ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)

Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) Release 2; Protocols and Data Models; Specification of common aspects for RESTful NFV MANO APIs

RGS/NFV-SOL013ed271

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 11-Dec-2019
• Technical Committee: NFV SOL - Solutions
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 07-Jan-2020
• Completion Date: 12-Dec-2019

Standards Content (Sample)

GROUP SPECIFICATION
Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) Release 2;
Protocols and Data Models;
Specification of common aspects for RESTful NFV MANO APIs
Disclaimer
The present document has been produced and approved by the Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) ETSI Industry
Specification Group (ISG) and represents the views of those members who participated in this ISG.
It does not necessarily represent the views of the entire ETSI membership.

2 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)

Reference
RGS/NFV-SOL013ed271
Keywords
API, NFV, protocol
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3 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 7
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations . 8
3.1 Terms . 8
3.2 Symbols . 8
3.3 Abbreviations . 8
4 HTTP usage . 9
4.1 URI structure and supported content formats . 9
4.2 Usage of HTTP header fields . 9
4.2.1 Introduction. 9
4.2.2 Request header fields . 10
4.2.3 Response header fields . 10
5 Result set control . 11
5.1 Introduction . 11
5.2 Attribute-based filtering . 11
5.2.1 Overview and example (informative) . 11
5.2.2 Specification . 12
5.3 Attribute selectors. 14
5.3.1 Overview and example (informative) . 14
5.3.2 Specification . 14
5.3.2.1 GET request . 14
5.3.2.2 GET response . 15
5.4 Handling of large query results . 15
5.4.1 Overview . 15
5.4.2 Specification . 16
5.4.2.1 Alternatives . 16
5.4.2.2 Error response . 16
5.4.2.3 Paged response . 16
6 Error reporting . 17
6.1 Introduction . 17
6.2 General mechanism . 17
6.3 Type: ProblemDetails . 17
6.4 Common error situations . 17
7 Common data types . 19
7.1 Structured data types . 19
7.1.1 Introduction. 19
7.1.2 Type: Object . 20
7.1.3 Type: Link . 20
7.1.4 Type: NotificationLink . 20
7.1.5 Type: KeyValuePairs . 20
7.1.6 Type: ApiVersionInformation . 20
7.2 Simple data types and enumerations . 21
7.2.1 Introduction. 21
7.2.2 Simple data types . 21
7.2.3 Enumerations . 22
8 Authorization of API requests and notifications . 22
8.1 Introduction . 22
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4 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
8.2 Flows (informative) . 23
8.2.1 General . 23
8.2.2 Authorization of API requests using OAuth 2.0 access tokens . 23
8.2.3 Authorization of API requests using TLS certificates . 25
8.2.4 Authorization of notifications using the HTTP Basic authentication scheme . 26
8.2.5 Authorization of notifications using OAuth 2.0 access tokens . 27
8.2.6 Authorization of notifications using TLS certificates . 29
8.3 Specification . 31
8.3.1 Introduction. 31
8.3.2 General mechanism. 31
8.3.3 Authorizing API requests . 31
8.3.4 Authorizing the sending of notifications . 32
8.3.5 Client roles . 33
8.3.6 Negotiation of the authorization method . 34
8.3.6.1 Authorization of API requests . 34
8.3.6.2 Authorization of notification requests . 36
9 Version management . 37
9.1 Version identifiers and parameters . 37
9.1.1 Version identifiers . 37
9.1.2 Version parameters . 37
9.2 Rules for incrementing version identifier fields . 37
9.2.1 General . 37
9.2.2 Examples of backward and non-backward compatible changes . 38
9.3 Version information retrieval . 39
9.3.1 General . 39
9.3.2 Resource structure and methods . 39
9.3.3 Resource: API versions . 40
9.3.3.1 Description . 40
9.3.3.2 Resource definition . 40
9.3.3.3 Resource methods . 40
9.3.3.3.1 POST . 40
9.3.3.3.2 GET . 40
9.3.3.3.3 PUT . 41
9.3.3.3.4 PATCH . 41
9.3.3.3.5 DELETE . 41
9.4 Version signaling . 41
Annex A (informative): Change History . 42
History . 43

