The IESG has approved the following document: - '6LoWPAN: Overview, Assumptions, Problem Statement and Goals ' <draft-ietf-6lowpan-problem-08.txt> as an Informational RFC This document is the product of the IPv6 over Low power WPAN Working Group. The IESG contact persons are Mark Townsley and Jari Arkko. A URL of this Internet-Draft is: http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-6lowpan-problem-08.txt Technical Summary 6LoWPAN is specification describing how to utilize IPv6 on top of low power, low data rate, low cost personal area networks. These networks today being built using IEEE 802.15.4 standard radios. These radios have an extremely limited frame size which makes it necessary to define an adaptation layer to support link layer fragmentation and reassembly. Additionally since these networks utilize low power transmission it is necessary for the adaptation layer to support network layer mesh capabilities. This specification defines the header format for this adaptation layer. Working Group Summary The working group reached consensus on this document. Document Quality There are at least 6 independent implementations of this protocol being worked on and all concerns raised during the review and WGLC have been addressed. Geoff Mulligan is the Document Shepherd. Note to RFC Editor 1) The draft indicates in its 3rd line that the intended status is "Standards Track". However, the document should be Informational. 2) The document does not contain any normative statement (capitalized MUST, MAY, SHOULD, etc.), Section 1.1 and the reference to RFC 2119 could be safely deleted. 3) Normative references should be [ieee802.15.4] and [RFC2460], with the remaining informative. 4) OLD: An admittedly non-technical but important consideration is that intellectual property conditions for IP networking technology are either more favorable or at least better understood than proprietary and newer solutions. NEW: An admittedly non-technical but important consideration is that IP networking technology is specified in open and freely available specifications which is favorable or at least able to be better understood by a wider audience than proprietary solutions. OLD: As alluded to above, devices within LoWPANs are expected to be deployed in exceedingly large numbers. Additionally, they are expected to have limited display and input capabilities. Furthermore, the location of some of these devices may be hard to reach. Accordingly, protocols used in LoWPANs should have minimal configuration, preferably work "out of the box", be easy to bootstrap, and enable the network to self heal given the inherent unreliable characteristic of these devices. Network management should have little overhead yet be powerful enough to control dense deployment of devices. NEW: As alluded to above, devices within LoWPANs are expected to be deployed in exceedingly large numbers. Additionally, they are expected to have limited display and input capabilities. Furthermore, the location of some of these devices may be hard to reach. Accordingly, protocols used in LoWPANs should have minimal configuration, preferably work "out of the box", be easy to bootstrap, and enable the network to self heal given the inherent unreliable characteristic of these devices. The size constraints of the link layer protocol should also be considered. Network management should have little overhead yet be powerful enough to control dense deployment of devices. OLD: Network Management: One of the points of transmitting IPv6 packets, is to reuse existing protocols as much as possible. Network management functionality is critical for LoWPANs. [RFC3411] specifies SNMPv3 protocol operations. SNMP functionality may be translated "as is" to LoWPANs. However, further investigation is required to determine if it is suitable, or if an appropriate adaptation is in order. This adaptation could include limiting the data types and simplifying the Basic Encoding Rules so as to reduce the size and complexity of the ASN.1 parser, thereby reducing the memory and processing needs to better fit into the limited memory and power of LoWPAN devices. NEW: Network Management: One of the points of transmitting IPv6 packets, is to reuse existing protocols as much as possible. Network management functionality is critical for LoWPANs. However, management solutions need to meet the resource constraints as well as the minimal configuration and self healing functionality described in section 4.4. The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) [RFC3410] is widely used for monitoring data sources and sensors in conventional networks. SNMP functionality may be translated "as is" to LoWPANs with the benefit to utilize existing tools. However, due to the memory, processing, and message size constraints, further investigation is required to determine if the use of SNMPv3 is suitable, or if an appropriate adaptation of SNMPv3 or use of different protocols is in order. _______________________________________________ IETF-Announce@ietf.org https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce
