One document matched: draft-ietf-core-observe-09.xml


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  <!ENTITY SELF "[RFCXXXX]">
  <!ENTITY OPTION1 "Observe">
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<rfc category="std" docName="draft-ietf-core-observe-09" ipr="trust200902">

  <front>

    <title>Observing Resources in CoAP</title>

    <author initials="K." surname="Hartke" fullname="Klaus Hartke">
      <organization>Universitaet Bremen TZI</organization>
      <address>
        <postal>
          <street>Postfach 330440</street>
          <city>Bremen</city>
          <code>D-28359</code>
          <country>Germany</country>
        </postal>
        <phone>+49-421-218-63905</phone>
        <email>hartke@tzi.org</email>
      </address>
    </author>

    <date year="2013"/>

    <area>Applications</area>

    <workgroup>CoRE Working Group</workgroup>

    <abstract>

      <t>CoAP is a RESTful application protocol for constrained nodes and
        networks. The state of a resource on a CoAP server can change over
        time. This document specifies a simple protocol extension for CoAP that
        enables CoAP clients to “observe” resources, i.e., to
        retrieve a representation of a resource and keep this
        representation updated by the server over a period of time. The
        protocol follows a best-effort approach for sending new
        representations to clients, and provides eventual consistency between
        the state observed by each client and the actual resource state at the
        server.</t>

    </abstract>
    
  </front>

  <middle>

    <!-- **************************************************************** -->
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    <section title="Introduction" anchor="introduction">

      <section title="Background" anchor="background">

        <t><xref target="I-D.ietf-core-coap">CoAP</xref> is an application
          protocol for constrained nodes and networks. It is intended to
          provide <xref target="REST">RESTful services</xref> not unlike <xref
            target="RFC2616">HTTP</xref> while reducing the complexity of
          implementation as well as the size of packets exchanged in order to
          make these services useful in a highly constrained network of
          themselves highly constrained nodes.</t>

        <t>The model of REST is that of a client exchanging representations of
          resources with a server. A representation captures the current or
          intended state of a resource. The server is the definitive source for
          representations of the resources in its namespace. A client
          interested in the state of a resource initiates a request to the
          server; the server then returns a response with a representation of
          the resource that is current at the time of the request.</t>

        <t>This model does not work well when a client is interested in having
          a current representation of a resource over a period of time.
          Existing approaches from HTTP, such as repeated polling or <xref
            target="RFC6202">HTTP long polling</xref>, generate significant
          complexity and/or overhead and thus are less applicable in a
          constrained environment.</t>

        <t>The protocol specified in this document extends the CoAP core
          protocol with a mechanism for a CoAP client to “observe”
          a resource on a CoAP server: the client can retrieve a representation
          of the resource and keep this representation updated by the server
          over a period of time.</t>

        <t>The protocol keeps the architectural properties of REST. It enables
          high scalability and efficiency through the support of caches and
          proxies. There is no intention for it, though, to solve the full set
          of problems that the existing HTTP solutions solve, or to replace
          publish/subscribe networks that solve a much more general problem
            <xref target="RFC5989"/>.</t>

      </section>

      <section title="Protocol Overview" anchor="overview">

        <t>The protocol is based on the well-known <xref target="GOF">observer
            design pattern</xref>. In this design pattern, components called
          “observers” register at a specific, known provider called
          the “subject” that they are interested in being notified
          whenever the subject undergoes a change in state. The subject is
          responsible for administering its list of registered observers. If
          multiple subjects are of interest to an observer, it must register
          separately for all of them.</t>

        <figure anchor="design-pattern" title="The Observer Design Pattern">
<artwork type="drawing" align="left"><![CDATA[
                     Observer           Subject
                        |                  |
                        |   Registration   |
                        +----------------->|
                        |                  |
                        |   Notification   |
                        |<-----------------+
                        |                  |
                        |   Notification   |
                        |<-----------------+
                        |                  |
                        |   Notification   |
                        |<-----------------+
                        |                  |
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

        <t>The observer design pattern is realized in CoAP as follows:<list
            style="hanging">
            <t hangText="Subject:">In the context of CoAP, the subject is a
              resource in the namespace of a CoAP server. The state of the
              resource can change over time, ranging from infrequent updates to
              continuous state transformations.</t>

            <t hangText="Observer:">An observer is a CoAP client that is
              interested in having a current representation of the resource
              at any given time.</t>

            <t hangText="Registration:">A client registers its interest in a
              resource by initiating an extended GET request to the server. In
              addition to returning a representation of the target resource,
              this request causes the server to add the client endpoint and
              token specified in the request to the list of observers of that
              resource.</t>

            <t hangText="Notification:">Whenever the state of a resource
              changes, the server notifies each client in the list of observers
              of the resource. Each notification is an additional CoAP response
              sent by the server in reply to the GET request and includes a
              complete, updated representation of the new resource state.</t>
          </list>
        </t>

        <t><xref target="example"/> below shows an example of a CoAP client
          registering its interest in a resource and receiving three
          notifications: the first upon registration with the current state,
          and then two upon changes to the resource state. Both the
          registration request and the notifications are identified as such by
          the presence of the &OPTION1; Option defined in this document. In
          notifications, the &OPTION1; Option provides a sequence number for
          reordering detection. All notifications carry the token specified by
          the client in the request, so the client can easily correlate them to
          the request.</t>

        <figure anchor="example" title="Observing a Resource in CoAP">
<artwork type="drawing" align="left"><![CDATA[
                     Client              Server
                        |                  |
                        | GET /temperature |
                        |   Token: 0x4a    |   Registration
                        | Observe: (empty) |
                        +----------------->|
                        |                  |
                        |   2.05 Content   |
                        |   Token: 0x4a    |   Notification of
                        | Observe: 12      |   the current state
                        | Payload: 22.9 C  |
                        |<-----------------+
                        |                  |
                        |   2.05 Content   |
                        |   Token: 0x4a    |   Notification upon
                        | Observe: 44      |   a state change
                        | Payload: 22.8 C  |
                        |<-----------------+
                        |                  |
                        |   2.05 Content   |
                        |   Token: 0x4a    |   Notification upon
                        | Observe: 60      |   a state change
                        | Payload: 23.1 C  |
                        |<-----------------+
                        |                  |
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

