1. Introduction

The Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR) [RFC7049] can be used for serialization of data in the JSON [RFC8259] data model or in its own, somewhat expanded, data model. When serializing a sequence of such values, it is sometimes convenient to have a format where these sequences can simply be concatenated to obtain a serialization of the concatenated sequence of values or to encode a sequence of values that might grow at the end by just appending further CBOR data items.

This document describes the concept and format of "CBOR Sequences", which are composed of zero or more encoded CBOR data items. CBOR Sequences can be consumed (and produced) incrementally without requiring a streaming CBOR parser that is able to deliver substructures of a data item incrementally (or a streaming encoder able to encode from substructures incrementally).

This document defines and registers the "application/cbor-seq" media type in the "Media Types" registry along with a Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) Content-Format identifier. Media type structured syntax suffixes [RFC6838] were introduced as a way for a media type to signal that it is based on another media type as its foundation. CBOR [RFC7049] defines the "+cbor" structured syntax suffix. This document defines and registers the "+cbor-seq" structured syntax suffix in the "Structured Syntax Suffix Registry".

1.1. Conventions Used in This Document

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

In this specification, the term "byte" is used in its now-customary sense as a synonym for "octet".