ISO 20078-1:2021

Road vehicles - Extended vehicle (ExVe) web services - Part 1: Content and definitions

This document states the minimum requirements, recommendations, permissions and possibilities for ensuring interoperable web services from an accessing party’s perspective. The document: - states requirements on the structure and format of resources; - defines the concept of resource identifiers (direct and correlated); - provides different resource categories (e.g. anonymous, pseudonymized, technical, and personal resources); - provides different approaches on how to bundle shareable resources (e.g. resource group or container); - contains guidelines on how to define the unique resources of an individual application; - defines the entities and roles, necessary for granting an accessing party access to resource owner’s resources; - states requirements on how an accessing party accesses resources, including requirements on how to use the defined and referenced technologies, see Table 1. See Annex A for additional information about roles and responsibilities covered by ISO 20078 series.

Véhicules routiers — Web services du véhicule étendu (ExVe) — Partie 1: Contenu et définitions

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 29-Nov-2021
• ICS: 43.040.15 - Car informatics. On board computer systems
• Technical Committee: ISO/TC 22/SC 31 - Data communication
• Drafting Committee: ISO/TC 22/SC 31/WG 6 - Extended vehicle/Remote diagnostics
• Current Stage: 6060 - International Standard published
• Start Date: 30-Nov-2021
• Due Date: 06-Dec-2021
• Completion Date: 30-Nov-2021

Relations

• Revises: ISO 20078-1:2019 - Road vehicles - Extended vehicle (ExVe) web services - Part 1: Content
• Effective Date: 23-Apr-2020

Overview

ISO 20078-1:2021 - "Road vehicles - Extended vehicle (ExVe) web services - Part 1: Content and definitions" defines the content model and core terminology for interoperable vehicle web services. It establishes minimum requirements, recommendations and possibilities from an accessing party’s perspective to enable standardized, secure access to vehicle data, aggregated information and functionalities (resources). The standard is part of the ISO 20078 series that together addresses access, security and processes for ExVe web services.

Key topics and technical requirements

• Resource structure and format: Requirements on how resources (data, information, functions) are structured and represented; JSON (recommended) and XML are specified for resource representation.
• Identifiers: Defines direct and correlation identifiers for addressing resources consistently across implementations.
• Resource categories: Classifies resources into anonymous, pseudonymized, technical (vehicle) and personal resources to guide privacy and access handling.
• Grouping and containers: Describes approaches to bundle shareable resources (resource groups or containers) to support use-case-specific access and privacy-by-design.
• Entities and roles: Standardizes roles and entities (e.g., offering party / ExVe backend as resource provider, accessing party / service provider, resource owner) and their relationships for authorization flows.
• Access requirements: Specifies how an accessing party should access resources and which technologies to use (see Table 1): RESTful service design over HTTP/TLS, OAuth 2.0 (authorization) and OpenID Connect 1.0 (authentication).
• Privacy and data protection: Recommends methods to handle personal data and privacy in line with stronger global data protection expectations.
• Scope limitations: Does not define specific application schemas or logging requirements - those appear in other parts of the series (e.g., ISO 20078-2, ISO 20078-3, ISO/TR 20078-4).

Applications and who uses it

ISO 20078-1 is relevant for:

• Vehicle manufacturers (VMs) designing ExVe backends and APIs
• Third‑party service providers (insurance telematics, fleet management, mobility services, remote diagnostics) integrating vehicle data
• Telematics platform architects, API designers, security and privacy engineers
• Regulators and system integrators requiring interoperable, privacy-aware vehicle data access

Practical uses include enabling standardized remote diagnostics, fleet monitoring, usage-based insurance, and third‑party mobility services without bespoke, vendor‑specific APIs.

Related standards

• ISO 20078-2 - Access protocol and REST/URI usage
• ISO 20078-3 - Security model (OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect mapping)
• ISO/TR 20078-4 - Process flows and stakeholder interactions

For implementation, combine ISO 20078-1 content/definitions with ISO 20078-2 (access) and ISO 20078-3 (security) to deliver interoperable, privacy-aware ExVe web services.

