Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                            E. Kim
Request for Comments: 6606                                          ETRI
Category: Informational                                        D. Kaspar
ISSN: 2070-1721                               Simula Research Laboratory
                                                               C. Gomez
                    Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya/Fundacio i2CAT
                                                             C. Bormann
                                                Universitaet Bremen TZI
                                                               May 2012


                Problem Statement and Requirements for
 IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) Routing

Abstract

  IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs) are
  formed by devices that are compatible with the IEEE 802.15.4
  standard.  However, neither the IEEE 802.15.4 standard nor the
  6LoWPAN format specification defines how mesh topologies could be
  obtained and maintained.  Thus, it should be considered how 6LoWPAN
  formation and multi-hop routing could be supported.

  This document provides the problem statement and design space for
  6LoWPAN routing.  It defines the routing requirements for 6LoWPANs,
  considering the low-power and other particular characteristics of the
  devices and links.  The purpose of this document is not to recommend
  specific solutions but to provide general, layer-agnostic guidelines
  about the design of 6LoWPAN routing that can lead to further analysis
  and protocol design.  This document is intended as input to groups
  working on routing protocols relevant to 6LoWPANs, such as the IETF
  ROLL WG.

Status of This Memo

  This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
  published for informational purposes.

  This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
  (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
  received public review and has been approved for publication by the
  Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
  approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
  Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

  Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
  and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
  http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6606.



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RFC 6606              6LoWPAN Routing Requirements              May 2012


Copyright Notice

  Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
  document authors.  All rights reserved.

  This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
  Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
  (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
  publication of this document.  Please review these documents
  carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
  to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
  include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
  the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
  described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

  1. Problem Statement ...............................................2
  2. Terminology .....................................................5
  3. Design Space ....................................................5
     3.1. Reference Network Model ....................................6
  4. Scenario Considerations and Parameters for 6LoWPAN Routing ......8
  5. 6LoWPAN Routing Requirements ...................................13
     5.1. Support of 6LoWPAN Device Properties ......................13
     5.2. Support of 6LoWPAN Link Properties ........................15
     5.3. Support of 6LoWPAN Characteristics ........................18
     5.4. Support of Security .......................................22
     5.5. Support of Mesh-Under Forwarding ..........................25
     5.6. Support of Management .....................................26
  6. Security Considerations ........................................27
  7. Acknowledgments ................................................27
  8. References .....................................................28
     8.1. Normative References ......................................28
     8.2. Informative References ....................................29

1.  Problem Statement

  6LoWPANs are formed by devices that are compatible with the
  IEEE 802.15.4 standard [IEEE802.15.4].  Most of the LoWPAN devices
  are distinguished by their low bandwidth, short range, scarce memory
  capacity, limited processing capability, and other attributes of
  inexpensive hardware.  The characteristics of nodes participating in
  LoWPANs are assumed to be those described in the 6LoWPAN problem
  statement [RFC4919], and in the IPv6 over IEEE 802.15.4 document
  [RFC4944], which has specified how to carry IPv6 packets over
  IEEE 802.15.4 and similar networks.  Whereas IEEE 802.15.4
  distinguishes two types of devices called full-function devices
  (FFDs) and reduced-function devices (RFDs), this distinction is based



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RFC 6606              6LoWPAN Routing Requirements              May 2012


  on some features of the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer that are
  not always in use.  Hence, the distinction is not made in this
  document.  Nevertheless, some 6LoWPAN nodes may limit themselves to
  the role of hosts only, whereas other 6LoWPAN nodes may take part in
  routing.  This host/ router distinction can correlate with the
  processing and storage capabilities of the device and power available
  in a similar way to the idea of RFDs and FFDs.

  IEEE 802.15.4 networks support star and mesh topologies.  However,
  neither the IEEE 802.15.4 standard nor the 6LoWPAN format
  specification ([RFC4944]) define how mesh topologies could be
  obtained and maintained.  Thus, 6LoWPAN formation and multi-hop
  routing can be supported either below the IP layer (the adaptation
  layer or Logical Link Control (LLC)) or the IP layer.  (Note that in
  the IETF, the term "routing" usually, but not always [RFC5556],
  refers exclusively to the formation of paths and the forwarding at
  the IP layer.  In this document, we distinguish the layer at which
  these services are performed by the terms "route-over" and
  "mesh-under".  See Sections 2 and 3.)  A number of IP routing
  protocols have been developed in various IETF working groups.
  However, these existing routing protocols may not satisfy the
  requirements of multi-hop routing in 6LoWPANs, for the following
  reasons:

  o  6LoWPAN nodes have special types and roles, such as nodes drawing
     their power from primary batteries, power-affluent nodes,
     mains-powered and high-performance gateways, data aggregators,
     etc.  6LoWPAN routing protocols should support multiple device
     types and roles.

  o  More stringent requirements apply to LoWPANs, as opposed to
     higher-performance or non-battery-operated networks.  6LoWPAN
     nodes are characterized by small memory sizes and low processing
     power, and they run on very limited power supplied by primary
     non-rechargeable batteries (a few KB of RAM, a few dozen KB of
     ROM/ flash memory, and a few MHz of CPU is typical).  A node's
     lifetime is usually defined by the lifetime of its battery.

  o  Handling sleeping nodes is very critical in LoWPANs, more so than
     in traditional ad hoc networks.  LoWPAN nodes might stay in sleep
     mode most of the time.  Taking advantage of appropriate times for
     transmissions is important for efficient packet forwarding.

  o  Routing in 6LoWPANs might possibly translate to a simpler problem
     than routing in higher-performance networks.  LoWPANs might be
     either transit networks or stub networks.  Under the assumption
     that LoWPANs are never transit networks (as implied by [RFC4944]),




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     routing protocols may be drastically simplified.  This document
     will focus on the requirements for stub networks.  Additional
     requirements may apply to transit networks.

  o  Routing in LoWPANs might possibly translate to a harder problem
     than routing in higher-performance networks.  Routing in LoWPANs
     requires power optimization, stable operation in lossy
     environments, etc.  These requirements are not easily satisfiable
     all at once [ROLL-PROTOCOLS].

  These properties create new challenges for the design of routing
  within LoWPANs.

  The 6LoWPAN problem statement [RFC4919] briefly mentions four
  requirements for routing protocols:

     (a) low overhead on data packets

     (b) low routing overhead

     (c) minimal memory and computation requirements

     (d) support for sleeping nodes (consideration of battery savings)

  These four high-level requirements describe the basic requirements
  for 6LoWPAN routing.  Based on the fundamental features of 6LoWPANs,
  more detailed routing requirements, which can lead to further
  analysis and protocol design, are presented in this document.

  Considering the problems above, detailed 6LoWPAN routing requirements
  must be defined.  Application-specific features affect the design of
  6LoWPAN routing requirements and corresponding solutions.  However,
  various applications can be profiled by similar technical
  characteristics, although the related detailed requirements might
  differ (e.g., a few dozen nodes in a home lighting system need
  appropriate scalability for the system's applications, while millions
  of nodes for a highway infrastructure system also need appropriate
  scalability).

  This routing requirements document states the routing requirements of
  6LoWPAN applications in general, providing examples for different
  cases of routing.  It does not imply that a single routing solution
  will be favorable for all 6LoWPAN applications, and there is no
  requirement for different routing protocols to run simultaneously.







