Russ Housley
Founder of Vigil Security, LLC
IETF Chair
Wireless@VT
1 June 2011

Internet Engineering Task Force

“ We make the net work ”
 The mission of the IETF is to produce high quality, relevant technical and engineering documents that influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet in such a way as to make the Internet work better.
These documents include protocol standards, best current practices, and informational documents of various kinds. [RFC 3935]

IETF Open Standards
While the mission of the IETF is to make the
Internet work better, no one is “ in charge ” of the Internet. Instead, many people cooperate to make it work. Each person brings a unique perspective of the Internet, and this diversity sometimes makes it difficult to reach consensus. Yet, when consensus is achieved, the outcome is better, clearer, and more strongly supported than the initial position of any participant.

Making the Internet Better
Challenges from wireless devices
 Scalability – allow the Internet to support every person and device on the planet
 Mobility – keep your connection and applications wherever you go and while you are going

Scalability
Internet of Things:
Trillions of Nodes
Internet Fringe:
Billions of Nodes
Internet Core:
Millions of Nodes
Growth from :
• Phones
• Logistics
• Transportation
• Smart Metering
• Personal Sensors
• Building Automation
• Industrial Automation

Internet of Things: IETF Scope
 General-purpose technology (IPv6)


Suitable routing mechanisms
“IP over X” specifications
 Transport protocols and middleware
 Operational considerations
Not in IETF scope due to lack of expertise:
 Link layers, specific applications, specific network architectures, policy issues, …

Constrained Nodes in the
Internet of Things
 Node: CPU with a few MHz, ~10 KB RAM,
~100 KB Flash/ROM
 Network: ~100 Kbit/s, high loss, high link variability, very limited packet size
 Often battery operated, so must sleep a lot
(mW • (1.0–(99.9 %)) = μW)
 Example: CC2420
Sleep: 20 μA Idle: 426 μA
Receive: 18.8 mA Transmit: 8.5 – 17.7 mA

IETF Working Groups (1 of 2)
 6LoWPAN : IPv6 (L2 / L3 interface) for low power, low data rate radio communication
(already defined IP over IEEE 802.15.4)
 MANET and ROLL : IPv6 routing solutions for ad hoc networks and low power and lossy networks (LLNs), respectively
 CoRE : COAP, a light weight UDP-based protocol for sensor networks

IETF Working Groups (2 of 2)
 EMAN : energy measurement and management framework and MIBs
 LWIG: Light-weight implementation guidance


Not a profile or a new protocol
Explains what μIP and other small implementations can do to ensure small footprint

RFC 4944: IPv6 over IEEE
802.15.4
RFC 4944 provides a number of functions beyond the L2 / L3 interface to enable mapping from the IPv6 to IEEE802.15.4:
 Adapting packet sizes
 Header compression
 Neighbor discovery
 Power conservation
 Routing topologies for mesh of devices

Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL)
 A distance vector routing protocol
 Builds Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs)
 Optimized for low-energy networks
 Allows building routed networks of “things” borde r router

Constrained Application
Protocol (CoAP)
 Light-weight, HTTP-like protocol
 Runs on UDP and supports multicast
 HTTP-COAP mapping
12

Mobility
Mobile Devices
 More and more capabilities: voice, video, email, instant messaging, web browsing, geo-location
Mobile Networks
 Ships, trains, and planes (and soon automobiles)


Critical system using Internet protocols
Connect passenger ’s mobile and portable devices

Internet Mobility
 Early IETF mobility work was largely done by researchers, seeing relatively little deployment

 3GPP2 and CDMA networks used Mobile IP
Today ’ s cellular networks use many IETF standards
 Some new capabilities coming, but not too many



Multiple Interfaces (MIF) with Multipath TCP
(MPTCP) is an example
Avoid specialized protocols in different places
Goal: one interoperable mobile Internet

Many Pieces Working Together
Internet
Access
Network
Access
Router
Access
Point
Access
Point
Access
Router
Access
Point
Access
Network
Access
Router
Access
Point
Movement
Layer 2
Mobility
(Not IETF)
Local
Mobility
(NETLMM)
Global
Mobility
(MIP)

IETF Working Groups
 MIP4 , MIP6 , and NETLMM : Mobile IP
 MIPSHOP : Performance, signaling and handoff optimization for Mobile IP
 MIF : multiple simultaneous network attachments
 HIP : a method of separating the end-point identifier and locator roles of IP addresses
 MPTCP : Multipath TCP uses multiple paths during a regular TCP session

Mobile IP
 Mobile IPv4 is specified in RFC 3344
 Mobile IPv6 is specified in RFC 3775 and
RFC 3776
 Mobility allows a node to continue using its
“permanent” home address as it moves around the Internet, including maintenance of active TCP connections and UDP port bindings

Multiple Interfaces


A host with multiple interfaces must select:
 default router


 address
DNS server interface for packet transmission
Some configuration objects are:

 global to the node local to the interface
 related to a particular prefix

Multipath TCP
 Complements MIF – preparing for mobile end hosts with multiple radios
 Allow devices to shift between links




Pick to most energy efficient network connection to increase battery life
Pick “ cheaper ” access
Avoid outages or congestion
Might also pool bandwidth from multiple paths

MIF & MPTCP Example
(1)
Mobile
Node
Server

MIF & MPTCP Example
(2)
Mobile
Node
Server

MIF & MPTCP Example
(3)
Mobile
Node
Server

And Maybe …
Mobile
Node
Server

Invitation to Participate
 IETF uses an open standards process


Everyone is invited to participate
Even if unable to attend the face-to-face meetings, join mail list discussions
 One Internet




Open standards for a global Internet
Maximum interoperability
Add capabilities for mobile devices
Avoid specialized protocols in different places

Thank You
Russ Housley
Phone: +1 703 435 1775
Email: housley@vigilsec.com