ISO 17572 specifies Location Referencing Methods (LRM) that describe locations in the context of geographic databases and will be used to locate transport-related phenomena in an encoder system as well as in the decoder side. It defines what is meant by such objects, and describes the reference in detail, including whether or not components of the reference are mandatory or optional, and their characteristics.

It specifies two different LRMs:

• pre-coded location references (pre-coded profile);
• dynamic location references (dynamic profile).

It does not define a physical format for implementing the LRM. However, the requirements for physical formats are defined.

It does not define details of the Location Referencing System (LRS), i.e. how the LRMs are to be implemented in software, hardware, or processes.

ISO 17572-2:2008 specifies the pre-coded location referencing method, comprising:

• specification of pre-coded location references (pre-coded profile);
• logical format for VICS link location;
• TPEG physical format for ALERT-C-location references;
• TPEG physical format for Korean node-link ID references.