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2.  Terminology

  The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
  "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
  document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

  Readers are expected to be familiar with all the terms and concepts
  that are discussed in "IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area
  Networks (6LoWPANs): Overview, Assumptions, Problem Statement, and
  Goals" [RFC4919] and "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4
  Networks" [RFC4944].

  This specification makes use of the terminology defined in
  [6LoWPAN-ND].

3.  Design Space

  Apart from a wide variety of conceivable routing algorithms for
  6LoWPANs, it is possible to perform routing in the IP layer (using a
  route-over approach) or below IP, as defined by the 6LoWPAN format
  document [RFC4944] (using the mesh-under approach).  See Figure 1.

  The route-over approach relies on IP routing and therefore supports
  routing over possibly various types of interconnected links.
  Note: The ROLL WG is now working on route-over approaches for
  Low-power and Lossy Networks (LLNs), not specifically for 6LoWPANs.
  This document focuses on 6LoWPAN-specific requirements; it may be
  used in conjunction with the more application-oriented requirements
  defined by the ROLL WG.

  The mesh-under approach performs the multi-hop communication below
  the IP link.  The most significant consequence of the mesh-under
  mechanism is that the characteristics of IEEE 802.15.4 directly
  affect the 6LoWPAN routing mechanisms, including the use of 64-bit
  (or 16-bit short) link-layer addresses instead of IP addresses.  A
  6LoWPAN would therefore be seen as a single IP link.

  Most statements in this document consider both the route-over and
  mesh-under cases.












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RFC 6606              6LoWPAN Routing Requirements              May 2012


  Figure 1 shows the place of 6LoWPAN routing in the entire network
  stack.

   +---------------------------+  +-----------------------------+
   |      Application Layer    |  |      Application Layer      |
   +---------------------------+  +-----------------------------+
   | Transport Layer (TCP/UDP) |  |  Transport Layer (TCP/UDP)  |
   +---------------------------+  +-----------------------------+
   |     Network Layer (IPv6)  |  |  Network       +---------+  |
   +---------------------------+  |  Layer         | Routing |  |
   |  6LoWPAN                  |  |  (IPv6)        +---------+  |
   |  Adaptation               |  +-----------------------------+
   |  Layer       +----------+ |  |  6LoWPAN Adaptation Layer   |
   +--------------| Routing* |-+  +-----------------------------+
   | 802.15.4 MAC +----------+ |  |        802.15.4 MAC         |
   +---------------------------+  +-----------------------------+
   |         802.15.4 PHY      |  |        802.15.4 PHY         |
   +---------------------------+  +-----------------------------+
    * Here, "Routing" is not equivalent to IP routing,
      but includes the functionalities of path computation and
      forwarding under the IP layer.
      The term "Routing" is used in the figure in order to
      illustrate which layer handles path computation and
      packet forwarding in mesh-under as compared to route-over.

   Figure 1: Mesh-Under Routing (Left) and Route-Over Routing (Right)

  In order to avoid packet fragmentation and the overhead for
  reassembly, routing packets should fit into a single IEEE 802.15.4
  physical frame, and application data should not be expanded to an
  extent that they no longer fit.

3.1.  Reference Network Model

  For multi-hop communication in 6LoWPANs, when a route-over mechanism
  is in use, all routers (i.e., 6LoWPAN Border Routers (6LBRs) and
  6LoWPAN Routers (6LRs)) perform IP routing within the stub network
  (see Figure 2).  In this case, the link-local scope covers the set of
  nodes within symmetric radio range of a node.

  When a LoWPAN follows the mesh-under configuration, the 6LBR is the
  only IPv6 router in the LoWPAN (see Figure 3).  This means that the
  IPv6 link-local scope includes all nodes in the LoWPAN.  For this, a
  mesh-under mechanism MUST be provided to support multi-hop
  transmission.






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RFC 6606              6LoWPAN Routing Requirements              May 2012


       h   h
      /    |                     6LBR: 6LoWPAN Border Router
  6LBR -- 6LR --- 6LR --- h       6LR: 6LoWPAN Router
          / \                       h: Host
         h  6LR --- h
             |
            / \
         6LR - 6LR -- h

               Figure 2: An Example of a Route-Over LoWPAN


       h   h
      /    |                    6LBR: 6LoWPAN Border Router
  6LBR --- m --- m --- h           m: mesh-under forwarder
          / \                      h: Host
         h   m --- h
             |
            / \
           m - m -- h

               Figure 3: An Example of a Mesh-Under LoWPAN

  Note than in both mesh-under and route-over networks, there is no
  expectation of topologically based address assignment in the 6LoWPAN.
  Instead, addresses are typically assigned based on the EUI-64
  addresses assigned at manufacturing time to nodes, or based on a
  (from a topological point of view) more or less random process
  assigning 16-bit MAC addresses to individual nodes.  Within a
  6LoWPAN, there is therefore no opportunity for aggregation or
  summarization of IPv6 addresses beyond the sharing of (one or more)
  common prefixes.

  Not all devices that are within radio range of each other need to be
  part of the same LoWPAN.  When multiple LoWPANs are formed with
  globally unique IPv6 addresses in the 6LoWPANs, and device (a) of
  LoWPAN [A] wants to communicate with device (b) of LoWPAN [B], the
  normal IPv6 mechanisms will be employed.  For route-over, the IPv6
  address of (b) is set as the destination of the packets, and the
  devices perform IP routing to the 6LBR for these outgoing packets.
  For mesh-under, there is one IP hop from device (a) to the 6LBR of
  [A], no matter how many radio hops they are apart from each other.
  This, of course, assumes the existence of a mesh-under routing
  protocol in order to reach the 6LBR.  Note that a default route to
  the 6LBR could be inserted into the 6LoWPAN routing system for both
  route-over and mesh-under.





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RFC 6606              6LoWPAN Routing Requirements              May 2012


4.  Scenario Considerations and Parameters for 6LoWPAN Routing

  IP-based LoWPAN technology is still in its early stage of
  development, but the range of conceivable usage scenarios is
  tremendous.  The numerous possible applications of sensor networks
  make it obvious that mesh topologies will be prevalent in LoWPAN
  environments and robust routing will be a necessity for expedient
  communication.  Research efforts in the area of sensor networking
  have put forth a large variety of multi-hop routing algorithms
  [Bulusu].  Most related work focuses on optimizing routing for
  specific application scenarios, which can be realized using several
  modes of communication, including the following [Watteyne]:

  o  Flooding (in very small networks)

  o  Hierarchical routing

  o  Geographic routing

  o  Self-organizing coordinate routing

  Depending on the topology of a LoWPAN and the application(s) running
  over it, different types of routing may be used.  However, this
  document abstracts from application-specific communication and
  describes general routing requirements valid for overall routing in
  LoWPANs.

  The following parameters can be used to describe specific scenarios
  in which the candidate routing protocols could be evaluated.

  a.  Network Properties:

      *  Number of Devices, Density, and Network Diameter:
         These parameters usually affect the routing state directly
         (e.g., the number of entries in a routing table or neighbor
         list).  Especially in large and dense networks, policies must
         be applied for discarding "low-quality" and stale routing
         entries in order to prevent memory overflow.

