Gridnorth
Message standards: MTF-XML (APP-11), COIE and NIEM
Gridnorth writes each message in the format the receiving system expects and validates it against its schema before release. This page says what is supported today and what has not yet been demonstrated.
Why coalition messaging depends on shared formats
Partners can act on each other's messages only if they parse them the same way. NATO publishes the shared definitions. Allied Procedural Publication 11 (APP-11) is the NATO Message Catalogue: it lists the messages. Allied Data Publication 3 (ADatP-3), ratified through STANAG 5500, sets the rules, constructions and vocabulary for building them in Message Text Format (MTF). An MTF message can be carried as slash-delimited text, the character-oriented form, or as MTF-XML, with a one-to-one mapping between the two. Systems that use each will be in service together for years, so a messaging layer has to handle both. COIE vs MTF-XML explains the difference.
What Gridnorth supports today
| Format | What Gridnorth does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| MTF-XML | Renders the confirmed record and validates it against the schema before release. | Part of the laboratory evaluation, on representative schemas |
| COIE (character-oriented) | Parses legacy character-oriented messages as input and renders them as output. | Part of the laboratory evaluation, on representative schemas |
| NIEM | Renders the confirmed record as a NIEM message. | Part of the laboratory evaluation, on representative schemas |
| EXI (W3C) | Encodes the XML using the schema, and decodes it again. | 100% lossless round trip in testing |
What has not yet been demonstrated
Validation before release
Every output is validated against its schema, and a message that fails validation is never released. Deterministic code renders all three formats from the same confirmed record, so they cannot drift apart. A message rendered as MTF-XML and the same message rendered as COIE carry the same values.
New and updated message definitions
Message definitions are supplied to the extractor as data. Adding or updating one still means re-running the evaluation on it. We do not treat a definition as supported until it has been measured.
Sources
The NATO Standardization Office publishes the standards, and its current editions are authoritative. The EXI format is specified by the W3C. NIEM is maintained at niem.gov.
Last reviewed September 29, 2026