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5 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (https://ipr.etsi.org/).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Trademarks
The present document may include trademarks and/or tradenames which are asserted and/or registered by their owners.
ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
right to use or reproduce any trademark and/or tradename. Mention of those trademarks in the present document does
not constitute an endorsement by ETSI of products, services or organizations associated with those trademarks.
Foreword
This Group Specification (GS) has been produced by ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) Network Functions
Virtualisation (NFV).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
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6 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
1 Scope
The present document specifies common aspects of RESTful protocols and data models for ETSI NFV management
and orchestration (MANO) interfaces.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
https://docbox.etsi.org/Reference/.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] IETF RFC 2818: "HTTP Over TLS".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2818.
[2] IETF RFC 3339: "Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3339.
[3] IETF RFC 3986: "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986.
[4] IETF RFC 4918: "HTTP Extensions for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4918.
[5] IETF RFC 5246: "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5246.
[6] IETF RFC 6585: "Additional HTTP Status Codes".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6585.
[7] IETF RFC 6749: "The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework".
NOTE: Available from https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749.
[8] IETF RFC 6750: "The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework: Bearer Token Usage".
NOTE: Available from https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6750.
[9] IETF RFC 8259: "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8259.
[10] IETF RFC 7231: "Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Semantics and Content".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231.
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7 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
[11] IETF RFC 7232: "Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Conditional Requests".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7232.
[12] IETF RFC 7233: "Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Range Requests".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7233.
[13] IETF RFC 7235: "Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Authentication".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7235.
[14] IETF RFC 7617: "The 'Basic' HTTP Authentication Scheme".
NOTE: Available from https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7617.
[15] IETF RFC 7807: "Problem Details for HTTP APIs".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7807.
[16] IETF RFC 6901: "JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Pointer".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6901.
[17] IETF RFC 8288: "Web Linking".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8288.
[18] Semantic Versioning 2.0.0.
NOTE: Available at https://semver.org/.
[19] IETF RFC 4229: "HTTP Header Field Registrations".
NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4229.
[20] ETSI GS NFV-SEC 022: "Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) Release 2; Security; Access
Token Specification for API Access".
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] ETSI GS NFV 003: "Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Terminology for Main Concepts in
NFV".
[i.2] ETSI TS 133 310: "Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; Network
Domain Security (NDS); Authentication Framework (AF) (3GPP TS 33.310)".
[i.3] Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Status Code Registry at IANA.
NOTE: Available at http://www.iana.org/assignments/http-status-codes.
[i.4] ETSI NFV OpenAPI repository.
NOTE: Available at https://forge.etsi.org/rep/nfv/.
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8 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
[i.5] JSON Schema Validation: A Vocabulary for Structural Validation of JSON, Version draft-07,
November 19, 2017.
NOTE 1: JSON schema is documented at http://json-schema.org/.