      *  Connectivity:
         Due to external factors or programmed disconnections, a LoWPAN
         can be in several states of connectivity -- anything in the
         range from "always connected" to "rarely connected".  This
         poses great challenges to the dynamic discovery of routes
         across a LoWPAN.






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      *  Dynamicity (including mobility):
         Location changes can be induced by unpredictable external
         factors or by controlled motion, which may in turn cause route
         changes.  Also, nodes may dynamically be introduced into a
         LoWPAN and removed from it later.  The routing state and the
         volume of control messages may heavily depend on the number of
         moving nodes in a LoWPAN and their speed, as well as how
         quickly and frequently environmental characteristics
         influencing radio propagation change.

      *  Deployment:
         In a LoWPAN, it is possible for nodes to be scattered randomly
         or to be deployed in an organized manner.  The deployment can
         occur at once, or as an iterative process, which may also
         affect the routing state.

      *  Spatial Distribution of Nodes and Gateways:
         Network connectivity depends on the spatial distribution of
         the nodes and on other factors, such as device number,
         density, and transmission range.  For instance, nodes can be
         placed on a grid, or randomly located in an area (as can be
         modeled by a two-dimensional Poisson distribution), etc.
         Assuming a random spatial distribution, an average of 7
         neighbors per node are required for approximately 95% network
         connectivity (10 neighbors per node are needed for 99%
         connectivity) [Kuhn].  In addition, if the LoWPAN is connected
         to other networks through infrastructure nodes called
         gateways, the number and spatial distribution of these
         gateways affect network congestion and available data rate,
         among other things.

      *  Traffic Patterns, Topology, and Applications:
         The design of a LoWPAN and the requirements for its
         application have a big impact on the network topology and the
         most efficient routing type to be used.  For different traffic
         patterns (point-to-point, multipoint-to-point, point-to-
         multipoint) and network architectures, various routing
         mechanisms have been developed, such as data-centric, event-
         driven, address-centric, and geographic routing.

      *  Classes of Service:
         For mixing applications of different criticality on one
         LoWPAN, support of multiple classes of service may be required
         in resource-constrained LoWPANs and may require a new routing
         protocol functionality.






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      *  Security:
         LoWPANs may carry sensitive information and require a high
         level of security support where the availability, integrity,
         and confidentiality of data are of prime relevance.  Secured
         messages cause overhead and affect the power consumption of
         LoWPAN routing protocols.

  b.  Node Parameters:

      *  Processing Speed and Memory Size:
         These basic parameters define the maximum size of the routing
         state and the maximum complexity of its processing.  LoWPAN
         nodes may have different performance characteristics, queuing
         strategies, and queue buffer sizes.

      *  Power Consumption and Power Source:
         The number of battery- and mains-powered nodes and their
         positions in the topology created by them in a LoWPAN affect
         routing protocols in their selection of paths that optimize
         network lifetime.

      *  Transmission Range:
         This parameter affects routing.  For example, a high
         transmission range may cause a dense network, which in turn
         results in more direct neighbors of a node, higher
         connectivity, and a larger routing state.

      *  Traffic Pattern:
         This parameter affects routing, since highly loaded nodes
         (either because they are the source of packets to be
         transmitted or due to forwarding) may contribute to higher
         delivery delays and may consume more energy than lightly
         loaded nodes.  This applies to both data packets and routing
         control messages.

















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  c.  Link Parameters:
      This section discusses link parameters that apply to
      IEEE 802.15.4 legacy mode (i.e., not making use of improved
      modulation schemes).

      *  Throughput:
         The maximum user data throughput of a bulk data transmission
         between a single sender and a single receiver through an
         unslotted IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz channel in ideal conditions is
         as follows [Latre]:

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 151.6 kbit/s

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 139.0 kbit/s

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 135.6 kbit/s

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 124.4 kbit/s

         Throughput for the 915 MHz band is as follows:

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 31.1 kbit/s

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 28.6 kbit/s

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 27.8 kbit/s

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 25.6 kbit/s

         Throughput for the 868 MHz band is as follows:

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 15.5 kbit/s

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 14.3 kbit/s

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 13.9 kbit/s

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 12.8 kbit/s













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      *  Latency:
         Latency ranges -- depending on payload size -- of a frame
         transmission between a single sender and a single receiver
         through an unslotted IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz channel in ideal
         conditions are as shown below [Latre].  For unreliable mode,
         the actual latency is provided.  For reliable mode, the round-
         trip time, including transmission of a Layer-2 acknowledgment,
         is provided:

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [1.92 ms, 6.02 ms]

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [2.46 ms, 6.56 ms]

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [2.75 ms, 6.02 ms]

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [3.30 ms, 6.56 ms]

         Latency ranges for the 915 MHz band are as follows:

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [5.85 ms, 29.35 ms]

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [8.35 ms, 31.85 ms]

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [8.95 ms, 29.35 ms]

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [11.45 ms, 31.82 ms]

         Latency ranges for the 868 MHz band are as follows:

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [11.7 ms, 58.7 ms]

         +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [16.7 ms, 63.7 ms]

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [17.9 ms, 58.7 ms]

         +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [22.9 ms, 63.7 ms]

  Note that some of the parameters presented in this section may be
  used as link or node evaluation metrics.  However, multi-criteria
  routing may be too expensive for 6LoWPAN nodes.  Rather, various
  single-criteria metrics are available and can be selected to suit the
  environment or application.









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5.  6LoWPAN Routing Requirements

  This section defines a list of requirements for 6LoWPAN routing.  An
  important design property specific to low-power networks is that
  LoWPANs have to support multiple device types and roles, such as

  o  host nodes drawing their power from primary batteries or using
     energy harvesting (sometimes called "power-constrained nodes")

  o  mains-powered host nodes (an example of what we call "power-
     affluent nodes")

  o  power-affluent (but not necessarily mains-powered) high-
     performance gateway(s)

  o  nodes with various functionality (data aggregators, relays, local
     manager/coordinators, etc.)

  Due to these different device types and roles, LoWPANs need to
  consider the following two primary attributes:

  o  Power conservation: some devices are mains-powered, but many are
     battery-operated and need to last several months to a few years
     with a single AA battery.  Many devices are mains-powered most of
     the time but still need to function on batteries for possibly
     extended periods (e.g., on a construction site before building
     power is switched on for the first time).

  o  Low performance: tiny devices, small memory sizes, low-performance
     processors, low bandwidth, high loss rates, etc.

  These fundamental attributes of LoWPANs affect the design of routing
  solutions.  Whether existing routing specifications are simplified
  and modified, or new solutions are introduced in order to fit the
  low-power requirements of LoWPANs, they need to meet the requirements
  described below.

5.1.  Support of 6LoWPAN Device Properties

  The general objectives listed in this section should be met by
  6LoWPAN routing protocols.  The importance of each requirement is
  dependent on what node type the protocol is running on and what the
  role of the node is.  The following requirements consider the
  presence of battery-powered nodes in LoWPANs.







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  [R01] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD allow implementation with
  small code size and require low routing state to fit the typical
  6LoWPAN node capacity.  Generally speaking, the code size is bounded
  by available flash memory size, and the routing table is bounded by
  RAM size, possibly limiting it to less than 32 entries.

     The RAM size of LoWPAN nodes often ranges between 4 KB and 10 KB
     (2 KB minimum), and program flash memory normally consists of 48
     KB to 128 KB.  (For example, in the current market, MICAz has 128
     KB program flash, 4 KB EEPROM, and 512 KB external flash ROM;
     TIP700CM has 48 KB program flash, 10 KB RAM, and 1 MB external
     flash ROM.)

     Due to these hardware restrictions, code SHOULD fit within a small
     memory size -- no more than 48 KB to 128 KB of flash memory,
     including at least a few tens of KB of application code size.  (As
     a general observation, a routing protocol of low complexity may
     help achieve the goal of reducing power consumption, improves
     robustness, requires lower routing state, is easier to analyze,
     and may be less prone to security attacks.)

     In addition, operation with limited amounts of routing state (such
     as routing tables and neighbor lists) SHOULD be maintained, since
     some typical memory sizes preclude storing state of a large number
     of nodes.  For instance, industrial monitoring applications may
     need to support a maximum of 20 hops [RFC5673].  Small networks
     can be designed to support a smaller number of hops.  While the
     need for this is highly dependent on the network architecture,
     there should be at least one mode of operation that can function
     with 32 forwarding entries or less.

  [R02] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD cause minimal power
  consumption by efficiently using control packets (e.g., minimizing
  expensive IP multicast, which causes link broadcast to the entire
  LoWPAN) and by efficiently routing data packets.

     One way of optimizing battery lifetime is by achieving a minimal
     control message overhead.  Compared to such functions as
     computational operations or taking sensor samples, radio
     communication is by far the dominant factor of power consumption
     [Doherty].  Power consumption of transmission and/or reception
     depends linearly on the length of data units and on the frequency
     of transmission and reception of the data units [Shih].

     The energy consumption of two example radio frequency (RF)
     controllers for low-power nodes is shown in [Hill].  The TR1000
     radio consumes 21 mW when transmitting at 0.75 mW, and 15 mW
     during reception (with a receiver sensitivity of -85 dBm).  The



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     CC1000 consumes 31.6 mW when transmitting at 0.75 mW, and 20 mW
     during reception (with a receiver sensitivity of -105 dBm).  Power
     endurance under the concept of an idealized power source is
     explained in [Hill].  Based on the energy of an idealized AA
     battery, the CC1000 can transmit for approximately 4 days straight
     or receive for 9 consecutive days.  Note that availability for
     reception consumes power as well.

     As multicast may cause flooding in the LoWPAN, a 6LoWPAN routing
     protocol SHOULD minimize the control cost by multicasting routing
     packets.

     Control cost of routing protocols in low-power and lossy networks
     is discussed in more detail in [ROLL-PROTOCOLS].

5.2.  Support of 6LoWPAN Link Properties

  6LoWPAN links have the characteristics of low data rate and possibly
  high loss rates.  The routing requirements described in this section
  are derived from the link properties.

  [R03] 6LoWPAN routing protocol control messages SHOULD NOT exceed a
  single IEEE 802.15.4 frame size, in order to avoid packet
  fragmentation and the overhead for reassembly.

     In order to save energy, routing overhead should be minimized to
     prevent fragmentation of frames.  Therefore, 6LoWPAN routing
     should not cause packets to exceed the IEEE 802.15.4 frame size.
     This reduces the energy required for transmission, avoids
     unnecessary waste of bandwidth, and prevents the need for packet
     reassembly.  The [IEEE802.15.4] standard specifies an MTU of
     127 bytes, yielding about 80 octets of actual MAC payload with
     security enabled, some of which is taken for the (typically
     compressed) IP header [RFC6282].  Avoiding fragmentation at the
     adaptation layer may imply the use of semantic fragmentation
     and/or algorithms that can work on small increments of routing
     information.

  [R04] The design of routing protocols for LoWPANs must consider the
  fact that packets are to be delivered with sufficient probability
  according to application requirements.

     Requirements for a successful end-to-end packet delivery ratio
     (where delivery may be bounded within certain latency levels)
     vary, depending on the application.  In industrial applications,
     some non-critical monitoring applications may tolerate a
     successful delivery ratio of less than 90% with hours of latency;




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     in some other cases, a delivery ratio of 99.9% is required
     [RFC5673].  In building automation applications, application-layer
     errors must be below 0.01% [RFC5867].

     Successful end-to-end delivery of packets in an IEEE 802.15.4 mesh
     depends on the quality of the path selected by the routing
     protocol and on the ability of the routing protocol to cope with
     short-term and long-term quality variation.  The metric of the
     routing protocol strongly influences performance of the routing
     protocol in terms of delivery ratio.

     The quality of a given path depends on the individual qualities of
     the links (including the devices) that compose that path.
     IEEE 802.15.4 settings affect the quality perceived at upper
     layers.  In particular, in IEEE 802.15.4 reliable mode, if an
     acknowledgment frame is not received after a given period, the
     originator retries frame transmission up to a maximum number of
     times.  If an acknowledgment frame is still not received by the
     sender after performing the maximum number of transmission
     attempts, the MAC layer assumes that the transmission has failed
     and notifies the next higher layer of the failure.  Note that
     excessive retransmissions may be detrimental; see RFC 3819
     [RFC3819].

  [R05] The design of routing protocols for LoWPANs must consider the
  latency requirements of applications and IEEE 802.15.4 link latency
  characteristics.

     Latency requirements may differ -- e.g., from a few hundred
     milliseconds to minutes -- depending on the type of application.
     Real-time building automation applications usually need response
     times below 500 ms between egress and ingress, while forced-entry
     security alerts must be routed to one or more fixed or mobile user
     devices within 5 seconds [RFC5867].  Non-critical closed-loop
     applications for industrial automation have latency requirements
     that can be as low as 100 ms, but many control loops are tolerant
     of latencies above 1 s [RFC5673].  In contrast, urban monitoring
     applications allow latencies smaller than the typical intervals
     used for reporting sensed information -- for instance, on the
     order of seconds to minutes [RFC5548].

     The range of latencies of a frame transmission between a single
     sender and a single receiver through an ideal unslotted
     IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz channel is between 2.46 ms and 6.02 ms with
     64-bit MAC addresses in unreliable mode, and between 2.20 ms and
     6.56 ms with 64-bit MAC addresses in reliable mode.  The range of
     latencies of the 868 MHz band is from 11.7 ms to 63.7 ms,
     depending on the address type and mode used (reliable or



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     unreliable).  Note that the latencies may be larger than that,
     depending on channel load, the MAC-layer settings, and the choice
     of reliable or unreliable mode.  Note that MAC approaches other
     than legacy 802.15.4 may be used (e.g., TDMA).  Duty cycling may
     further affect latency (see [R08]).  Depending on the routing path
     chosen and the network diameter, multiple hops may contribute to
     the end-to-end latency that an application may experience.

     Note that a tradeoff exists between [R05] and [R04].

  [R06] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD be robust to dynamic loss
  caused by link failure or device unavailability either in the short
  term (approx. 30 ms) -- due to Received Signal Strength Indication
  (RSSI) variation, interference variation, noise, and asynchrony -- or
  in the long term, due to a depleted power source, hardware breakdown,
  operating system misbehavior, etc.