        <t>The server is the authority for determining under what conditions
          resources change their state and how often observers are notified.
          The protocol does not offer explicit means for setting up triggers,
          thresholds or other conditions; it is up to the server to expose
          observable resources that change their state in a way that is useful
          in the application context. Resources can be parameterized to achieve
          similar effects, though; see <xref target="modeling-resources"/> for
          examples.</t>

        <t>A client's entry remains on the list of observers as long as the
          server can determine the client's continued interest in the resource.
          The interest is determined from the client's acknowledgement of
          notifications sent in confirmable messages by the server: If the
          client actively rejects a notification or if the transmission of a
          notification times out after several transmission attempts, then the
          client is assumed to be no longer interested and its entry is removed
          from the list of observers.</t>

        <t>While a client is in the list of observers of a resource, the goal
          of the protocol is to keep the resource state observed by the client
          as closely in sync with the actual state at the server as
          possible.</t>

        <t>Becoming out of sync at times cannot be avoided: First, there is
          always some latency between the change of the resource state and the
          receipt of the notification. Second, messages with notifications can
          get lost, which will cause the client assume an old state until it
          receives a new notification. And third, the server may erroneously
          come to the conclusion that the client is no longer interested in the
          resource, which will cause the server to stop sending notifications and the
          client to assume an old state until it registers its interest
          again.</t>

        <t>The protocol addresses this issue as follows:<list style="symbols">
            <t>It follows a best-effort approach for sending the current
              representation to the client after a state change: Clients should
              see the new state after a state change as soon as possible, and
              they should see as many states as possible. However, a client
              cannot rely on observing every single state that a resource might
              go through.</t>
            <t>It labels notifications with a maximum duration up to which it
              is acceptable for the observed state and the actual state to be
              out of sync. When the age of the notification received reaches
              this limit, the client cannot use the enclosed representation
              until it receives a new notification.</t>
            <t>It is designed on the principle of eventual consistency: The
              protocol guarantees that, if the resource does not undergo a new
              change in state, eventually all registered observers will have a
              current representation of the latest resource state.</t>
          </list></t>

      </section>

      <section title="Requirements Notation" anchor="requirements-notation">

        <t>The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
          "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
          document are to be interpreted as described in <xref target="RFC2119"
            >RFC 2119</xref>.</t>

      </section>

    </section>

    <!-- **************************************************************** -->
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    <section title="The Observe Option" anchor="option">

      <texttable title="The Observe Option" anchor="option-table">
        <ttcol align="right">No.</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">C</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">U</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">N</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">R</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">Name</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">Format</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">Length</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">Default</ttcol>

        <c>&OPTION1NUMBER;</c>
        <c></c>
        <c>x</c>
        <c>-</c>
        <c></c>
        <c>&OPTION1;</c>
        <c>empty/uint</c>
        <c>0 B/0-3 B</c>
        <c>(none)</c>
        
        <postamble>C=Critical, U=Unsafe, N=No-Cache-Key, R=Repeatable</postamble>
      </texttable>
      
      <t>The &OPTION1; Option, when present in a request, extends the GET
        method so it does not only retrieve a current representation of the
        target resource, but also requests the server to add a new entry to the
        list of observers of the resource. The list entry consists of the
        client endpoint and the token specified by the client in the request.
        The value of the option in a request MUST be empty on transmission and
        MUST be ignored on reception.</t>

      <t>The &OPTION1; Option is not critical for processing the request. If
        the server is unwilling or unable to add the client to the list of
        observers of the target resource, then the
        request falls back to a normal GET request.</t>

      <t>In a response, the &OPTION1; Option identifies the message as a
        notification. This implies that the server has added the client to the
        list of observers and that it will notify the client of changes to the
        resource state. The value of the option is a 24-bit sequence number for
        reordering detection (see <xref target="client-reordering"/> and <xref
          target="server-reordering"/>). The sequence number is encoded in
        network byte order using a variable number of bytes ('uint' format;
        see <xref target="I-D.ietf-core-coap">Section 3.2 of RFC
          XXXX</xref>).</t>
      
      <t>The &OPTION1; Option is not part of the cache-key: a cacheable
        response obtained with &anOPTION1; Option in the request can be used to
        satisfy a request without &anOPTION1; Option, and vice versa. When a
        stored response with &anOPTION1; Option is used to satisfy a normal GET
        request, the option MUST be removed before the response is returned to
        the client.</t>
      
    </section>

    <!-- **************************************************************** -->
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    <section title="Client-side Requirements" anchor="client">

      <section title="Request" anchor="client-request">

        <t>A client can register its interest in a resource by issuing a GET
          request that includes an empty &OPTION1; Option. If the server
          returns a 2.xx response that includes &anOPTION1; Option as well, the
          server has added the client successfully to the list of observers of
          the target resource and the client will be notified of changes to the
          resource state.</t>

      </section>

      <section title="Notifications" anchor="client-notifications">

        <t>Notifications are additional responses sent by the server in reply
          to the GET request. Each notification includes the token specified by
          the client in the GET request, &anOPTION1; Option with a sequence
          number for reordering detection (see <xref target="client-reordering"
          />) and a payload in the same Content-Format as the initial
          response.</t>
        
        <t>Notifications have a 2.05 (Content) response code, or a 2.03 (Valid)
          response code if the client included one or more ETag Options in the
          request (see <xref target="client-caching"/>). In the event that
          the resource changes in a way that would cause a normal GET request
          at that time to return a non-2.xx response (for example, when the
          resource is deleted), the server sends a notification with an
          appropriate response code (such as 4.04 Not Found) and removes the
          client from the list of observers.</t>
        
      </section>

      <section title="Caching" anchor="client-caching">

        <t>As notifications are just additional responses to a GET request,
          notifications partake in caching as defined in <xref
            target="I-D.ietf-core-coap">Section 5.6 of RFC XXXX</xref>. Both
          the freshness model and the validation model are supported.</t>

        <section title="Freshness" anchor="client-freshness">

          <t>A client MAY store a notification like a response in its cache and
            use a stored notification that is fresh without contacting the
            server. Like a response, a notification is considered fresh while
            its age is not greater than the value indicated by the Max-Age
            Option and no newer notification/response has been received.</t>

          <t>The server will do its best to keep the resource state observed by
            the client as closely in sync with the actual state as possible.
            However, a client cannot rely on observing every single state that
            a resource might go through. For example, if the network is
            congested or the state changes more frequently than the network can
            handle, the server can skip notifications for any number of intermediate
            states.</t>