NOTE 2: The specification is available as Internet Draft at https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-handrews-json-schema-
validation-01.
[i.6] OpenAPI Specification.
NOTE: Available at https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification.
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Terms
For the purposes of the present document, the terms given in ETSI GS NFV 003 [i.1] apply.
3.2 Symbols
Void.
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
API Application Programming Interface
EM Element Manager
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
GMT Greenwich Mean Time
GS Group Specification
HATEOAS Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State
HTML HyperText Markup Language
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HTTPS HTTP Secure
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
JSON JavaScript Object Notation
MAC Medium Access Control
MANO Management and Orchestration
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
NFV Network Functions Virtualisation
NFVO NFV Orchestrator
REST Representational State Transfer
RFC Request For Comments
TLS Transport Layer Security
URI Uniform Resource Identifier
VIM Virtualised Infrastructure Manager
VNF Virtualised Network Function
VNFM VNF Manager
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9 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
4 HTTP usage
4.1 URI structure and supported content formats
This clause specifies the URI prefix and the supported formats applicable to the RESTful NFV-MANO APIs.
All resource URIs of the APIs shall have the following prefix, except the "API versions" resource which shall follow
the rules specified in clause 9.3:
{apiRoot}/{apiName}/{apiMajorVersion}/
where:
{apiRoot} indicates the scheme ("http" or "https"), the host name and optional port, and an
optional sequence of path segments that together represent a prefix path.
EXAMPLE: http://orchestrator.example.com/nfv_apis/abc
{apiName} indicates the interface name in an abbreviated form. The {apiName} of each interface
is defined in the clause specifying the corresponding interface.
{apiMajorVersion} indicates the current major version (see clause 9.1) of the API and is defined in the
clause specifying the corresponding interface.
For HTTP requests and responses that have a body, the content format JSON (see IETF RFC 8259 [9]) shall be
supported. The JSON format shall be signalled by the content type "application/json".
All APIs shall support and use HTTP over TLS (also known as HTTPS) (see IETF RFC 2818 [1]). TLS version 1.2 as
defined by IETF RFC 5246 [5] shall be supported.
NOTE 1: The HTTP protocol elements mentioned in the RESTful NFV-MANO API specifications originate from
the HTTP specification; HTTPS runs the HTTP protocol on top of a TLS layer. The RESTful
NFV-MANO specifications therefore use the statement above to mention "HTTP request", "HTTP
header", etc., without explicitly calling out whether or not these are run over TLS.
NOTE 2: There are a number of best practices and guidelines how to configure and implement TLS 1.2 in a secure
manner, as security threats evolve. A detailed specification of those is beyond the scope of the present
document; the reader is referred to external documentation such as annex E of ETSI TS 133 310 [i.2].
All resource URIs of the API shall comply with the URI syntax as defined in IETF RFC 3986 [3]. An implementation
that dynamically generates resource URI parts (individual path segments, sequences of path segments that are separated
by "/", query parameter values) shall ensure that these parts only use the character set that is allowed by IETF
RFC 3986 [3] for these parts.
NOTE 3: This means that characters not part of this allowed set are escaped using percent-encoding as defined by
IETF RFC 3986 [3].
Unless otherwise specified explicitly, all request URI parameters that are part of the path of the resource URI shall be
individual path segments, i.e. shall not contain the "/" character.
NOTE 4: A request URI parameter is denoted by a string in curly brackets, e.g. {subscriptionId}.
4.2 Usage of HTTP header fields
4.2.1 Introduction
HTTP headers are components of the header section of the HTTP request and response messages. They contain the
information about the server/client and metadata of the transaction. The use of HTTP header fields shall comply with
the provisions defined for those header fields in the specifications referenced from tables 4.2.2-1 and 4.2.3-1. The
following clauses describe more details related to selected HTTP header fields.
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10 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