     An important trait of 6LoWPAN devices is their unreliability,
     which can be due to limited system capabilities and possibly being
     closely coupled to the physical world with all its unpredictable
     variations.  In harsh environments, LoWPANs easily suffer from
     link failure.  Collisions or link failures easily increase send
     and receive queues and can lead to queue overflow and packet
     losses.

     For home applications, where users expect feedback after carrying
     out certain actions (such as handling a remote control while
     moving around), routing protocols must converge within 2 seconds
     if the destination node of the packet has moved and must converge
     within 0.5 seconds if only the sender has moved [RFC5826].  The
     tolerance of the recovery time can vary, depending on the
     application; however, the routing protocol must provide the
     detection of short-term unavailability and long-term
     disappearance.  The routing protocol has to exploit network
     resources (e.g., path redundancy) to offer good network behavior
     despite node failure.

     Different routing protocols may exhibit different scaling
     characteristics with respect to the recovery/convergence time and
     the computational resources to achieve recovery after a
     convergence; see also [R01] and [R10].










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  [R07] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD be designed to correctly
  operate in the presence of link asymmetry.

     Link asymmetry occurs when the probability of successful
     transmission between two nodes is significantly higher in one
     direction than in the other.  This phenomenon has been reported in
     a large number of experimental studies, and it is expected that
     6LoWPANs will exhibit link asymmetry.

5.3.  Support of 6LoWPAN Characteristics

  6LoWPANs can be deployed in different sizes and topologies, adhere to
  various models of mobility, be exposed to various levels of
  interference, etc.  In any case, LoWPANs must maintain low energy
  consumption.  The requirements described in this subsection are
  derived from the network attributes of 6LoWPANs.

  [R08] The design of 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD take into
  account that some nodes may be unresponsive during certain time
  intervals, due to periodic hibernation.

     Many nodes in LoWPAN environments might periodically hibernate
     (i.e., disable their transceiver activity) in order to save
     energy.  Therefore, routing protocols must ensure robust packet
     delivery despite nodes frequently shutting off their radio
     transmission interface.  Feedback from the lower IEEE 802.15.4
     layer may be considered to enhance the power awareness of 6LoWPAN
     routing protocols.

     CC1000-based nodes must operate at a duty cycle of approximately
     2% to survive for one year from an idealized AA battery power
     source [Hill].  For home automation purposes, it is suggested that
     the devices have to maximize the sleep phase with a duty cycle
     lower than 1% [RFC5826], while in building automation
     applications, batteries must be operational for at least 5 years
     when the sensing devices are transmitting data (e.g., 64 bytes)
     once per minute [RFC5867].

     Depending on the application in use, packet rates may range from
     one per second to one per day, or beyond.  Routing protocols may
     take advantage of knowledge about the packet transmission rate and
     utilize this information in calculating routing paths.  In many
     IEEE 802.15.4 deployments, and in other wireless low-power
     technologies, forwarders are mains-powered devices (and hence do
     not need to sleep).  However, it cannot be assumed that all
     forwarders are mains-powered.  A routing protocol that addresses
     this case SHOULD provide a mode in which power consumption is a
     metric.  In addition, using nodes in power-saving modes for



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     forwarding may increase delay and reduce the probability of packet
     delivery, which in this case also should be available as an input
     into the path computation.

  [R09] The metric used by 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD provide
  some flexibility with respect to the inputs provided by the lower
  layers and other measures to optimize path selection, considering
  energy balance and link qualities.

     In homes, buildings, or infrastructure, some nodes will be
     installed with mains power.  Such power-installed nodes MUST be
     considered as relay points for a prominent role in packet
     delivery.  6LoWPAN routing protocols MUST know the power
     constraints of the nodes.

     Simple hop-count-only mechanisms may be inefficient in 6LoWPANs.
     There is a Link Quality Indication (LQI) and/or RSSI from
     IEEE 802.15.4 that may be taken into account for better metrics.
     The metric to be used (and its goal) may depend on applications
     and requirements.

     The numbers in Figure 4 represent the Link Delivery Ratio (LDR) of
     each pair of nodes.  There are studies that show a piecewise
     linear dependence between the LQI and the LDR [Chen].

                                    0.6
                                 A-------C
                                  \     /
                               0.9 \   / 0.9
                                    \ /
                                     B

                        Figure 4: An Example Network

     In this simple example, there are two options in routing from
     node A to node C, with the following features:

     A.  Path AC:

         +  (1/0.6) = 1.67 avg. transmissions needed for each packet
            (confirmed link-layer delivery with retransmissions and
            negligible ACK loss have been assumed)

         +  one-hop path







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         +  good energy consumption and end-to-end latency of data
            packets, poor delivery ratio (0.6)

         +  poor probability of route reconfigurations

     B.  Path ABC:

         +  (1/0.9)+(1/0.9) = 2.22 avg. transmissions needed for each
            packet (under the same assumptions as above)

         +  two-hop path

         +  poor energy consumption and end-to-end latency of data
            packets, good delivery ratio (0.81)

     If energy consumption of the network must be minimized, path AC is
     the best (this path would be chosen based on a hop-count metric).
     However, if the delivery ratio in that case is not sufficient, the
     best path is ABC (it would be chosen by an LQI-based metric).
     Combinations of both metrics can be used.

     The metric also affects the probability of route reconfiguration.
     Route reconfiguration, which may be triggered by packet losses,
     may require transmission of routing protocol messages.  It is
     possible to use a metric aimed at selecting the path with a low
     route reconfiguration rate by using the LQI as an input to the
     metric.  Such a path has good properties, including stability and
     low control message overhead.

  Note that a tradeoff exists between [R09] and [R01].

  [R10] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD be designed to achieve both
  scalability -- from a few nodes to maybe millions of nodes -- and
  minimal use of system resources.

     A LoWPAN may consist of just a couple of nodes (for instance, in a
     body-area network), but may also contain much higher numbers of
     devices (e.g., monitoring of a city infrastructure or a highway).
     For home automation applications, it is envisioned that the
     routing protocol must support 250 devices in the network
     [RFC5826], while routing protocols for metropolitan-scale sensor
     networks must be capable of clustering a large number of sensing
     nodes into regions containing on the order of 10^2 to 10^4 sensing
     nodes each [RFC5548].  It is therefore necessary that routing
     mechanisms are designed to be scalable for operation in networks
     of various sizes.  However, due to a lack of memory size and
     computational power, 6LoWPAN routing might limit forwarding
     entries to a small number, such as a maximum of 32 routing table



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     entries.  Particularly in large networks, the routing mechanism
     MUST be designed in such a way that the number of routers is
     smaller than the number of hosts.

  [R11] The procedure of route repair and related control messages
  SHOULD NOT harm overall energy consumption from the routing
  protocols.

     Local repair improves throughput and end-to-end latency,
     especially in large networks.  Since routes are repaired quickly,
     fewer data packets are dropped, and a smaller number of routing
     protocol packet transmissions are needed, since routes can be
     repaired without source-initiated route discovery [Lee].  One
     important consideration here may be to avoid premature energy
     depletion, even if that impairs other requirements.

  [R12] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD allow for dynamically adaptive
  topologies and mobile nodes.  When supporting dynamic topologies and
  mobile nodes, route maintenance should keep in mind the goal of a
  minimal routing state and routing protocol message overhead.

