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 (Telco internal) exept: ENUM numbers ENUM defines a way to discovery MSISDN via DNS	YES	Mobile and Fixed Telephony Networks PSTN/GSM/3G/LTE		International Telecommunication Union ITU-T E.164 National Authorities	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 International Mobile Subscriber Identity	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 Media Access 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 Protocol	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 Protocol	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 Resource Identifier	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 Resource Locator	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 Resource Name	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 /Sa3e3f3ab
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 community	SMNP Agent Object Instance	OID	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	None	Any network object that has an SNMP agent	If V3	IANA or private	Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet-standard protocol for managing devices via "agents" on IP networks.
12	GS1	EPC Electronic Product Code	various XML schemas, RFID tags, GTINs, SSCCs, GLNs, etc.	YES	YES			via DNS				GS1 EPC Global
13	Automotive	VIN Vehicle Identification Number	17digit number	YES	YES	NO	NO	YES but not publicly available	YES via local authorities	automotive		ISO 3779 ISO 3780 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						Google
	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:partition:service:region:account-id:resource`	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

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