          <t>The server uses the Max-Age Option to indicate an age up to which
            it is acceptable that the observed state and the actual state are
            inconsistent. If the age of the latest notification becomes greater
            than its indicated Max-Age, then the client MUST NOT use the
            enclosed representation unless it is validated.</t>
          
        </section>

        <section title="Validation" anchor="client-validation">

          <t>When a client has one or more notifications stored in its cache
            for a resource, it can use the ETag Option in the GET request to
            give the server an opportunity to select a stored notification to
            be used.</t>

          <t>The client MAY include an ETag Option for each stored response
            that is applicable in the GET request. Whenever the observed
            resource changes to a representation identified by one of the ETag
            Options, the server can select a stored response by sending a 2.03
            (Valid) notification with an appropriate ETag Option instead of a
            2.05 (Content) notification.</t>
            
          <t>A client implementation needs to keep all candidate responses in
            its cache until it is no longer interested in the target resource
            or it issues a GET request with a new set of entity-tags.</t>

        </section>

      </section>
      
      <section title="Aggregation" anchor="client-aggregation">
        
        <t>Every successful GET request with &anOPTION1; Option yields a new,
          independent stream of notifications. Like a fresh response can be
          used to satisfy a request without contacting the server, the stream
          of notifications resulting from one request can be used to satisfy
          another request <!--without registering the client twice--> if the
          target resource is the same.</t>
        
        <t>A client MUST aggregate GET requests with &anOPTION1; Option for
          the same target resource. The target resource SHALL be identified for
          this purpose by the request URI and all options in the request that
          are part of the cache-key (such as the Accept Option).</t>
          
        <t>To make sure it has a current representation, it MAY issue a GET
          request without &anOPTION1; Option at any time. It is RECOMMENDED
          that the client does not issue a GET request (with or without
          &OPTION1; Option) for a resource while it still has a fresh
          notification/response in its cache. Additionally, the client SHOULD
          wait for a random amount of time between 5 and 15 seconds before
          issuing the request to avoid synchronicity with other clients.</t>
        
      </section>

      <section title="Reordering" anchor="client-reordering">

        <t>Messages with notifications can arrive in a different order than
          they were sent. Since the goal is to keep the observed state as
          closely in sync with the actual state as possible, a client MUST
          NOT update the observed state with a notification that arrives later
          than a newer notification.</t>

        <t>For reordering detection, the server sets the value of the &OPTION1;
          Option in each notification to the 24 least-significant bits of a
          strictly increasing sequence number. An incoming notification is
          newer than the newest notification received so far when one of the
          following conditions is met:</t>

        <figure>
<artwork type="inline" align="center"><![CDATA[
(V1 < V2 and V2 - V1 < 2^23) or
(V1 > V2 and V1 - V2 > 2^23) or
(T2 > T1 + 128 seconds)
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

        <t>where V1 is the value of the &OPTION1; Option of the newest
          notification received so far, V2 the value of the &OPTION1; Option of
          the incoming notification, T1 a client-local timestamp of the newest
          notification received so far, and T2 a client-local timestamp of the
          incoming notification.</t>

        <t><list style="hanging">
            <t hangText="Design Note:">The first two conditions verify that V1
              is less than V2 in 24-bit <xref target="RFC1982">serial number
                arithmetic</xref>. The third condition ensures that the time
              elapsed between the two incoming messages is not so large that
              the difference between V1 and V2 has become larger than the
              largest integer that it is meaningful to add to a 24-bit sequence
              number; in other words, after 128 seconds have elapsed without
              any notification, a client does not need to check the sequence
              numbers in order to assume an incoming notification is new.</t>
          </list></t>
        
      <t>The client MUST specify a token in its GET request that is currently
        not in use for the client/server pair, as the sequence numbers provide
        an order only among the notifications resulting from the same
        request.</t>

      </section>
            
      <section title="Transmission" anchor="client-transmission">
        
        <t>A notification can be confirmable or non-confirmable, i.e., be sent
          in a confirmable or a non-confirmable message. The message type used
          is independent from the type used for the request or for any previous
          notification.</t>
        
        <t>If a client does not recognize the token in a confirmable
          notification, it MUST NOT acknowledge the message and SHOULD reject
          it with a Reset message; otherwise, the client MUST acknowledge the
          message as usual. In the case of a non-confirmable notification,
          rejecting the message with a Reset message is OPTIONAL.</t>
        
        <t>An acknowledgement message signals to the server that the client is
          alive and interested in receiving further notifications; if the
          server does not receive an acknowledgement in reply to a confirmable
          notification, it will assume that the client is no longer interested
          and will eventually remove the associated entry from the list of
          observers.</t>
        
      </section>
      
      <section title="Cancellation" anchor="client-cancellation">

        <t>A client that is no longer interested in receiving notifications
          for a resource can simply reject the next notification with a Reset
          message. In the case of a confirmable notification, the server will
          then remove the associated entry from the list of observers of this
          resource. In the case of a non-confirmable notification, the server
          may (but is not required to) remove the list entry. So the client may
          have to wait for a confirmable notification if the servers seems to
          ignore the Reset messages that the client sends to reject
          non-confirmable notifications.</t>

      </section>

    </section>

    <!-- **************************************************************** -->
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    <section title="Server-side Requirements" anchor="server">

      <section title="Request" anchor="server-request">

        <t>A GET request that includes &anOPTION1; Option requests the server
          not only to return a current representation of the target resource,
          but also to add a new entry to the list of observers of that
          resource. The list entry consists of the client endpoint and the
          token specified by the client in the request. If a client sends
          multiple requests, each request creates a new entry in the list.</t>
          
        <t>Upon success, the server MUST return a current representation of the
          resource and MUST notify the client of subsequent changes to the
          resource state for each entry of the client in the list of
          observers.</t>

        <t>A server that is unable or unwilling to add the client to the list
          of observers of the target resource MAY silently ignore the &OPTION1;
          Option and process the GET request as usual. The resulting response
          MUST NOT include &anOPTION1; Option, the absence of which signals to
          the client that it will not be notified of changes to the resource
          and, e.g., needs to poll the resource for its state instead.</t>