4.2.2 Request header fields
This clause describes the usage of selected HTTP header fields of the request messages in the RESTful NFV-MANO
APIs. The HTTP header fields used in the request messages are specified in table 4.2.2-1.
Table 4.2.2-1: Header fields supported in the request message
Header field name Reference Example Descriptions
Accept IETF RFC 7231 [10] application/json Content-Types that are acceptable
for the response.
This header field shall be present if
the response is expected to have a
non-empty message body.
Content-Type IETF RFC 7231 [10] application/json The MIME type of the body of the
request.
This header field shall be present if
the request has a non-empty
message body.
Authorization IETF RFC 7235 [13] Bearer mF_9.B5f-4.1JqM The authorization token for the
request. Details are specified in
clause 8.3.
Range IETF RFC 7233 [12] 1 000-2 000 Requested range of bytes from a
file.
Version IETF RFC 4229 [19] 1.2.0 Version of the API requested to use
or when responding to this request.
1.2.0-
impl:example.com:myProduct:4
4.2.3 Response header fields
This clause describes the usage of selected HTTP header fields of the response messages in the RESTful NFV-MANO
APIs. The HTTP header fields used in the response messages are specified in table 4.2.3-1.
Table 4.2.3-1: Header fields supported in the response message
Header field name Reference Example Descriptions
Content-Type IETF RFC 7231 [10] application/json The MIME type of the body of the
response.
This header field shall be present if
the response has a non-empty
message body.
Location IETF RFC 7231 [10] http://www.example.com/vnflcm/v1/ Used in redirection, or when a new
vnf_instances/123 resource has been created.
This header field shall be present if
the response status code is 201 or
3xx.
In the RESTful NFV-MANO APIs
this header field is also used if the
response status code is 202 and a
new resource was created.
WWW-Authenticate IETF RFC 7235 [13] Bearer realm="example" Challenge if the corresponding
HTTP request has not provided
authorization, or error details if the
corresponding HTTP request has
provided an invalid authorization
token.
Accept-Ranges IETF RFC 7233 [12] bytes Used by the server to signal
whether or not it supports ranges for
certain resources.
Content-Range IETF RFC 7233 [12] bytes 21 010 - 47 021/47 022 Signals the byte range that is
contained in the response, and the
total length of the file.
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11 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
Header field name Reference Example Descriptions
Retry-After IETF RFC 7231 [10] Fri, 31 Dec 1999 23:59:59 GMT Used to indicate how long the user
or agent ought to wait before making a
120 follow-up request.
It can be used with 503 responses.
The value of this field can be an
HTTP-date or a number of seconds
to delay after the response is
received.
Link IETF RFC 8288 [17] tpage_opaque_marker=abc123>; for paging in the present document,
rel="next" see clause 5.4.2.1.
Version IETF RFC 4229 [19] 1.2.0 Version of the API requested to use
or when responding to this request.
1.2.0-
impl:example.com:myProduct:4
5 Result set control
5.1 Introduction
This clause specifies procedures that allow to control the size of the result set of GET requests w.r.t. the number of
entries in a response list (using attribute-based filtering) or w.r.t. the number of attributes returned in a response (using
attribute selection).
5.2 Attribute-based filtering
5.2.1 Overview and example (informative)
Attribute-based filtering allows to reduce the number of objects returned by a query operation. Typically,
attribute-based filtering is applied to a GET request that reads a resource which represents a list of objects (e.g. child
resources). Only those objects that match the filter are returned as part of the resource representation in the payload
body of the GET response.
Attribute-based filtering can test a simple (scalar) attribute of the resource representation against a constant value, for
instance for equality, inequality, greater or smaller than, etc. Attribute-based filtering is requested by adding a set of
URI query parameters, the "attribute-based filtering parameters" or "filter" for short, to a resource URI.
The following example illustrates the principle. Assume a resource "container" with the following objects:
EXAMPLE 1: Objects:
obj1: {"id":123, "weight":100, "parts":[{"id":1, "color":"red"}, {"id":2, "color":"green"}]}
obj2: {"id":456, "weight":500, "parts":[{"id":3, "color":"green"}, {"id":4, "color":"blue"}]}

