Neighbor Discovery Optimization for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs)
RFC 6775

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                    Z. Shelby, Ed.
Request for Comments: 6775                                     Sensinode
Updates: 4944                                             S. Chakrabarti
Category: Standards Track                                       Ericsson
ISSN: 2070-1721                                              E. Nordmark
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                              C. Bormann
                                                 Universitaet Bremen TZI
                                                           November 2012

    Neighbor Discovery Optimization for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless
                   Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs)

Abstract

   The IETF work in IPv6 over Low-power Wireless Personal Area Network
   (6LoWPAN) defines 6LoWPANs such as IEEE 802.15.4.  This and other
   similar link technologies have limited or no usage of multicast
   signaling due to energy conservation.  In addition, the wireless
   network may not strictly follow the traditional concept of IP subnets
   and IP links.  IPv6 Neighbor Discovery was not designed for non-
   transitive wireless links, as its reliance on the traditional IPv6
   link concept and its heavy use of multicast make it inefficient and
   sometimes impractical in a low-power and lossy network.  This
   document describes simple optimizations to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery,
   its addressing mechanisms, and duplicate address detection for Low-
   power Wireless Personal Area Networks and similar networks.  The
   document thus updates RFC 4944 to specify the use of the
   optimizations defined here.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   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).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in 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/rfc6775.

Shelby, et al.               Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 6775              ND Optimization for 6LoWPANs         November 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. Introduction ....................................................4
      1.1. The Shortcomings of IPv6 Neighbor Discovery ................5
      1.2. Applicability ..............................................6
      1.3. Goals and Assumptions ......................................7
      1.4. Substitutable Features .....................................8
   2. Terminology .....................................................9
   3. Protocol Overview ..............................................11
      3.1. Extensions to RFC 4861 ....................................11
      3.2. Address Assignment ........................................12
      3.3. Host-to-Router Interaction ................................13
      3.4. Router-to-Router Interaction ..............................14
      3.5. Neighbor Cache Management .................................14
   4. New Neighbor Discovery Options and Messages ....................15
      4.1. Address Registration Option ...............................15
      4.2. 6LoWPAN Context Option ....................................17
      4.3. Authoritative Border Router Option ........................19
      4.4. Duplicate Address Messages ................................20
   5. Host Behavior ..................................................22
      5.1. Forbidden Actions .........................................22
      5.2. Interface Initialization ..................................22
      5.3. Sending a Router Solicitation .............................23
      5.4. Processing a Router Advertisement .........................23
           5.4.1. Address Configuration ..............................23
           5.4.2. Storing Contexts ...................................24
           5.4.3. Maintaining Prefix and Context Information .........24
      5.5. Registration and Neighbor Unreachability Detection ........25