      </section>

      <section title="Notifications" anchor="server-notifications">

        <t>A client is notified of changes to the resource state by additional
          responses sent by the server in reply to the GET request. Each such
          notification response (including the initial response) MUST include
          &anOPTION1; Option and MUST echo the token specified by the client in
          the GET request. If there are multiple entries in the list of
          observers, the order in which the clients are notified is not
          defined; the server is free to use any method to determine the
          order.</t>

        <t>A notification SHOULD have a 2.05 (Content) or 2.03 (Valid) response
          code. However, in the event that the state of a resource changes in a
          way that would cause a normal GET request at that time to return a
          non-2.xx response (for example, when the resource is deleted), the
          server SHOULD notify the client by sending a notification with an
          appropriate response code (such as 4.04 Not Found) and MUST remove
          the client from the list of observers of the resource.</t>

        <t>The Content-Format used in a notification MUST be the same as the
          one used in the initial response to the GET request. If the server is
          unable to continue sending notifications in this Content-Format,
          it SHOULD send a notification with a 4.06 (Not Acceptable)
          response code and MUST remove the client from the list of observers
          of the resource.</t>

        <t>A non-2.xx notification MUST NOT include &anOPTION1; Option.</t>
        
      </section>

      <section title="Caching" anchor="server-caching">

        <t>As notifications are just additional responses sent by the server,
          they are subject to caching as defined in <xref
            target="I-D.ietf-core-coap">Section 5.6 of RFC XXXX</xref>.</t>

        <section title="Freshness" anchor="server-freshness">

          <t>After returning the initial response, the server MUST try to keep
            the returned representation current, i.e., keep the resource state
            observed by the client as closely in sync with the actual resource
            state as possible.</t>

          <t>Since becoming out of sync at times cannot be avoided, the server
            MUST indicate for each representation an age up to which it is
            acceptable that the observed state and the actual state are
            inconsistent. This age is application-dependent and MUST be
            specified in notifications using the Max-Age Option.</t>

          <t>When the resource does not change and the client has a current
            representation, the server does not need to send a notification.
            However, if the client does not receive a notification, it cannot
            tell if the observed state and the actual state are still in sync.
            Thus, when the the age of the latest notification becomes greater
            than its indicated Max-Age, the client must assume that the
            states have become inconsistent. The server MAY wish to prevent
            that by sending a notification with the unchanged representation
            just before Max-Age expires.</t>

        </section>

        <section title="Validation" anchor="server-validation">

          <t>A client can include a set of entity-tags in its request using the
            ETag Option. When a observed resource changes its state and the
            origin server is about to send a 2.05 (Content) notification, then,
            whenever that notification has an entity-tag in the set of
            entity-tags specified by the client, the server MAY send a 2.03
            (Valid) response with an appropriate ETag Option instead.</t>

        </section>

      </section>

      <section title="Reordering" anchor="server-reordering">

        <t>Because messages can get reordered, the client needs a way to
          determine if a notification arrived later than a newer notification.
          For this purpose, the server MUST set the value of the &OPTION1;
          Option of each notification it sends to the 24 least-significant bits
          of a strictly increasing sequence number. The sequence number MAY
          start at any value and MUST NOT increase so fast that it increases by
          more than 2^24 within less than 256 seconds.</t>

        <t>The sequence number selected for a notification MUST be greater than
          that of any preceding notification sent to the same client for the
          same resource with the same token. The value of the &OPTION1; Option
          MUST be current at the time of transmission; if a notification is
          retransmitted, the server MUST update value of option to the sequence
          number that is current at that time before sending the message.</t>

        <t><list style="hanging">
            <t hangText="Implementation Note:">A simple implementation that
              satisfies the requirements is to obtain a timestamp from a local
              clock. The sequence number then is the timestamp in ticks, where
              1 tick = (256 seconds)/(2^24) = 15.26 microseconds. It is
              not necessary that the clock reflects the current time/date or
              that it ticks in a precisely periodical way.</t>
            <t>Another valid implementation is to store a 24-bit unsigned
              integer variable per resource and increment this variable each
              time the resource undergoes a change of state (provided that the
              resource changes its state less than 2^24 times in the next 256
              seconds after every state change). This removes the need to update
              the value of the &OPTION1; Option on retransmission when the
              resource state did not change.</t>
            <t hangText="Design Note:">The choice of a 24-bit option value and
              a time span of 256 seconds allows for a notification rate of up
              to 65536 notifications per second. 64K ought to be enough for
              anybody.</t>
          </list></t>

      </section>

      <section title="Transmission" anchor="server-transmission">

        <t>A notification can be sent in a confirmable or a non-confirmable
          message. The message type used is typically application-dependent and
          MAY be determined by the server for each notification individually.
          For example, for resources that change in a somewhat predictable or
          regular fashion, notifications can be sent in non-confirmable
          messages; for resources that change infrequently, notifications can
          be sent in confirmable messages. The server can combine these two
          approaches depending on the frequency of state changes and the
          importance of individual notifications.</t>
        
        <t>A server MAY choose to skip sending a notification if it knows that
          it will send another notification soon, for example, when the state is
          changing frequently. Similarly, it MAY choose to send a notification
          more than once. However, above all, the server MUST ensure that a
          client in the list of observers of a resource eventually observes the
          latest state if the resource does not undergo a new change in state.
          For example, when state changes occur in bursts, the server can skip
          some notifications, send the notifications in non-confirmable messages,
          and make sure that the client observes the latest state change by
          repeating the last notification in a confirmable message when the
          burst is over.</t>

        <t>The client's acknowledgement of a confirmable notification signals
          to the server that the client is interested in receiving further
          notifications. If a client rejects a confirmable notification with a
          Reset message, the client is no longer interested and the server MUST
          remove the associated entry from the list of observers. If the client
          rejects a non-confirmable notification, the server MAY remove the
          entry from the list of observers as well. (It is expected that the
          server does remove the entry if it has the information available that
          is needed to match the Reset message to the non-confirmable
          notification, but the server is not required to keep this
          information.)</t>

        <t>At a minimum, the server MUST send a notification in a confirmable
          message instead of a non-confirmable message at least every
          24 hours, so a client that went away or is no longer interested
          does not remain forever in the list of observers.</t>

        <t>The server MUST limit the number of confirmable notifications for
          which an acknowledgement has not been received yet to NSTART (1 by default; see
            <xref target="I-D.ietf-core-coap">Section 4.7 of RFC XXXX</xref>);
          and it SHOULD NOT send more than one non-confirmable notification
          every 3 seconds on average.</t>
        
