[May 14, 2003] Several Internet Drafts and RFCs on a Generic Voucher Language 'XML Voucher' and 'Voucher Trading System (VTS)' have been released through the activities of the IETF Internet Open Trading Protocol Working Group. The VTS requirements document calls for implementation of the Voucher Trading System based upon a Voucher Trading Protocol (VTP), VTS Application Programming Interface (VTS-API), and Generic Voucher Language (GVL). These specifications are being designed to interoperate with the Internet Open Trading Protocol (IOTP) and with the Electronic Commerce Modeling Language (ECML) specification, as well as with XML and XML-Signature.

Background on the Voucher Trading System

"It is often necessary to credit loyalty points, collect digital coupons or gift certificates, etc, to complete purchases or other trading transactions in the real world. The importance of these activities is also being recognized in Internet Commerce. If a different issuing or collecting system to handle such points or coupons must be developed for each individual application, the implementation cost will be excessive, inhibiting the use of such mechanisms in electronic commerce. Consumers may also be forced to install a number of software modules to handle these points or coupons."

"A voucher is a digital representation of the right to claim services or goods. Using vouchers, a wide-range of electronic-values, including points or coupons, can be handled in a uniform manner with one trading software module."

IETF Informational RFC 3506 Requirements and Design for Voucher Trading System (VTS) "presents a Voucher Trading System (VTS) that circulates vouchers securely and its terminology; it lists design principles and requirements for VTS and the Generic Voucher Language (GVL), with which diverse types of vouchers can be described."

"To achieve interoperability among multiple VTSs developed by independent VTS Providers, standard protocols for issuing, transferring, or redeeming vouchers will be needed. However, there are several ways of implementing VTS. For discount coupons or event tickets, for example, the smart-card-based decentralized offline VTS is often preferred, whereas for bonds or securities, the centralized online VTS may be preferred. It is impractical to define any standard protocol at this moment."

"To provide freedom in terms of VTS selection for issuers and application developers, a standard Voucher Trading System Application Programming Interface (VTS-API) that can encapsulate VTS implementations should be specified. It allows a caller application to issue, transfer, and redeem voucher in a uniform manner independent of the VTS implementation. Basic functions, i.e., issue, transfer, and redeem, provided by VTS-API can be straightforwardly derived from the VTS model described in this document. More design details of the VTS-API will be discussed in a separate document or a separate VTS-API specification."

"To satisfy the diverse requirements placed on VTS, a standard Generic Voucher Language (GVL) that realizes various voucher properties should be specified. This approach ensures that VTS is application independent. The language should be able to define diverse Promises P of the voucher [tuple] <I, P, H> to cover tickets, coupons, loyalty points, and gift certificates uniformly. Specifying I and H is a VTS implementation issue and can be achieved by using a public key, hash of a public key, URI or other names with scope rule." [from the March 2003 RFC]

Principal References

Updated 2003-05:

• Internet Open Trading Protocol WG.

• "IETF Internet Open Trading Protocol Working Group Publishes RFC for Voucher Trading System." News item 2003-05-15.

• Mailing list archives for 'ietf-trade' list

• XML Voucher and VTS-API. References from NTT Information Sharing Platform Laboratories, Information Security Project. Contact: Ko Fujimura.

• "XML Voucher: Generic Voucher Language." By Ko Fujimura and Masayuki Terada (NTT Corporation, Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa, Japan). With contributions by Donald Eastlake 3rd, Ian Grigg, Renato Iannella, and Yoshiaki Nakajima. IETF Trade Working Group, Internet-Draft. Reference: 'draft-ietf-trade-voucher-lang-05.txt'. "This document specifies rules for defining voucher properties in XML syntax. A voucher is a logical entity that represents a right to claim goods or services. A voucher can be used to transfer a wide-range of electronic-values, including coupons, tickets, loyalty points, and gift certificates, which are often necessary to process in the course of payment and/or delivery transactions... The motivation and background of the specification are described in Requirements and Design for Voucher Trading System (VTS)... A voucher is generated by the issuer, traded among users, and finally collected by the collector using VTS... This document defines the syntax and semantics of Voucher Component, which defines voucher meaning and processing rules in XML syntax. A Voucher Component defines the properties that must be satisfied to allow the voucher to be processed by VTS or other trading systems, e.g., wallet or merchant system. VTS definitions and models are also defined in "Requirements and Design for Voucher Trading System (VTS)." [cache]

• "Requirements and Design for Voucher Trading System (VTS).". By Ko Fujimura (NTT Corporation) and Donald E. Eastlake 3rd (Motorola). IETF Network Working Group. Request for Comments: 3506. Category: Informational. March 2003. "Crediting loyalty points and collecting digital coupons or gift certificates are common functions in purchasing and trading transactions. These activities can be generalized using the concept of a 'voucher', which is a digital representation of the right to claim goods or services. This document presents a Voucher Trading System (VTS) that circulates vouchers securely and its terminology; it lists design principles and requirements for VTS and the Generic Voucher Language (GVL), with which diverse types of vouchers can be described... To achieve consistency with other related standards shown below, the syntax of the language MUST be based on XML... The language specification should be consistent with the following specifications: (1) Internet Open Trading Protocol v1.0; (2) XML-Signature; (3) Extensible Markup Language (XML) Recommendation; (4) ECML Version 2." [cache]

• "Voucher Trading System Application Programming Interface (VTS-API)." By Ko Fujimura and Masayuki Terada (NTT Corporation, Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa, Japan). IETF Trade Working Group, Internet-Draft. Reference: 'draft-ietf-trade-voucher-vtsapi-05.txt'. February 2003, expires August 2003. "This document specifies the Voucher Trading System Application Programming Interface (VTS-API). The VTS-API allows a wallet or other application to issue, transfer, and redeem vouchers in a uniform manner independent of the VTS implementation. The VTS is a system to securely transfer vouchers, e.g., coupons, tickets, loyalty points, and gift certificates; this process is often necessary in the course of payment and/or delivery transactions... The VTS-API allows a caller application to issue, transfer, and redeem vouchers in a uniform manner independent of the VTS implementation. Several attempts have been made at providing a generic payment API. Java Commerce Client and Generic Payment Service Framework, for example, introduce a modular wallet architecture that permits diverse types of payment modules to be added as plug-ins and supports both check-like/cash-like payment models. This document is inspired by these approaches but the scope of this document is limited to the VTS model, in which cash-like payment model is assumed and vouchers are directly or indirectly transferred between sender (transferor) and receiver (transferee) via the VTS. This document is not intended to support API for SET, e-check or other payment schemes that do not fit the VTS model. Unlike the APIs provided in JCC and GPSF, which are designed to transfer only monetary values, this API enables the transfer of a wide-range of values through the use of XML-based Generic Voucher Language. The monetary meaning of the voucher is interpreted by the upper application layer using the information described in the language. This approach makes it possible to provide a simpler API in the voucher-transfer layer and enhances runtime efficiency. The API specification in this document is described in the Java language syntax. Bindings for other programming languages may be completed in a future version of this document or separate related specifications..." [cache]

Earlier References:

• "XML Voucher: Generic Voucher Language." IETF Trade Working Group. Reference: 'draft-ietf-trade-voucher-lang-02.txt'. November 2001, expires May 2002. Edited by By Ko Fujimura and Masayuki Terada (NTT Corporation, Kanagawa, JAPAN). [cache]
• Requirements and Design for Voucher Trading System (VTS)
• February 2001 version. 'draft-ietf-trade-voucher-lang-00.txt'
• Version 1 sample