     Topological node mobility may be the result of physical movement
     and/or a changing radio environment, making it very likely that
     mobility needs to be handled even in a network with physically
     static nodes.  6LoWPANs do not make use of a separate protocol to
     maintain connectivity to moving nodes but expects the routing
     protocol to handle it.

     In addition, some nodes may move from one 6LoWPAN to another and
     are expected to become functional members of the latter 6LoWPAN in
     a limited amount of time.

     Building monitoring applications, for instance, have a number of
     requirements with respect to recovery and settling time for
     mobility that range between 5 and 20 seconds (Section 5.3.1 of
     [RFC5867]).  For more interactive applications such as those used
     in home automation systems, where users provide input and expect
     instant feedback, mobility requirements are also stricter and, for
     moves within a network, a convergence time below 0.5 seconds is
     commonly required (Section 3.2 of [RFC5826]).  In industrial
     environments, where mobile equipment (e.g., cranes) moves around,
     the routing protocol needs to support vehicular speeds of up to
     35 km/h [RFC5673].  Currently, 6LoWPANs are not normally being
     used for such fast mobility, but dynamic association and
     disassociation MUST be supported in 6LoWPANs.






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     There are several challenges that should be addressed by a 6LoWPAN
     routing protocol in order to create robust routing in dynamic
     environments:

     *  Mobile Nodes Changing Their Location inside a LoWPAN:
        If the nodes' movement pattern is unknown, mobility cannot
        easily be detected or distinguished by the routing protocols.
        Mobile nodes can be treated as nodes that disappear and
        reappear in another place.  The tracking of movement patterns
        increases complexity and can be avoided by handling moving
        nodes using reactive route updates.

     *  Movement of a LoWPAN with Respect to Other (Inter)Connected
        LoWPANs:
        Within each stub network, (one or more) relatively powerful
        gateway nodes (6LBRs) need to be configured to handle moving
        LoWPANs.

     *  Nodes Permanently Joining or Leaving the LoWPAN:
        In order to ease routing table updates, reduce the size of
        these updates, and minimize error control messages, nodes
        leaving the network may announce their disassociation to the
        closest edge router or to a specific node (if any) that takes
        charge of local association and disassociation.

  [R13] A 6LoWPAN routing protocol SHOULD support various traffic
  patterns -- point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, and multipoint-to-
  point -- while avoiding excessive multicast traffic in a LoWPAN.

     6LoWPANs often have point-to-multipoint or multipoint-to-point
     traffic patterns.  Many emerging applications include point-to-
     point communication as well.  6LoWPAN routing protocols should be
     designed with the consideration of forwarding packets from/to
     multiple sources/destinations.  Current documents of the ROLL WG
     explain that the workload or traffic pattern of use cases for
     LoWPANs tends to be highly structured, unlike the any-to-any data
     transfers that dominate typical client and server workloads.  In
     many cases, exploiting such structure may simplify difficult
     problems arising from resource constraints or variation in
     connectivity.

5.4.  Support of Security

  The routing requirement described in this subsection allows secure
  transmission of routing messages.  As in traditional networks,
  routing mechanisms in 6LoWPANs present another window from which an
  attacker might disrupt and significantly degrade the overall
  performance of the 6LoWPAN.  Attacks against non-secure routing aim



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  mainly to contaminate WPANs with false routing information, resulting
  in routing inconsistencies.  A malicious node can also snoop packets
  and then launch replay attacks on the 6LoWPAN nodes.  These attacks
  can cause harm, especially when the attacker is a high-power device,
  such as a laptop.  It can also easily drain the batteries of 6LoWPAN
  devices by sending broadcast messages, redirecting routes, etc.

  [R14] 6LoWPAN routing protocols MUST support confidentiality,
  authentication, and integrity services as required for secure
  delivery of control messages.

     A general set of requirements that may apply to these services can
     be found in [KARP-THREATS].

     Security is very important for designing robust routing protocols,
     but it should not cause significant transmission overhead.  The
     security aspect, however, seems to be a bit of a tradeoff in a
     6LoWPAN, since security is always a costly function.  A 6LoWPAN
     poses unique challenges to which traditional security techniques
     cannot be applied directly.  For example, public key cryptography
     primitives are typically avoided (as being too expensive), as are
     relatively heavyweight conventional encryption methods.

     Consequently, it becomes questionable whether the 6LoWPAN devices
     can support IPsec as it is.  While [RFC6434] makes support of the
     IPsec architecture a SHOULD for all IPv6 nodes, considering the
     power constraints and limited processing capabilities of
     IEEE 802.15.4-capable devices, IPsec is computationally expensive.
     Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) messaging as described in RFC 5996
     [RFC5996] will not work well in 6LoWPANs, as we want to minimize
     the amount of signaling in these networks.  IPsec supports the
     Authentication Header (AH) for authenticating the IP header and
     the Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) for authenticating and
     encrypting the payload.  The main issues of using IPsec are
     two-fold: (1) processing power and (2) key management.  Since
     these tiny 6LoWPAN devices do not process huge amounts of data or
     communicate with many different nodes, whether complete
     implementation of a Security Association Database (SAD), policy
     database, and dynamic key-management protocol are appropriate for
     these small battery-powered devices or not is not well understood.

     Bandwidth is a very scarce resource in 6LoWPAN environments.  The
     fact that IPsec additionally requires another header (AH or ESP)
     in every packet makes its use problematic in 6LoWPAN environments.
     IPsec requires two communicating peers to share a secret key that
     is typically established dynamically with IKEv2.  Thus, it has an
     additional packet overhead incurred by the exchange of IKEv2
     packets.



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     Given existing constraints in 6LoWPAN environments, IPsec may not
     be suitable for use in such environments, especially since a
     6LoWPAN node may not be capable of operating all IPsec algorithms
     on its own.  Thus, a 6LoWPAN may need to define its own keying
     management method(s) that require minimum overhead in packet size
     and in the number of signaling messages that are exchanged.  IPsec
     will provide authentication and confidentiality between end-nodes
     and across multiple LoWPAN links, and may be useful only when two
     nodes want to apply security to all exchanged messages.  However,
     in most cases, the security may be requested at the application
     layer as needed, while other messages can flow in the network
     without security overhead.

     Security threats within LoWPANs may be different from existing
     threat models in ad hoc network environments.  If IEEE 802.15.4
     security is not used, Neighbor Discovery (ND) in IEEE 802.15.4
     links is susceptible to threats.  These include Neighbor
     Solicitation/Neighbor Advertisement (NS/NA) spoofing, a malicious
     router, a default router that is "killed", a good router that goes
     bad, a spoofed redirect, replay attacks, and remote ND DoS
     [RFC3756].  However, if IEEE 802.15.4 security is used, no other
     protection is needed for ND, as long as none of the nodes become
     compromised, because the Corporate Intranet Model of RFC 3756 can
     be assumed [6LoWPAN-ND].

     Bootstrapping may also impose additional threats.  For example, a
     malicious node can obtain initial configuration information in
     order to appear as a legitimate node and then carry out various
     types of attacks.  Such a node can also keep legitimate nodes busy
     by broadcasting authentication/join requests.  One option for
     mitigating such threats is the use of mutual authentication
     schemes based on the use of pre-shared keys [Ikram].

