6LoWPAN-GHC: Generic Header Compression for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs)
RFC 7400

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                        C. Bormann
Request for Comments: 7400                       Universitaet Bremen TZI
Category: Standards Track                                  November 2014
ISSN: 2070-1721

            6LoWPAN-GHC: Generic Header Compression for IPv6
       over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs)

Abstract

   RFC 6282 defines header compression in 6LoWPAN packets (where
   "6LoWPAN" refers to "IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area
   Network").  The present document specifies a simple addition that
   enables the compression of generic headers and header-like payloads,
   without a need to define a new header compression scheme for each
   such new header or header-like payload.

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/rfc7400.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 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
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   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Bormann                      Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 7400                       6LoWPAN-GHC                 November 2014

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. The Header Compression Coupling Problem ....................2
      1.2. Compression Approach .......................................3
      1.3. Terminology ................................................3
      1.4. Notation ...................................................4
   2. 6LoWPAN-GHC .....................................................4
   3. Integrating 6LoWPAN-GHC into 6LoWPAN-HC .........................6
      3.1. Compressing Payloads (UDP and ICMPv6) ......................6
      3.2. Compressing Extension Headers ..............................6
      3.3. Indicating GHC Capability ..................................7
      3.4. Using the 6CIO .............................................8
   4. IANA Considerations .............................................9
   5. Security Considerations ........................................10
   6. References .....................................................11
      6.1. Normative References ......................................11
      6.2. Informative References ....................................12
   Appendix A. Examples ..............................................14
   Acknowledgements ..................................................24
   Author's Address ..................................................24

1.  Introduction

1.1.  The Header Compression Coupling Problem

   [RFC6282] defines a scheme for header compression in 6LoWPAN
   [RFC4944] packets; in this document, we refer to that scheme as
   6LoWPAN Header Compression, or 6LoWPAN-HC (where "6LoWPAN" refers to
   "IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network").  As with most
   header compression schemes, a new specification is necessary for
   every new kind of header that needs to be compressed.  In addition,
   [RFC6282] does not define an extensibility scheme like the Robust
   Header Compression (ROHC) profiles defined in ROHC [RFC3095]
   [RFC5795].  This leads to the difficult situation in which 6LoWPAN-HC
   tended to be reopened and reexamined each time a new header receives
   consideration (or an old header is changed and reconsidered) in the
   6LoWPAN/roll/CoRE cluster of IETF working groups.  Although [RFC6282]
   was finally completed and published, the underlying problem remains
   unsolved.

   The purpose of the present contribution is to plug into [RFC6282] as
   is, using its Next Header Compression (NHC) concept.  We add a
   slightly less efficient, but vastly more general, form of compression
   for headers of any kind and even for header-like payloads such as
   those exhibited by routing protocols, DHCP, etc.: Generic Header
   Compression (GHC).  The objective is an extremely simple