Spatial Internet Protocol SpatialIP Approved by IETF: Defining Spatial Coordinate URLs for AR and VR Worlds

Spatial Internet Protocol SpatialIP Approved by IETF

On March 14, 2029, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) formally published RFC 9847, the SpatialIP (Spatial Internet Protocol) standard. This protocol defines a unified spatial addressing system for digital objects in augmented and virtual reality environments, enabling every object in the virtual world to have a unique URL based on three-dimensional coordinates.

SpatialIP's core innovation introduces geographic spatial coordinate dimensions into the traditional URL format. A SpatialIP address format is: spatial://latitude,longitude,altitude/object-id. For example, an AR billboard in Times Square might have the address: spatial://40.758,-73.985,15m/billboard-001.

Apple, Meta, and Samsung jointly participated in developing the SpatialIP standard. Apple Vision Pro team lead Mike Rockwell said: "SpatialIP solves a fundamental problem in the AR ecosystem — when two people stand in the same location looking at the same AR object, they need to confirm they're seeing the same thing. SpatialIP provides that shared reference frame."

Google has announced it will integrate SpatialIP support into its ARCore platform, expected to open to developers in Q3 2029. Microsoft will also update HoloLens's MixedReality Toolkit for compatibility with the new standard.