        <t>When the state of an observed resource changes while the server is
          still waiting for a confirmable notification to be acknowledged or
          the 3 seconds for a non-confirmable notification to elapse, then the
          server MUST proceed as follows:<list style="numbers">
            <t>Wait for the current transmission attempt to complete.</t>
            <t>If the result is a Reset message or the transmission was the
              last attempt to deliver a notification, remove the associated
              entry from the list of observers of the observed resource.</t>
            <t>If the entry is still in the list of observers, start to
              transmit a new notification with a representation of the
              current resource state. Should the resource have changed its
              state more than once in the meantime, the notifications for
              the intermediate states are silently skipped.</t>
            <t>If the transmission attempt completed in step 1 timed out,
              increment the retransmission counter and double the timeout for
              the new transmission; otherwise, reinitialize both the
              retransmission counter and the timeout as described in
              <xref target="I-D.ietf-core-coap">Section 4.2 of RFC
              XXXX</xref>.</t>
          </list></t>

      </section>

    </section>

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    <section title="Intermediaries" anchor="intermediary">

      <t>A client may be interested in a resource in the namespace of an origin
        server that is reached through a chain of one or more CoAP
        intermediaries. In this case, the client registers its interest with
        the first intermediary towards the origin server, acting as if it was
        communicating with the origin server itself as specified in <xref
          target="client"/>. It is the task of this intermediary to provide the
        client with a current representation of the target resource and send
        notifications upon changes to the target resource state, much like an
        origin server as specified in <xref target="server"/>.</t>

      <t>To perform this task, the intermediary SHOULD make use of the protocol
        specified in this document, taking the role of the client and
        registering its own interest in the target resource with the next hop
        towards the origin server. If the next hop does not return a response
        with &anOPTION1; Option, the intermediary MAY resort to polling the
        next hop or MAY itself return a response without &anOPTION1;
        Option.</t>
      
      <t>The communication between each pair of hops is independent; each hop
        in the server role MUST determine individually how many notifications
        to send, of which message type, and so on. Each hop MUST generate its
        own values for the &OPTION1; Option, and MUST set the value of the
        Max-Age Option according to the age of the local current
        representation.</t>

      <t>If two or more clients have registered their interest in a resource
        with an intermediary, the intermediary MUST register itself only
        once with the next hop and fan out the notifications it receives to
        all registered clients. This relieves the next hop from sending the
        same notifications multiple times and thus enables scalability.</t>

      <t>An intermediary is not required to act on behalf of a client to
        observe a resource; an intermediary MAY observe a resource, for
        example, just to keep its own cache up to date.</t>

      <t>See <xref target="examples-proxying"/> for examples.</t>

    </section>

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    <section title="Web Linking" anchor="web-linking">

      <t>A <xref target="RFC5988">web link</xref> to a resource accessible over
        CoAP (for example, in a <xref target="RFC6690">link-format
          document</xref>) MAY include the target attribute "obs".</t>

      <t>The "obs" attribute, when present, is a hint indicating that the
        destination of a link is useful for observation and thus, for example,
        should have a suitable graphical representation in a user interface.
        Note that this is only a hint; it is not a promise that the &OPTION1;
        Option can actually be used to perform the observation. A client may
        need to resort to polling the resource if the &OPTION1; Option is not
        returned in the response to the GET request.</t>

      <t>A value MUST NOT be given for the "obs" attribute; any present value
        MUST be ignored by parsers. The "obs" attribute MUST NOT appear more
        than once in a given link-value; occurrences after the first MUST be
        ignored by parsers.</t>

    </section>

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    <section title="Security Considerations" anchor="security">

      <t>The security considerations of <xref target="I-D.ietf-core-coap">RFC
          XXXX</xref> apply.</t>

      <t>The considerations about amplification attacks are somewhat amplified
        when observing resources. Without client authentication, a server MUST
        therefore strictly limit the number of notifications that it sends
        between receiving acknowledgements that confirm the actual interest of
        the client in the data; i.e., any notifications sent in non-confirmable
        messages MUST be interspersed with confirmable messages. (An attacker
        may still spoof the acknowledgements if the confirmable messages are
        sufficiently predictable.)</t>

      <t>As with any protocol that creates state, attackers may attempt to
        exhaust the resources that the server has available for maintaining the
        list of observers for each resource. Servers may want to access-control
        this creation of state. As degraded behavior, the server can always
        fall back to processing the request as a normal GET request (without
        &anOPTION1; Option) if it is unwilling or unable to add a client to the
        list of observers of a resource, including if system resources are
        exhausted or nearing exhaustion.</t>

      <t>Intermediaries must be careful to ensure that notifications cannot be
        employed to create a loop. A simple way to break any loops is to employ
        caches for forwarding notifications in intermediaries.</t>

    </section>

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    <section title="IANA Considerations" anchor="iana-considerations">

      <t>The following entry is added to the CoAP Option Numbers registry:</t>

      <texttable>
        <ttcol align="right">Number</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">Name</ttcol>
        <ttcol align="left">Reference</ttcol>

        <c>&OPTION1NUMBER;</c>
        <c>&OPTION1;</c>
        <c>&SELF;</c>
      </texttable>

    </section>

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    <section title="Acknowledgements" anchor="acknowledgements">

      <t>Carsten Bormann was an original author of this draft and is
        acknowledged for significant contribution to this document.</t>

      <t>Thanks to Daniele Alessandrelli, Jari Arkko, Peter Bigot, Angelo P.
        Castellani, Gilbert Clark, Esko Dijk, Thomas Fossati, Brian Frank,
        Bert Greevenbosch, Jeroen Hoebeke, Cullen Jennings, Matthias Kovatsch,
        Salvatore Loreto, Charles Palmer, Zach Shelby, and Floris Van den
        Abeele for helpful comments and discussions that have shaped the
        document.</t>

      <t>This work was supported in part by Klaus Tschira Foundation, Intel,
        Cisco, and Nokia.</t>

    </section>

  </middle>

  <back>

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    <references title="Normative References">

      &RFC1982;

      &RFC2119;

      &RFC5988;

      &I-D.ietf-core-coap;

    </references>

    <references title="Informative References">

      &RFC2616;

      &RFC5989;

      &RFC6202;

      &RFC6690;

