Identifier Survey
| No | "Thing" or "Application domain" | Identifier (What is the attribute that identifies this thing?) | Characteristic (what is the size, composition of the identifier?) | Universally Unique (is this identifier unique across the domain in which it is used?) | Locally Unique (is the identifier unique within a local domain such as a communication hub?) | Mutable (can the identifier be changed?) | Transferable (can the identifier be transferred to another thing?) | Discover-able (does the thing provide a way to find the identifier by query?) | Relation to Owner (does the identifier have a relationship with the owner?) | Applicability (what is the industry, vertical, or other describer of the domain in which this applies?) | Secure (is the identifier stored in a secure element or location?) | Controlling Body (is there a formal body that controls the format and use of the identifier in the domain?) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mobile Phone Fixed Line Phone | MSISDN Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number | 15 digits (max for public networks; internal 40 digits more) | YES | YES | YES | YES (WITH CONSTRAINS) | YES exept: ENUM numbers | YES | Mobile and Fixed Telephony Networks | International Telecommunication Union ITU-T E.164 National | In public networks a ITU E.164 number has up to 15 digits. A full E.164 number consist of a country code, national destination code and a subscriber number. | |
2 | Mobile Phone | IMSI | 15 digits | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES (Telco internal) | YES | any mobile network that connects to another network | International Telecommunication Union ITU-T E.212 Operators | IMSI is a unique identifier for a user within a GSM network. It is asociated with a SIM card. A S | |
3 | Mobile Phone | IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity | 15 or 17 digits | USUALLY | YES | NO | NO | Vendor or Telco database | NONE | 3GPP and iDEN mobiles | GSMA | IMEI uniquely identifies an individual mobile device.. An IMEI is allocated by the equipment manufacturer and registered by the network operator, who stores it in the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR). | |
4 | Ethernet | MAC address MediaAccess Control address | 48 or 64 bits | YES (exceptions possible) | YES | MASKING | NO | YES | NONE | Most IEEE 802 network technologies, including Ethernet and WiFi. | IEEE | A media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment. MAC addresses are used as a network address for most IEEE 802 network technologies, including Ethernet and WiFi. Common configurations are MAC-48, EUI-48, and EUI-64. | |
5 | Internet | IPv4 address Internet | 32 bits | public yes / private no | YES (WITH CONSTRAINTS) | YES | NO | YES | VIA DNS | Internet connected devices utilize IP Addresses | Some TLDs utilize DNSSEC | Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) | The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) manages the IP address space allocations globally and delegates five regional Internet registries (RIRs) to allocate IP address blocks to local Internet registries (Internet service providers) and other entities. |
6 | Internet | IPv6 address Internet | 128 bits | public yes / private no | YES (WITH CONSTRAINTS) | YES | NO | YES | VIA DNS | Internet connected devices utilize IP Addresses | Some TLDs utilize DNSSEC | IANA | The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) manages the IP address space allocations globally and delegates five regional Internet registries (RIRs) to allocate IP address blocks to local Internet registries (Internet service providers) and other entities. |
7 | Internet | URI Universal | no restriction (but practical limitations e.g. in server config etc) | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES (DNS) | VIA DNS | Web Services REST-based service endpoints | IANA ICANN local informatikon center NIC organization internal | URIs are a standard for identifying documents using a short string of numbers, letters, and symbols. They are defined by RFC 3986 - Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax. URLs, URNs, and URCs are all types of URI. There are a number is URI schemes outlined at http://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes/uri-schemes.xhtml | |
7 | Internet | URL Universal | no restriction (but practical limitations e.g. in server config etc) | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES (DNS) | VIA DNS | Web Services REST-based service endpoints | ICANN local informatikon center NIC organization internal | URL refers to the subset of URIs that, in addition to identifying a resource, provide a means of locating the resource by describing its primary access mechanism e.g., its network "location"). | |