     The IEEE 802.15.4 MAC provides an AES-based security mechanism.
     Routing protocols may define how this mechanism (in conjunction
     with IPsec whenever available) can be used to obtain the intended
     security, either for the routing protocol alone or in conjunction
     with the security used for the data.  Byte overhead of the
     mechanism, which depends on the security services selected, must
     be considered.  In the worst case in terms of overhead, the
     mechanism consumes 21 bytes of MAC payload.

     The IEEE 802.15.4 MAC security is typically supported by crypto
     hardware, even in very simple chips that will be used in a
     6LoWPAN.  Even if the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC security mechanisms are
     not used, this crypto hardware is usually available for use by





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     application code running on these chips.  A security protocol
     outside IEEE 802.15.4 MAC security SHOULD therefore provide a mode
     of operation that is covered by this crypto hardware.

     IEEE 802.15.4 does not specify protection for acknowledgment
     frames.  Since the sequence numbers of data frames are sent in the
     clear, an adversary can forge an acknowledgment for each data
     frame.  Exploitation of this weakness can be combined with
     targeted jamming to prevent delivery of selected packets.
     Consequently, IEEE 802.15.4 acknowledgments cannot be relied upon.
     In applications that require high security, the routing protocol
     must not exploit feedback from acknowledgments (e.g., to keep
     track of neighbor connectivity, see [R16]).

5.5.  Support of Mesh-Under Forwarding

  One LoWPAN may be built as one IPv6 link.  In this case, mesh-under
  forwarding mechanisms must be supported.  While this document
  provides general, layer-agnostic guidelines about the design of
  6LoWPAN routing, the requirements in this section are specifically
  related to Layer 2.  These requirements are directed to bodies that
  might consider working on mesh-under routing, such as the IEEE.  The
  requirements described in this subsection allow optimization and
  correct operation of routing solutions, taking into account the
  specific features of the mesh-under configuration.

  [R15] Mesh-under requires the development of a routing protocol
  operating below IP.  This protocol MUST support 16-bit short and
  64-bit extended MAC addresses.

  [R16] In order to perform discovery and maintenance of neighbors
  (i.e., neighborhood discovery as opposed to ND-style neighbor
  discovery), LoWPAN nodes SHOULD avoid sending separate "Hello"
  messages.  Instead, link-layer mechanisms (such as acknowledgments)
  MAY be utilized to keep track of active neighbors.

     Reception of an acknowledgment after a frame transmission may
     render unnecessary the transmission of explicit Hello messages,
     for example.  In a more general view, any frame received by a node
     may be used as an input to evaluate the connectivity between the
     sender and receiver of that frame.

  [R17] If the routing protocol functionality includes enabling IP
  multicast, then it MAY employ structure in the network for efficient
  distribution in order to minimize link-layer broadcast.






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5.6.  Support of Management

  When a new protocol is designed, the operational environment and
  manageability of the protocol should be considered from the start
  [RFC5706].  This subsection provides a requirement for the
  manageability of 6LoWPAN routing protocols.

  [R18] A 6LoWPAN routing protocol SHOULD be designed according to the
  guidelines for operations and management stated in [RFC5706].

     The management operations that a 6LoWPAN routing protocol
     implementation can support depend on the memory and processing
     capabilities of the 6LoWPAN devices used, which are typically
     constrained.  However, 6LoWPANs may benefit significantly from
     supporting such 6LoWPAN routing protocol management operations as
     configuration and performance monitoring.

     The design of 6LoWPAN routing protocols should take into account
     that, according to "Architectural Principles of the Internet"
     [RFC1958], "options and parameters should be configured or
     negotiated dynamically rather than manually".  This is especially
     important for 6LoWPANs, which can be composed of a large number of
     devices (and, in addition, these devices may not have an
     appropriate user interface).  Therefore, parameter
     autoconfiguration is a desirable property for a 6LoWPAN routing
     protocol, although some subset of routing protocol parameters may
     allow other forms of configuration as well.

     In order to verify the correct operation of the 6LoWPAN routing
     protocol and the network itself, a 6LoWPAN routing protocol should
     allow monitoring of the status and/or value of 6LoWPAN routing
     protocol parameters and data structures such as routing table
     entries.  In order to enable fault management, further monitoring
     of the 6LoWPAN routing protocol operation is needed.  For this,
     faults can be reported via error log messages.  These messages may
     contain information such as the number of times a packet could not
     be sent to a valid next hop, the duration of each period without
     connectivity, memory overflow and its causes, etc.

     [RFC5706] -- in particular its Section 3 -- provides a
     comprehensive guide to properly designing the management solution
     for a 6LoWPAN routing protocol.









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6.  Security Considerations

  Security issues are described in Section 5.4.  The security
  considerations in RFC 4919 [RFC4919], RFC 4944 [RFC4944], and
  RFC 4593 [RFC4593] apply as well.

  The use of wireless links renders a 6LoWPAN susceptible to attacks
  like any other wireless network.  In outdoor 6LoWPANs, the physical
  exposure of the nodes allows an adversary to capture, clone, or
  tamper with these devices.  In ad hoc 6LoWPANs that are dynamic in
  both their topology and node memberships, a static security
  configuration does not suffice.  Spoofed, altered, or replayed
  routing information might occur, while multihopping could delay the
  detection and treatment of attacks.

  This specification expects that the link layer is sufficiently
  protected, either by means of physical or IP security for the
  backbone link, or with MAC-sublayer cryptography.  However, link-
  layer encryption and authentication may not be sufficient to provide
  confidentiality, authentication, integrity, and freshness to both
  data and routing protocol packets.  Time synchronization, self-
  organization, and secure localization for multi-hop routing are also
  critical to support.

  For secure routing protocol operation, it may be necessary to
  consider authenticated broadcast (and multicast) and bidirectional
  link verification.  On the other hand, secure end-to-end data
  delivery can be assisted by the routing protocol.  For example,
  multi-path routing could be considered for increasing security to
  prevent selective forwarding.  However, the challenge is that
  6LoWPANs already have high resource constraints, so that 6LBR and
  LoWPAN nodes may require different security solutions.

7.  Acknowledgments

  The authors of this document highly appreciate the authors of "IPv6
  over Low Power WPAN Security Analysis" [6LoWPAN-SEC].  Although their
  security analysis work is not ongoing at the time of this writing,
  the valuable information and text in that document are used in
  Section 5.4 of this document, per advice received during IESG review
  procedures.  Thanks to their work, Section 5.4 is much improved.  The
  authors also thank S. Chakrabarti, who gave valuable comments
  regarding mesh-under requirements, and A. Petrescu for significant
  review.

  Carles Gomez has been supported in part by FEDER and by the Spanish
  Government through projects TIC2006-04504 and TEC2009-11453.




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RFC 6606              6LoWPAN Routing Requirements              May 2012


8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

  [IEEE802.15.4]
             IEEE Computer Society, "IEEE Standard for Local and
             Metropolitan Area Networks -- Part 15.4: Low-Rate
             Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs)", IEEE
             Std. 802.15.4-2011, September 2011.

  [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

  [RFC3756]  Nikander, P., Ed., Kempf, J., and E. Nordmark, "IPv6
             Neighbor Discovery (ND) Trust Models and Threats",
             RFC 3756, May 2004.

