OIDs: how can I express you? Let me count the ways

An object identifier (OID) has a central utility in providing a traceable source for the meaning of an identifier appearing in a cross-system communication. The views in this paper illustrate the problems with using the present OID registration system as a reliable source for the identifier, the confusion that the use of an OID introduces in messages, and the redundancy that the OID introduces at the expense of increased message size and no new content. In promoting clearly defined cross-system communication identifiers, Health Level 7 developed a standard that required use of OIDs outside of network addressing. This standard and its propagation by others may have paradoxically added more confusion than clarity.