      <reference anchor="REST" target="http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/fielding_dissertation.pdf">
        <front>
          <title>Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures</title>
          <author initials="R." surname="Fielding" fullname="Roy Fielding">
            <organization>University of California, Irvine</organization>
          </author>
          <date year="2000"/>
        </front>
        <seriesInfo name="Ph.D." value="Dissertation, University of California, Irvine"/>
        <format type="PDF" target="http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/fielding_dissertation.pdf"/>
      </reference>

      <reference anchor="GOF">
        <front>
          <title>Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software</title>
          <author initials="E." surname="Gamma" fullname="Erich Gamma">
            <organization/>
          </author>
          <author initials="R." surname="Helm" fullname="Richard Helm">
            <organization/>
          </author>
          <author initials="R." surname="Johnson" fullname="Ralph Johnson">
            <organization/>
          </author>
          <author initials="J." surname="Vlissides" fullname="John M. Vlissides">
            <organization/>
          </author>
          <date year="1994" month="November"/>
        </front>
        <seriesInfo name="Addison-Wesley," value="Reading, MA, USA"/>
      </reference>

    </references>

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    <section title="Examples" anchor="examples">

      <figure anchor="example-1" title="A client registers and receives one notification of the current state and one of a new state upon a state change">
<artwork type="example"><![CDATA[
      Observed   CLIENT  SERVER     Actual
  t   State         |      |         State
      ____________  |      |  ____________
  1                 |      |
  2    unknown      |      |       18.5 C
  3                 +----->|                  Header: GET 0x41011633
  4                 | GET  |                   Token: 0x4a
  5                 |      |                Uri-Path: temperature
  6                 |      |                 Observe: (empty)
  7                 |      |
  8                 |      |
  9   ____________  |<-----+                  Header: 2.05 0x61451633
 10                 | 2.05 |                   Token: 0x4a
 11    18.5 C       |      |                 Observe: 9
 12                 |      |                 Max-Age: 15
 13                 |      |                 Payload: "18.5 C"
 14                 |      |
 15                 |      |  ____________
 16   ____________  |<-----+                  Header: 2.05 0x51457b50
 17                 | 2.05 |       19.2 C      Token: 0x4a
 18    19.2 C       |      |                 Observe: 16
 29                 |      |                 Max-Age: 15
 20                 |      |                 Payload: "19.2 C"
 21                 |      |
]]></artwork>
      </figure>

      <figure anchor="example-2" title="The client re-registers after Max-Age ends">
<artwork type="example"><![CDATA[
      Observed   CLIENT  SERVER     Actual
  t   State         |      |         State
      ____________  |      |  ____________
 22                 |      |
 23    19.2 C       |      |       19.2 C
 24                 |      |  ____________
 25                 | X----+                  Header: 2.05 0x51457b51
 26                 | 2.05 |       19.7 C      Token: 0x4a
 27                 |      |                 Observe: 25
 28                 |      |                 Max-Age: 15
 29                 |      |                 Payload: "19.7 C"
 30                 |      |
 31   ____________  |      |
 32                 |      |
 33    19.2 C       |      |
 34    (stale)      |      |
 35                 |      |
 36                 |      |
 37                 |      |
 38                 +----->|                  Header: GET 0x41011634
 39                 | GET  |                   Token: 0xb2
 40                 |      |                Uri-Path: temperature
 41                 |      |                 Observe: (empty)
 42                 |      |
 43                 |      |
 44   ____________  |<-----+                  Header: 2.05 0x61451634
 45                 | 2.05 |                   Token: 0xb2
 46    19.7 C       |      |                 Observe: 44
 47                 |      |                 Max-Age: 15
 48                 |      |                    ETag: 0x78797a7a79
 49                 |      |                 Payload: "19.7 C"
 50                 |      |
]]></artwork>
      </figure>


      <figure anchor="example-3" title="The client re-registers and gives the server the opportunity to select a stored response">
<artwork type="example"><![CDATA[
      Observed   CLIENT  SERVER     Actual
  t   State         |      |         State
      ____________  |      |  ____________
 51                 |      |
 52    19.7 C       |      |       19.7 C
 53                 |      |
 54                 |      |  ____________
 55                 |    crash
 56                 |
 57                 |
 58                 |
 59   ____________  |
 60                 |
 61    19.7 C       |
 62    (stale)      |
 63                 |   reboot____________
 64                 |      |
 65                 |      |       20.0 C
 66                 |      |
 67                 +----->|                  Header: GET 0x41011635
 68                 | GET  |                   Token: 0xf9
 69                 |      |                Uri-Path: temperature
 70                 |      |                 Observe: (empty)
 71                 |      |                    ETag: 0x78797a7a79
 72                 |      |
 73                 |      |
 74   ____________  |<-----+                  Header: 2.05 0x61451635
 75                 | 2.05 |                   Token: 0xf9
 76    20.0 C       |      |                 Observe: 74
 77                 |      |                 Max-Age: 15
 78                 |      |                 Payload: "20.0 C"
 79                 |      |
 80                 |      |  ____________
 81   ____________  |<-----+                  Header: 2.03 0x5143aa0c
 82                 | 2.03 |       19.7 C      Token: 0xf9
 83    19.7 C       |      |                 Observe: 81
 84                 |      |                    ETag: 0x78797a7a79
 85                 |      |                 Max-Age: 15
 86                 |      |
]]></artwork>
      </figure>
      
      
      <figure anchor="example-4" title="The client rejects a notification and thereby cancels the observation">
        <artwork type="example"><![CDATA[
      Observed   CLIENT  SERVER     Actual
  t   State         |      |         State
      ____________  |      |  ____________
 87                 |      |
 88    19.7 C       |      |       19.7 C
 89                 |      |
 90                 |      |  ____________
 91   ____________  |<-----+                  Header: 2.05 0x4145aa0f
 92                 | 2.05 |       19.3 C      Token: 0xf9
 93    19.3 C       |      |                 Observe: 91
 94                 |      |                 Max-Age: 15
 95                 |      |                 Payload: "19.3 C"
 96                 |      |
 97                 |      |
 98                 +- - ->|                  Header: 0x7000aa0f
 99                 |      |
100                 |      |
101                 |      |
102                 |      |  ____________
103                 |      |
104                 |      |       19.0 C
105                 |      |
106   ____________  |      |
107                 |      |
108    19.3 C       |      |
109    (stale)      |      |
110                 |      |
]]></artwork>
      </figure>

