2.2.6.3.6 Navigation Property
The default representation of a NavigationProperty is as a JSON name/value pair. The name is equal to "__deferred" and the value is a JSON object that contains a single name/value pair with the name equal to "uri". The value of the "uri" name/value pair MUST be a URI relative to the service root URI, as specified in Service Root (section 2.2.3.2), that identifies the NavigationProperty.
The syntax of a NavigationProperty, represented within a JSON object, is shown using the grammar rule "deferredNavProperty" in the Entity Type Verbose JSON Representation listing in Entity Type (as a JSON Object) (section 2.2.6.3.3).
OData 3.0 adds another JSON object with the name "properties" to the "__metadata" object that contains an array of objects, each of which SHOULD have the name of a NavigationProperty in the entity. Each object has one name/value pair with the name "associationuri". The value of the "associationuri" name/value pair MUST be a URI that represents the association between the related entities.
The syntax of the OData 3.0 properties object is shown by using the grammar rule "propmetadataNVP" in the Entity Type Verbose JSON Representation listing in Entity Type (as a JSON Object) (section 2.2.6.3.3).