Subject: [Modern] Updated charter

From: Steve Donovan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 28 May 2015 11:14:11 -0500

I've updated the charter below based on list discussions.

This contains two changes, changing peer-to-peer to distributed and the 
change related to a preference to use existing protocol mechanisms.

Steve

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The MODERN working group will define a set of Internet-based mechanisms for
the purposes of managing and resolving telephone numbers (TNs) in an IP
environment.  Existing mechanisms for these purposes face obsolescence 
as the
voice communications infrastructure evolves to IP technology and new
applications for TNs become possible.  The traditional model of a TN 
having an
association to a single service provider and a single application is 
breaking
down.  Its use as a network locator is going away, but its use as an 
identifier
for an individual or an organization will remain for some time. Devices,
applications, and network tools increasingly need to manage TNs, including
requesting and acquiring TN delegations from authorities.  A sample of 
problems
with existing mechanisms include:

- lack of flexibility (for example, it can be difficult to add fields 
without a
very elaborate and lengthy process typically spanning years)

- lack of distribution (for example, it is hard or impossible to have 
more than
one administrator for each database)

- complexity (leading, for example, to a fair amount of rural call 
completion
problems which aren't helped by small providers struggling to keep numbers
straight)

- difficulty of adopting more modern allocation (e.g., "blocks" of 1) and
porting mechanisms

The working group will define an information management framework for 
the roles
and functions involved in associating information with one or more TNs 
in an IP
environment.  The working group will also identify protocol mechanisms 
to support
the interactions between the functions defined by the framework. This 
includes
either recommending or defining protocol mechanisms for acquiring, 
associating
and resolving TNs, with a preference for use of existing protocol 
mechanisms.
The protocol mechanism for acquiring TNs will provide an enrollment 
process for
the entities that use and manage TNs. TNs may either be managed in a 
hierarchical
tree, or in a distributed registry.  Privacy of the managed data and 
security of the
resource will be primary considerations.  The protocol mechanism for 
resolving
TNs will allow entities such as service providers, devices, and 
applications to
access data related toTNs.  Maintaining reliability, real time 
application performance,
security and privacy are primary considerations.  The working group will 
take into
consideration existing IETF work including ENUM, SPEERMINT, DRINKS and SCIM.

The work of this group will focus on TNs, as defined in RFC3966, and 
blocks of
TNs, that are used to initiate communication with another user of a 
service.
The work is motivated by the changing telecom environment and interest 
expressed
by telecommunications industry regulators to support more flexible 
regulatory
models than exist today.   There is an expectation that aspects of the
architecture and protocols defined by the working group will be reusable for
other user-focused identifiers.  Any such extensions or reuse of MODERN
mechanisms are out of scope for the MODERN working group. Solutions and
mechanisms created by the working group will be flexible enough to 
accommodate
different policies, e.g., by different regulatory agencies.

The work group will deliver the following:

- An architecture overview, including high level requirements and
security/privacy considerations

- A description of the enrollment processes for existing and new TNs 
including
any modifications to metadata related to those TNs

- A description of protocol mechanisms for accessing contact information
associated with enrollments

- A description of mechanisms for resolving information related to TNs