Groups or the W3C itself for implementation and technical feedback.

· Proposed Recommendations--A Proposed Recommendation is work that (1) represents consensus within the group that produced it and (2) has

· been proposed by the Director to the Advisory Committee for review.

· Recommendations--A Recommendation is work that represents consensus within W3C and has the Director’s stamp of approval. W3C considers that the ideas or technology specified by a Recommendation are appropriate for widespread deployment and promote W3C’s mission.

A2.2 IETF Specifications