Standards Content (Sample)

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 20078-1
Second edition
2021-11
Road vehicles — Extended vehicle
(ExVe) web services —
Part 1:
Content and definitions
Véhicules routiers — Web services du véhicule étendu (ExVe) —
Partie 1: Contenu et définitions
Reference number
© ISO 2021
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on
the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below
or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
3.1 Roles and entities . 1
3.2 Technical concepts and terms . 3
3.3 Identifiers . 5
3.4 Credentials . 6
4 Abbreviated terms . 6
5 Convention . 7
6 Relationship of defined entities . .8
6.1 Overview of entities . 8
6.2 Roles and relationships of entities . 9
7 Identifiers . 9
7.1 General . 9
7.2 Direct identifiers . 9
7.3 Correlation identifiers . 9
8 Resource categories .10
8.1 General . 10
8.2 Anonymous resources . 10
8.3 Pseudonymized resources . 10
8.4 Technical (vehicle) resources . 11
8.5 Personal resources . 11
9 Resources .12
9.1 Superset of resources . 12
9.2 Resource groups . 12
9.3 Resource .12
9.4 Containers . 13
9.4.1 Container . 13
9.4.2 Management of containers . 14
10 Representation .15
10.1 General . 15
10.2 JavaScript Object Notation . 16
10.3 Extensible Mark-up Language . 16
Annex A (informative) Roles and responsibilities covered by the ISO 20078 series .17
Bibliography .19
iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to
the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see
www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 22, Road vehicles, Subcommittee SC 31,
Data communication.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 20078-1:2019), which has been technically
revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— revised Clause 3 "Terms and definitions";
— removed the subclause “Key Value List” including related requirements, as it was not used in the
ISO 20078 series;
— added new definitions for request/reply (3.2.10), push (3.2.12) and subscription profile (3.2.13);
— revised the subclause 9.4 "Containers".
A list of all parts in the ISO 20078 series can be found on the ISO website.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.
iv
Introduction
This document was developed to address the needs of different parties to access data, aggregated
information and functionalities (resources) from connected vehicles in a standardized, safe and secure
way. A framework is defined for interoperable web services used by several parties via the internet
by adapting current and widely used IT approaches based on OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect 1.0 (see
ISO 20078-3).
As personal data protection rights are becoming stronger in several countries, this document also
defines and recommends common methods to handle data protection and data privacy issues when
accessing personalized vehicle data, information or functionalities via web services.
The ISO 20078 series is supported by the fact that vehicle manufacturers (VM) include telematics
support for their vehicles, making vehicle data, information and functionalities available at their VM
backend system. Thus, instead of installing additional third-party telematics equipment in the vehicle
to achieve intended service goals, the already existing infrastructure can be (re)used via interoperable
web services. Such web services allow a third party to (re)use the infrastructure in same manners as
the VM uses it.
NOTE Web service interfaces have been available and have been offered by VMs previous to this document
but lack of standardization over the VMs, especially on authentication and authorization, led to the fact that third
parties accommodate and design for several different VM implementations.
The ISO 20078 series is applicable for any application or service that intends to use web services.
The ISO 20078 series does not cover requirements for specific applications, resource definitions or
XML/JSON schemas. These are described in the specific application or use case; e.g. see ISO 20080
remote diagnostics support.
This document, ISO 20078-1, defines all entities and roles that are used over in the ISO 20078 series.
It standardizes how an offering party defines resources. Depending on resource category, the offering
party uses different kind of identifiers. Such resources can be exposed directly or through containers. It
also describes different ways of representing resources in web services, such as JSON and XML.
ISO 20078-2 defines the usage of a common communication protocol that enables access to resources
(URIs), thereby standardizing how an accessing party can access resources via web services of an
offering party, using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) over Transport Layer Security (TLS); i.e.
HTTP secure (HTTPS). The Representational State Transfer (REST) is selected for using a common way
to represent data, aggregated information, and functions (resources).
ISO 20078-3 standardizes the security model of the web services, including different roles and entities
involved in an authorization policy. Three roles are defined: identity provider, authorization provider