  [RFC3819]  Karn, P., Ed., Bormann, C., Fairhurst, G., Grossman, D.,
             Ludwig, R., Mahdavi, J., Montenegro, G., Touch, J., and L.
             Wood, "Advice for Internet Subnetwork Designers", BCP 89,
             RFC 3819, July 2004.

  [RFC4593]  Barbir, A., Murphy, S., and Y. Yang, "Generic Threats to
             Routing Protocols", RFC 4593, October 2006.

  [RFC4919]  Kushalnagar, N., Montenegro, G., and C. Schumacher, "IPv6
             over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs):
             Overview, Assumptions, Problem Statement, and Goals",
             RFC 4919, August 2007.

  [RFC4944]  Montenegro, G., Kushalnagar, N., Hui, J., and D. Culler,
             "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4
             Networks", RFC 4944, September 2007.

  [RFC5548]  Dohler, M., Ed., Watteyne, T., Ed., Winter, T., Ed., and
             D. Barthel, Ed., "Routing Requirements for Urban Low-Power
             and Lossy Networks", RFC 5548, May 2009.

  [RFC5673]  Pister, K., Ed., Thubert, P., Ed., Dwars, S., and T.
             Phinney, "Industrial Routing Requirements in Low-Power and
             Lossy Networks", RFC 5673, October 2009.










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RFC 6606              6LoWPAN Routing Requirements              May 2012


8.2.  Informative References

  [6LoWPAN-ND]
             Shelby, Z., Ed., Chakrabarti, S., and E. Nordmark,
             "Neighbor Discovery Optimization for Low Power and Lossy
             Networks (6LoWPAN)", Work in Progress, October 2011.

  [6LoWPAN-SEC]
             Park, S., Kim, K., Haddad, W., Ed., Chakrabarti, S., and
             J. Laganier, "IPv6 over Low Power WPAN Security Analysis",
             Work in Progress, March 2011.

  [Bulusu]   Bulusu, N., Ed., and S. Jha, Ed., "Wireless Sensor
             Networks: A Systems Perspective", Artech House,
             ISBN 9781580538671, July 2005.

  [Chen]     Chen, B., Muniswamy-Reddy, K., and M. Welsh, "Ad-Hoc
             Multicast Routing on Resource-Limited Sensor Nodes", Proc.
             2nd International Workshop on Multi-hop Ad Hoc Networks,
             May 2006.

  [Doherty]  Doherty, L., Warneke, B., Boser, B., and K. Pister,
             "Energy and Performance Considerations for Smart Dust",
             International Journal of Parallel and Distributed Systems
             and Networks, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2001.

  [Hill]     Hill, J., "System Architecture for Wireless Sensor
             Networks", Ph.D. Thesis, UC Berkeley, 2003.

  [Ikram]    Ikram, M., Chowdhury, A., Zafar, B., Cha, H., Kim, K.,
             Yoo, S., and D. Kim, "A Simple Lightweight Authentic
             Bootstrapping Protocol for IPv6-based Low Rate Wireless
             Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs)", Proc. International
             Conference on Wireless Communications and
             Mobile Computing, June 2009.

  [KARP-THREATS]
             Lebovitz, G. and M. Bhatia, "Keying and Authentication for
             Routing Protocols (KARP) Overview, Threats, and
             Requirements", Work in Progress, May 2012.

  [Kuhn]     Kuhn, F., Wattenhofer, R., and A. Zollinger, "Worst-Case
             Optimal and Average-Case Efficient Ad-Hoc Geometric
             Routing", MobiHoc '03: Proceedings of the 4th ACM
             International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and
             Computing, June 2003.





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RFC 6606              6LoWPAN Routing Requirements              May 2012


  [Latre]    Latre, B., De Mil, P., Moerman, I., Dhoedt, B., and P.
             Demeester, "Throughput and Delay Analysis of Unslotted
             IEEE 802.15.4", Journal of Networks, Vol. 1, No. 1,
             May 2006.

  [Lee]      Lee, S., Belding-Royer, E., and C. Perkins, "Scalability
             Study of the Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance-Vector Routing
             Protocol", International Journal of Network Management,
             Vol. 13, pp. 97-114, March 2003.

  [RFC1958]  Carpenter, B., Ed., "Architectural Principles of the
             Internet", RFC 1958, June 1996.

  [RFC5556]  Touch, J. and R. Perlman, "Transparent Interconnection of
             Lots of Links (TRILL): Problem and Applicability
             Statement", RFC 5556, May 2009.

  [RFC5706]  Harrington, D., "Guidelines for Considering Operations and
             Management of New Protocols and Protocol Extensions",
             RFC 5706, November 2009.

  [RFC5826]  Brandt, A., Buron, J., and G. Porcu, "Home Automation
             Routing Requirements in Low-Power and Lossy Networks",
             RFC 5826, April 2010.

  [RFC5867]  Martocci, J., Ed., De Mil, P., Riou, N., and W. Vermeylen,
             "Building Automation Routing Requirements in Low-Power and
             Lossy Networks", RFC 5867, June 2010.

  [RFC5996]  Kaufman, C., Hoffman, P., Nir, Y., and P. Eronen,
             "Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)",
             RFC 5996, September 2010.

  [RFC6282]  Hui, J., Ed., and P. Thubert, "Compression Format for IPv6
             Datagrams over IEEE 802.15.4-Based Networks", RFC 6282,
             September 2011.

  [RFC6434]  Jankiewicz, E., Loughney, J., and T. Narten, "IPv6 Node
             Requirements", RFC 6434, December 2011.

  [ROLL-PROTOCOLS]
             Levis, P., Tavakoli, A., and S. Dawson-Haggerty, "Overview
             of Existing Routing Protocols for Low Power and Lossy
             Networks", Work in Progress, April 2009.







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  [Shih]     Shih, E., Cho, S., Ickes, N., Min, R., Sinha, A., Wang,
             A., and A. Chandrakasan, "Physical Layer Driven Protocols
             and Algorithm Design for Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor
             Networks", MobiCom '01: Proceedings of the 7th ACM Annual
             International Conference on Mobile Computing and
             Networking, July 2001.

  [Watteyne] Watteyne, T., Molinaro, A., Richichi, M., and M. Dohler,
             "From MANET To IETF ROLL Standardization: A Paradigm Shift
             in WSN Routing Protocols", IEEE Communications Surveys and
             Tutorials, Vol. 13, Issue 4, pp. 688-707, 2011,
             <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/
             articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=5581105>.






































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Authors' Addresses

  Eunsook Eunah Kim
  ETRI
  161 Gajeong-dong
  Yuseong-gu
  Daejeon  305-700
  Korea

  Phone: +82-42-860-6124
  EMail: [email protected]


  Dominik Kaspar
  Simula Research Laboratory
  Martin Linges v 17
  Fornebu  1364
  Norway

  Phone: +47-6782-8223
  EMail: [email protected]


  Carles Gomez
  Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya/Fundacio i2CAT
  Escola d'Enginyeria de Telecomunicacio i Aeroespacial
     de Castelldefels
  C/Esteve Terradas, 7
  Castelldefels  08860
  Spain

  Phone: +34-93-413-7206
  EMail: [email protected]


  Carsten Bormann
  Universitaet Bremen TZI
  Postfach 330440
  Bremen  D-28359
  Germany

  Phone: +49-421-218-63921
  EMail: [email protected]








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