A GET request on the "container" resource would deliver the following response:
EXAMPLE 2: Unfiltered GET:
Request:
GET …/container
Response:
[
{"id":123, "weight":100, "parts":[{"id":1, "color":"red"}, {"id":2, "color":"green"}]},
{"id":456, "weight":500, "parts":[{"id":3, "color":"green"}, {"id":4, "color":"blue"}]}
]
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12 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
A GET request with a filter on the "container" resource would deliver the following response:
EXAMPLE 3: GET with filter:
Request:
GET …/container?filter=(eq,weight,100)
Response:
[
{"id":123, "weight":100, "parts":[{"id":1, "color":"red"}, {"id":2, "color":"green"}]}

]
For hierarchically-structured data, filters can also be applied to attributes deeper in the hierarchy. In case of arrays, a
filter matches if any of the elements of the array matches. In other words, when applying the filter
"(eq,parts/color,green)" to the objects in Example 1, the filter matches obj1 when evaluating the second entry in the
"parts" array of obj1 and matches obj2 already when evaluating the first entry in the "parts" array of obj2. As the result,
both obj1 and obj2 match the filter.
If a filter contains multiple sub-parts that only differ in the leaf attribute (i.e. they share the same attribute prefix), they
are evaluated together per array entry when traversing an array. As an example, the two expressions in the filter
"(eq,parts/color,green);(eq,parts/id,3)" would be evaluated together for each entry in the array "parts". As the result,
obj2 matches the filter.
5.2.2 Specification
An attribute-based filter shall be represented by a URI query parameter named "filter". The value of this parameter shall
consist of one or more strings formatted according to "simpleFilterExpr", concatenated using the ";" character:
simpleFilterExprOne := ","["/"]*","
simpleFilterExprMulti := ","["/"]*","[","]*
simpleFilterExpr := "("")" | "("")"
filterExpr     := [";"]*
filter  := "filter"=
opOne        := "eq" | "neq" | "gt" | "lt" | "gte" | "lte"
opMulti        := "in" | "nin" | "cont" | "ncont"
attrName      := string
value       := string
where:
* zero or more occurrences
[] grouping of expressions to be used with *
"" quotation marks for marking string constants
<> name separator
| separator of alternatives
"AttrName" is the name of one attribute in the data type that defines the representation of the resource. The slash ("/")
character in "simpleFilterExprOne" and " simpleFilterExprMulti" allows concatenation of entries to filter
by attributes deeper in the hierarchy of a structured document. The elements "opOne" and "opMulti" stand for the
comparison operators (accepting one comparison value or a list of such values). If the expression has concatenated
entries, it means that the operator is applied to the attribute addressed by the last entry
included in the concatenation. All simple filter expressions are combined by the "AND" logical operator, denoted by
";".
In a concatenation of entries in a or , the rightmost
entry is called "leaf attribute". The concatenation of all "attrName" entries except the leaf attribute is called
the "attribute prefix". If an attribute referenced in an expression is an array, an object that contains a corresponding
array shall be considered to match the expression if any of the elements in the array matches all expressions that have
the same attribute prefix.
The leaf attribute of a or shall not be structured but shall be of a
simple (scalar) type such as String, Number, Boolean or DateTime, or shall be an array of simple (scalar) values.
Attempting to apply a filter with a structured leaf attribute shall be rejected with "400 Bad request". A
shall not contain any invalid entry.
The operators listed in table 5.2.2-1 shall be supported.
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13 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
Table 5.2.2-1: Operators for attribute-based filtering
Operator with parameters Meaning
eq,, Attribute equal to
neq,, Attribute not equal to
in,,[,]* Attribute equal to one of the values in the list ("in set" relationship)
nin,,[,]* Attribute not equal to any of the values in the list ("not in set" relationship)
gt,, Attribute greater than
gte,, Attribute greater than or equal to
lt,, Attribute less than
lte,, Attribute less than or equal to
cont,,[,]* String attribute contains (at least) one of the values in the list
ncont,,[,]* String attribute does not contain any of the values in the list