      <section title="Proxying" anchor="examples-proxying">

        <figure anchor="example-5" title="A proxy observes a resource to keep its cache up to date">
<artwork type="example"><![CDATA[
CLIENT  PROXY  SERVER
   |      |      |
   |      +----->|     Header: GET 0x41015fb8
   |      | GET  |      Token: 0x1a
   |      |      |   Uri-Host: sensor.example
   |      |      |   Uri-Path: status
   |      |      |    Observe: (empty)
   |      |      |
   |      |<-----+     Header: 2.05 0x61455fb8
   |      | 2.05 |      Token: 0x1a
   |      |      |    Observe: 42
   |      |      |    Max-Age: 60
   |      |      |    Payload: "ready"
   |      |      |
   +----->|      |     Header: GET 0x41011633
   | GET  |      |      Token: 0x9a
   |      |      |  Proxy-Uri: coap://sensor.example/status
   |      |      |
   |<-----+      |     Header: 2.05 0x61451633
   | 2.05 |      |      Token: 0x9a
   |      |      |    Max-Age: 53
   |      |      |    Payload: "ready"
   |      |      |
   |      |<-----+     Header: 2.05 0x514505fc0
   |      | 2.05 |      Token: 0x1a
   |      |      |    Observe: 135
   |      |      |    Max-Age: 60
   |      |      |    Payload: "busy"
   |      |      |
   +----->|      |     Header: GET 0x41011634
   | GET  |      |      Token: 0x9b
   |      |      |  Proxy-Uri: coap://sensor.example/status
   |      |      |
   |<-----+      |     Header: 2.05 0x61451634
   | 2.05 |      |      Token: 0x9b
   |      |      |    Max-Age: 49
   |      |      |    Payload: "busy"
   |      |      |
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

        <figure anchor="example-6" title="A client observes a resource through a proxy">
<artwork type="example"><![CDATA[
CLIENT  PROXY  SERVER
   |      |      |
   +----->|      |     Header: GET 0x41011635
   | GET  |      |      Token: 0x6a
   |      |      |  Proxy-Uri: coap://sensor.example/status
   |      |      |    Observe: (empty)
   |      |      |
   |<- - -+      |     Header: 0x60001635
   |      |      |
   |      +----->|     Header: GET 0x4101af90
   |      | GET  |      Token: 0xaa
   |      |      |   Uri-Host: sensor.example
   |      |      |   Uri-Path: status
   |      |      |    Observe: (empty)
   |      |      |
   |      |<-----+     Header: 2.05 0x6145af90
   |      | 2.05 |      Token: 0xaa
   |      |      |    Observe: 67
   |      |      |    Max-Age: 60
   |      |      |    Payload: "ready"
   |      |      |
   |<-----+      |     Header: 2.05 0x4145af94
   | 2.05 |      |      Token: 0x6a
   |      |      |    Observe: 17346
   |      |      |    Max-Age: 60
   |      |      |    Payload: "ready"
   |      |      |
   +- - ->|      |     Header: 0x6000af94
   |      |      |
   |      |<-----+     Header: 2.05 0x51455a20
   |      | 2.05 |      Token: 0xaa
   |      |      |    Observe: 157
   |      |      |    Max-Age: 60
   |      |      |    Payload: "busy"
   |      |      |
   |<-----+      |     Header: 2.05 0x5145af9b
   | 2.05 |      |      Token: 0x6a
   |      |      |    Observe: 17436
   |      |      |    Max-Age: 60
   |      |      |    Payload: "busy"
   |      |      |
]]></artwork>
        </figure>

      </section>

    </section>

    <section title="Modeling Resources to Tailor Notifications" anchor="modeling-resources">

      <t>A server may want to provide notifications that respond to very
        specific conditions on some state. This is best done by modeling the
        resources that the server exposes according to these needs.</t>

      <t>For example, for a CoAP server with an attached temperature
          sensor,<list style="symbols">

          <t>the server could, in the simplest form, expose a resource
            <coap://server/temperature> that changes its state every
            second to the current temperature measured by the sensor;</t>

          <t>the server could, however, also expose a resource
            <coap://server/temperature/felt> that changes its state to
            "cold" when it's warm and the temperature drops below a
            preconfigured threshold, and to "warm" when it's cold and the
            temperature exceeds a second, slightly higher threshold;</t>

          <t>the server could expose a parameterized resource
            <coap://server/temperature/critical?above=45> that changes
            its state every second to the current temperature if the sensor
            reading exceeds the specified parameter value, and that changes its
            state to "OK" when the temperature drops below; or</t>

          <t>the server could expose a parameterized
            resource<vspace/><coap://server/temperature?query=select+avg(temperature)+from+<vspace/>Sensor.window:time(30sec)>
            that accepts expressions of arbitrary complexity and changes its
            state accordingly.</t>

        </list></t>

      <t>In any case, the client is notified about the current state of the
        resource whenever the state of the appropriately modeled resource
        changes. By designing resources that change their state on certain
        conditions, it is possible to notify the client only when these
        conditions occur instead of continuously supplying it with information
        it doesn't need.</t>

      <t>By parameterizing resources, this is not limited to conditions defined
        by the server, but can be extended to arbitrarily complex conditions
        defined by the client. Thus, the server designer can choose exactly the
        right level of complexity for the application envisioned and devices
        used, and is not constrained to a "one size fits all" mechanism built
        into the protocol.</t>

    </section>

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    <section title="Changelog" anchor="changelog">
      