and resource provider at the offering party. Additional roles are the accessing party and the resource
owner. The resource owner is in charge of its resources. The role model is defined as a reference
implementation of OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect 1.0 compatible frameworks.
ISO/TR 20078-4 summarizes this document, ISO 20078-2, and ISO 20078-3 by logical processes
[4]
for displaying the interaction of all defined roles and entities . The processes of registration,
authentication, and authorization of an accessing party are determined by the requirements set by
previous parts. The processes described include registration between the entities, granting, denying,
ignoring and revoking access as well as container management possibilities.
In this document, entities are defined as the fundamental objects that represent, for example, vehicles,
ECUs, drivers and fleets, and servers at an ExVe backend. Roles are defined as a grouping of entities
and have relationships that allow for an interaction; e.g. the “offering party” (ExVe backend) offers
resources (ECU data) to an “accessing party” (service implementer).
v
ISO 20078-1 Content TU — vehicle integrated telematics unit
ISO 20078-2 Access LOG — records access, events, failures, and intrusions
ISO 20078-3 Security APP and WEB — application and web services
ISO/TR 20078-4 Control Stakeholders — customer, authorities, VM, third party
Figure 1 — Schematic presentation of the vision of the ISO 20078 series
ExVe web services are comprised of road vehicles combined with the ExVe backend system of the
vehicle manufacturer (the “offering party”), mainly acting as a resource provider. This enables for both
a third party and a vehicle manufacturer, mainly acting as a service/application provider (the “accessing
party”) to access offered resources via the internet; see Figure 1.
The concept of containers is also introduced which allows resource grouping for a single accessing
party purpose. Containers are a recommended solution where (data) privacy by design applies.
Logging (LOG of Figure 1) is an important part of any IT solution. It is, however, not considered within
the scope of the ISO 20078 series due to potentially strong dependencies on certain IT backend
infrastructures.
JSON (recommended) or XML are used for representation of resources (URIs).
The ISO 20078 series defines in general a framework based on the communication and authorization
protocols listed in Table 1. Those technologies can be used for implementation of individual web
services to share resources and, therefore, allow for any service or application implementation on the
accessing party domain.
vi
Table 1 — List of used information technologies
Transport protocol HTTP 1.1 (or later version) over TLS 1.2 (or later version)
Service design RESTful
JSON (recommended)
Data format
XML
Authorization An OAuth 2.0 (or later version) compatible framework
End user authentication An OpenID Connect 1.0 (or later version) compatible framework
vii
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 20078-1:2021(E)
Road vehicles — Extended vehicle (ExVe) web services —
Part 1:
Content and definitions
1 Scope
This document states the minimum requirements, recommendations, permissions and possibilities for
ensuring interoperable web services from an accessing party’s perspective. The document:
— states requirements on the structure and format of resources;
— defines the concept of resource identifiers (direct and correlated);
— provides different resource categories (e.g. anonymous, pseudonymized, technical, and personal
resources);
— provides different approaches on how to bundle shareable resources (e.g. resource group or
container);
— contains guidelines on how to define the unique resources of an individual application;
— defines the entities and roles, necessary for granting an accessing party access to resource owner’s
resources;
— states requirements on how an accessing party accesses resources, including requirements on how
to use the defined and referenced technologies, see Table 1.
See Annex A for additional information about roles and responsibilities covered by ISO 20078 series.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 20078-3, Road vehicles — Extended vehicle (ExVe) web services — Part 3: Security
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1 Roles and entities
3.1.1
vehicle manufacturer
VM
company manufacturing road vehicles
3.1.2
connected vehicle
road vehicle that is enabled for communication over a wide area network (WAN)
Note 1 to entry: A WAN can, for example, be defined as a nationwide mobile phone network with a corresponding
backend (server) architecture.
3.1.3
offering party
OP
entity who provides web services access (3.2.6) to resources (3.2.1)
3.1.4
resource owner
RO
responsible party for the resource(s) (3.2.1)
Note 1 to entry: The resource owner is responsible for granting, denying, and revoking access (3.2.6) to
resource(s).
Note 2 to entry: The responsible resource owner is determined by the concrete resource.
3.1.5
third party
person or body who is not the vehicle manufacturer (3.1.1) or the resource owner (3.1.4)