Table 5.2.2-2: Applicability of the operators to data types
Operator String Number DateTime Enumeration Boolean
eq x x - x x
neq x x - x x
in x x - x -
nin x x - x -
gt x x x - -
gte x x x - -
lt x x x - -
lte x x x - -
cont x - - - -
ncont x - - - -
Table 5.2.2-2 defines which operators are applicable for which data types. All combinations marked with a "x" shall be
supported.
All objects that match the filter shall be returned as response to a GET request that contains a filter.
A entry shall contain a scalar value of type Number, String, Boolean, Enum or DateTime. The content of a
entry shall be formatted the same way as the representation of the related attribute in the resource
representation: The syntax of DateTime entries shall follow the "date-time" production of IETF RFC 3339 [2].
The syntax of Boolean and Number entries shall follow IETF RFC 8259 [9].
A entry of type String shall be enclosed in single quotes (') if it contains any of the characters ")", "'" or ",", and
may be enclosed in single quotes otherwise. Any single quote (') character contained in a entry shall be
represented as a sequence of two single quote characters.
The "/" and "~" characters in shall be escaped according to the rules defined in section 3 of IETF
RFC 6901 [16]. The "," character in shall be escaped by replacing it with "~a".
In the resulting , percent-encoding as defined in IETF RFC 3986 [3] shall be applied to the characters that
are not allowed in a URI query part according to Appendix A of IETF RFC 3986 [3], and to the ampersand "&"
character.
NOTE: In addition to the statement on percent-encoding above, it is reminded that the percent "%" character is
always percent-encoded when used in parts of a URI, according to IETF RFC 3986 [3].
Attribute-based filters are supported for certain resources. Details are defined in the clauses specifying the actual
resources.
ETSI
14 ETSI GS NFV-SOL 013 V2.7.1 (2019-12)
5.3 Attribute selectors
5.3.1 Overview and example (informative)
Certain resource representations can become quite big, in particular, if the resource is a container for multiple
sub-resources, or if the resource representation itself contains a deeply-nested structure. In these cases, it can be desired
to reduce the amount of data exchanged over the interface and processed by the API consumer application. On the other
hand, it can also be desirable that a "drill-deep" for selected parts of the omitted data can be initiated quickly.
An attribute selector allows the API consumer to choose which attributes it wants to be contained in the response. Only
attributes that are not required to be present, i.e. those with a lower bound of zero on their cardinality (e.g. 0.1, 0.N)
and that are not conditionally mandatory, are allowed to be omitted as part of the selection process. Attributes can be
marked for inclusion or exclusion.
If an attribute is omitted, a link to a resource may be added where the information of that attribute can be fetched. Such
approach is known as HATEOAS which is a common pattern in REST, and enables drilling down on selected issues
without having to repeat a request that may create a potentially big response.
5.3.2 Specification
5.3.2.1 GET request
The URI query parameters for attribute selection are defined in table 5.3.2.1-1.
In the provisions below, "complex attributes" are assumed to be those attributes that are structured or that are arrays.
Table 5.3.2.1-1: Attribute selector parameters
Parameter Definition
all_fields This URI query parameter requests that all complex attributes are included in the response, including
those suppressed by exclude_default. It is inverse to the "exclude_default" parameter. The API
producer shall support this parameter for certain resources. Details are defined in the clauses
specifying the actual resources.
fields This URI query parameter requests that only the listed complex attributes are included in the
response.
The parameter shall be formatted as a list of attribute names. An attribute name shall either be the
name of an attribute, or a path consisting of the names of multiple attributes with parent-child
relationship, separated by "/". Attribute names in the list shall be separated by comma (","). Valid
attribute names for a particular GET request are the names of all complex attributes in the expected
response that have a lower cardinality bound of 0 and that are not conditionally mandatory.

The API producer should support this parameter for certain resources. Details are defined in the
clauses specifying the actual resources.
exclude_fields This URI query parameter requests that the listed complex attributes are excluded from the
response. For the format, eligible attributes and support by the API producer, the provisions defined
for the "fields" parameter shall apply.
exclude_default Presence of this URI query parameter requests that a default set of complex attributes shall be
excluded from the response. The default set is defined per resource in the applicable RESTful NFV-
MANO API specification. Not every resource will necessarily have such a default set. Only complex
attributes with a lower cardinality bound of zero that are not conditionally mandatory can be included
in the set.
The API producer shall support this parameter for certain resources. Details are defined in the
clauses in the applicable RESTful NFV-MANO API specification defining the actual resources.

This parameter is a flag, i.e. it has no value.

If a resource supports attribute selectors and none of the attribute selector parameters is specified in
a GET request, the "exclude_default" parameter shall be assumed as the default.

ETSI
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