      <t>(To be removed by RFC editor before publication.)</t>
      
      <t>Changes from ietf-08 to ietf-09:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Removed the side effects of requests on existing observations.
            This includes removing that<list style="symbols">
              <t>the client can use a GET request to cancel an observation;</t>
              <t>the server updates the entry in the list of observers instead
                of adding a new entry if the client is already present (#258,
                #281).</t>
            </list></t>
          <t>Clarified that a resource (and hence an observation relationship)
            is identified by the request options that are part of the Cache-Key
            (#258).</t>
          <t>Clarified that a non-2.xx notification MUST NOT include an Observe
            Option.</t>
          <t>Moved block-wise transfer of notifications to
            [I-D.ietf-core-block].</t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
      <t>Changes from ietf-07 to ietf-08:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Expanded text on transmitting a notification while a previous
            transmission is pending (#242).</t>
          <t>Changed reordering detection to use a fixed time span of 128
            seconds instead of EXCHANGE_LIFETIME (#276).</t>
          <t>Removed the use of the freshness model to determine if the client
            is still on the list of observers. This includes removing that<list
              style="symbols">
              <t>the client assumes that it has been removed from the list of
                observers when Max-Age ends;</t>
              <t>the server sets the Max-Age Option of a notification to a
                value that indicates when the server will send the next
                notification;</t>
              <t>the server uses a number of retransmit attempts such that
                removing a client from the list of observers before Max-Age
                ends is avoided (#235);</t>
              <t>the server may remove the client from all lists of observers
                when the transmission of a confirmable notification ultimately
                times out.</t>
            </list></t>
          <t>Changed that an unrecognized critical option in a request must
            actually have no effect on the state of any observation
            relationship to any resource, as the option could lead to a
            different target resource.</t>
          <t>Clarified that client implementations must be prepared to receive
            each notification equally as a confirmable or a non-confirmable
            message, regardless of the message type of the request and of any
            previous notification.</t>
          <t>Added a requirement for sending a confirmable notification at
            least every 24 hours before continuing with non-confirmable
            notifications (#221).</t>
          <t>Added congestion control considerations from
            [I-D.bormann-core-congestion-control-02].</t>
          <t>Recommended that the client waits for a randomized time after the
            freshness of the latest notification expired before re-registering.
            This prevents that multiple clients observing a resource perform a
            GET request at the same time when the need to re-register
            arises.</t>
          <t>Changed reordering detection from 'MAY' to 'SHOULD', as the goal
            of the protocol (to keep the observed state as closely in sync with
            the actual state as possible) is not optional.</t>
          <t>Fixed the length of the Observe (3 bytes) in the table in <xref
              target="option"/>.</t>
          <t>Replaced the 'x' in the No-Cache-Key column in the table in <xref
              target="option"/> with a '-', as the Observe Option doesn't have
            the No-Cache-Key flag set, even though it is not part of the cache
            key.</t>
          <t>Updated examples.</t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
      <t>Changes from ietf-06 to ietf-07:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Moved to 24-bit sequence numbers to allow for up to 15000
            notifications per second per client and resource (#217).</t>
          <t>Re-numbered option number to use Unsafe/Safe and Cache-Key
            compliant numbers (#241).</t>
          <t>Clarified how to react to a Reset message that is sent in reply to
            a non-confirmable notification (#225).</t>
          <t>Clarified the semantics of the "obs" link target attribute
            (#236).</t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
      <t>Changes from ietf-05 to ietf-06:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Improved abstract and introduction to say that the protocol is
            about best effort and eventual consistency (#219).</t>
          <t>Clarified that the value of the Observe Option in a request must
            have zero length.</t>
          <t>Added requirement that the sequence number must be updated each
            time a server retransmits a notification.</t>
          <t>Clarified that a server must remove a client from the list of
            observers when it receives a GET request with an unrecognized
            critical option.</t>
          <t>Updated the text to use the endpoint concept from <xref
              target="I-D.ietf-core-coap"/> (#224).</t>
          <t>Improved the reordering text (#223).</t>
        </list>
      </t>

      <t>Changes from ietf-04 to ietf-05:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Recommended that a client does not re-register while a new
            notification from the server is still likely to arrive. This is to
            avoid that the request of the client and the last notification
            after max-age cross over each other (#174).</t>
          <t>Relaxed requirements when sending a Reset message in reply to
            non-confirmable notifications.</t>
          <t>Added an implementation note about careless GET requests
            (#184).</t>
          <t>Updated examples.</t>
        </list>
      </t>

      <t>Changes from ietf-03 to ietf-04:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Removed the "Max-OFE" Option.</t>
          <t>Allowed a Reset message in reply to non-confirmable
            notifications.</t>
          <t>Added a section on cancellation.</t>
          <t>Updated examples.</t>
        </list>
      </t>

      <t>Changes from ietf-02 to ietf-03:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Separated client-side and server-side requirements.</t>
          <t>Fixed uncertainty if client is still on the list of observers by
            introducing a liveliness model based on Max-Age and a new option
            called "Max-OFE" (#174).</t>
          <t>Simplified the text on message reordering (#129).</t>
          <t>Clarified requirements for intermediaries.</t>
          <t>Clarified the combination of blockwise transfers with
            notifications (#172).</t>
          <t>Updated examples to show how the state observed by the client
            becomes eventually consistent with the actual state on the
            server.</t>
          <t>Added examples for parameterization of observable resource.</t>
        </list>
      </t>

      <t>Changes from ietf-01 to ietf-02:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Removed the requirement of periodic refreshing (#126).</t>
          <t>The new "Observe" Option replaces the "Lifetime" Option.</t>
          <t>Introduced a new mechanism to detect message reordering.</t>
          <t>Changed 2.00 (OK) notifications to 2.05 (Content)
            notifications.</t>
        </list>
      </t>

      <t>Changes from ietf-00 to ietf-01:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>Changed terminology from "subscriptions" to "observation
            relationships" (#33).</t>
          <t>Changed the name of the option to "Lifetime".</t>
          <t>Clarified establishment of observation relationships.</t>
          <t>Clarified that an observation is only identified by the URI of the
            observed resource and the identity of the client (#66).</t>
          <t>Clarified rules for establishing observation relationships
            (#68).</t>
          <t>Clarified conditions under which an observation relationship is
            terminated.</t>
          <t>Added explanation on how clients can terminate an observation
            relationship before the lifetime ends (#34).</t>
          <t>Clarified that the overriding objective for notifications is
            eventual consistency of the actual and the observed state
            (#67).</t>
          <t>Specified how a server needs to deal with clients not
            acknowledging confirmable messages carrying notifications
            (#69).</t>
          <t>Added a mechanism to detect message reordering (#35).</t>
          <t>Added an explanation of how notifications can be cached,
            supporting both the freshness and the validation model (#39,
            #64).</t>
          <t>Clarified that non-GET requests do not affect observation
            relationships, and that GET requests without "Lifetime" Option
            affecting relationships is by design (#65).</t>
          <t>Described interaction with blockwise transfers (#36).</t>
          <t>Added Resource Discovery section (#99).</t>
          <t>Added IANA Considerations.</t>
          <t>Added Security Considerations (#40).</t>
          <t>Added examples (#38).</t>
        </list>
      </t>

    </section>

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  </back>

</rfc>

PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-23 09:25:04