3.1.6
accessing party
AP
entity which accesses resources (3.2.1) via web services
Note 1 to entry: It is an entity other than the offering party (3.1.3) or the resource owner (3.1.4).
Note 2 to entry: Implements technically and independently an identity, authorization, and a resource provider
(3.1.8)/service provider (3.1.10) that are not within the scope of this document.
Note 3 to entry: The resource provider and service provider can be split into two separate roles at the AP:
resource provider and service provider strongly depend on the individually developed service.
3.1.7
identity provider
entity responsible for authentication (identification) of resource owners (3.1.4), through the use of
credentials
Note 1 to entry: Offering party (3.1.3) confirms the identity of the authenticated resource owner.
Note 2 to entry: There is an identity provider technically mandatory at the offering party, but that identity
provider may reference services exposed by an intermediate body when confirming the identity of a resource
owner in general for some use cases.
3.1.8
resource provider
entity at the offering party (3.1.3) that protects and provides resources (3.2.1)
3.1.9
authorization provider
entity at the offering party (3.1.3) that manages the access (3.2.6) rights to resources (3.2.1) and resource
owner (3.1.4) information
Note 1 to entry: There is an authorization provider technically mandatory at the offering party, but that
authorization provider may reference services exposed by an intermediate body when enforcing the authorization
policy (3.2.7) in general for some use cases.
3.1.10
service provider
vehicle manufacturer (3.1.1) or a third party (3.1.5), providing a service to the vehicle owner based on
the access (3.2.6) to vehicle data and functionalities
3.2 Technical concepts and terms
3.2.1
resource
data, aggregated information or functionalities of the connected vehicle (3.1.2)
Note 1 to entry: resources can be:
— resources (by a RID),
— references to resources,
— resource-related notifications,
— resource owner (3.1.4) information (by a ResourceOwnerID),
— resource and resource owner related information,
— anonymous resources,
— pseudonymized resources,
— vehicle related resources, or
— personal resources,
at the offering party (3.1.3).
3.2.2
resource group
logical set of resources (3.2.1)
3.2.3
superset
set of all unique resources (3.2.1)
3.2.4
container
logical group of resources (3.2.1) defined for a single accessing party (3.1.6) purpose
3.2.5
resource owner profile
information regarding the resource owner (3.1.4)
EXAMPLE Name, address, contact information, and RID.
3.2.6
access
delegated right to an accessing party (3.1.6) to access a resource owner's (3.1.4) resources (3.2.1)
3.2.7
authorization policy
set of rules that define access control to protected resources (3.2.1)
3.2.8
token
sequence of characters representing a verified identity and/or access (3.2.6)
Note 1 to entry: The issuer of the token is responsible for the interpretation and the integrity of the token; for
example, the authorization provider (3.1.9) of the offering party (3.1.3) or in a second example an intermediate
body for the authorization provider of the offering party.
Note 2 to entry: The token is used for securely transmitting verifiable identity and/or authorization information
between involved parties like resource owner (3.1.4), accessing party (3.1.6) and/or offering party.
3.2.9
fleet
group of connected vehicles (3.1.2) associated to a specific resource owner (3.1.4)
3.2.10
request/reply
communication method, where the accessing party (3.1.6) requests resource(s) (3.2.1) and the offering
party (3.1.3) replies
3.2.11
subscription
accessing party (3.1.6) requests the offering party (3.1.3) to push (3.2.12) resources (3.2.1) when certain
conditions are fulfilled
Note 1 to entry: A condition can be a vehicle event, such as a DTC becoming active, or based on a time interval.
3.2.12
push
method used by the offering party (3.1.3) to send resource(s) (3.2.1) to the accessing party (3.1.6)
according to the subscription (3.2.11)
Note 1 to entry: Instead of sending the resource, a reference to the resource can be sent, i.e. a notification. The
accessing party can use the reference to request the resource(s).
3.2.13
subscription profile
URI locations and authorization information making it possible to push (3.2.12) resources (3.2.1) to the
accessing party (3.1.6)
3.2.14
access token
AT
credentials used to access protected resources, issued by the identity provider (3.1.7) or authorization
provider (3.1.9) and consumed by the resource provider (3.1.8)
Note 1 to entry: An access token represents an authorization that is issued to the client and limited by scope and
has a defined expiration time in unix time format (seconds).
Note 2 to entry: An access token may be a digitally signed JWT.
3.2.15
refresh token
RT
credential (string) issued to the client by the identity provider (3.1.7) or the authorization provider
(3.1.9) and used to obtain a new access token (3.2.14) when the currently used AT expires, or to obtain
additional ATs depending on the intended scope of use
3.2.16
bearer token
token (3.2.8)
...