7 | Internet | URN Universal | no restriction (but practical limitations e.g. in server config etc) | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES (DNS) | VIA DNS | Web Services REST-based service endpoints | ICANN local informatikon center NIC organization internal | (URN) has been used historically to refer to both URIs under the "urn" scheme [RFC2141], which are required to remain globally unique and persistent even when the resource ceases to exist or becomes unavailable, and to any other URI with the properties of a name | |
8 | M2M | oneM2M Identifier | URL plus unreserved characters defined in the clause 2.3 of the IETF RFC 3986 | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES (DNS) | VIA DNS | M2M-SP-ID, CSE-ID, App-ID and AE-ID and resource Identifier formats | ICANN local informatikon center NIC organization internal | oneM2M uses Domain Names (RFC 1035) partly with additions of unreserved characters (RFC 3986) e.g. 'C' or 'S'. for example
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9 | SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3) | DNP3 Remote Identifier | Link Address (1 or 2) | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | None | Resembles IEC 60870-5 FT3 frame | Not by default, IEEE 1379-2000 recommends security practices | None, recommended in IEEE Std. IEEE 1379-2000 | DNP3 (Distributed Network Protocol) is a set of communications protocols used between components in process automation systems in utilities including electric and water companies. https://www.dnp.org/Lists/Announcements/Attachments/7/Secure%20Authentication%20v5%202011-11-08.pdf |
10 | SNMP community | SNMP community name | variable | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | None | Obsolete | No | IANA or private | SNMP tops the list of the SANS Institute's Common Default Configuration Issues as the default SNMP community strings is set to ‘public’ and ‘private’ |
11 | SNMP | SMNP Agent Object Instance | OID | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | None | Any network object that has an SNMP agent | If V3 | IANA | Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet-standard protocol for managing devices via "agents" on IP networks. |
12 | GS1 | EPC Electronic | various XML schemas, RFID tags, GTINs, SSCCs, GLNs, etc. | YES | YES | via DNS | GS1 EPC Global | ||||||
13 | Automotive | VIN Vehicle | 17digit number | YES | YES | NO | NO | YES but not publicly available | YES via local authorities | automotive | ISO 3779 local authorities (e.g NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION in US) | VINs may be optically read with barcode scanners or digital cameras, or digitally read via onboard units (OBU) in newer vehicles. | |
| TMSI | 4 OCTETS | NO | WITH THE VLR ONLY | YES | NO | YES | None | GSM or UMTS networks | Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) is the identity that is most commonly sent between the mobile and the network. | ||||
| UDID | 40 CHAR | NO | Apple | iPhone unique device identifier, or UDID | |||||||||
| Android ID: | YES | ||||||||||||
| PCI Component | PCI Identifier | 32 BITS (Vendor ID + Device ID) | NO | NO - Only idenifies Device Type uniquely | YES | YES | YES | NONE | Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), as its name implies is a standard that describes how to connect the peripheral components of a system together in a structured and controlled way. | ||||
| Cloud/Virtual Device | Varies | ||||||||||||
vSphere instanceUuid | 128bit identifier | NO | YES | NO | NO | YES, locally | NONE | Virtual Data Centers | NO | VMWare | The instanceUuid is a property that was introduced in the vSphere 4.0 API to provide an easy way to uniquely identify a VM. | ||
vCloud Director Object ID | URN | YES when combined with the HREF | YES | NO | NO | YES, locally | Yes when combined with the href | Cloud Data Centers | NO | VMWare | To automatically handle uniqueness of a VM across a single or multi vCloud Director Cell, there is an object reference property called href that is provided as a URL that contains information about the vCloud Director Cell and VM vCloud Director Object ID. | ||
ARN Amazon Resource Name | Varies composed of the general form arn: | Yes | Yes | NO | NO | NO | NO | Amazon Web Services | NO | Amazon Web Services | Amazon Resource Names (ARNs) uniquely identify AWS resources | ||
| Azure VM unique ID | 128bit identifier | NO | YES | NO | NO | YES, locally | NONE | Virtual Data Centers | NO, but is encoded | Microsoft Azure | Azure VM unique ID is a 128bits identifier that is encoded and stored in all Azure IaaS VM’ SMBIOS and can be read using platform BIOS commands | ||
| Industrial Control System Entity | |||||||||||||
| Smart Parking meter | |||||||||||||
| Voting Machine | |||||||||||||
| Radiological device | |||||||||||||
| Emergency Response Radio | |||||||||||||
| Automobile telematics device | |||||||||||||
| CAN Node | CAN Node ID | Variable, on the order of tens of bits | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | N | Q.v. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus | ||||
| Air Traffic Control Sensor | |||||||||||||
| Unattended Vehicle |