Technical Summary
This document investigates potential application scenarios and use
cases for low-power wireless personal area networks (LoWPANs). This
document provides dimensions of design space for LoWPAN
applications.
Working Group Summary
This document completed WGLC.
Document Quality
This document was well reviewed by the 6lowpan WG.
Personnel
Geoff Mulligan <geoff.ietf@mulligan.com> is the document shepherd.
Ralph Droms <rdroms@rdroms.ietf@gmail.com> is the responsible AD.
RFC Editor Note
Change fourth paragraph of Section 4:
OLD:
While IPsec is mandatory with IPv6 [4], considering the power
constraints and limited processing capabilities of IEEE802.15.4
devices, IPsec is computationally expensive; Internet key exchange
(IKEv2) messaging described in [5] is not suited for LoWPANs as the
amount of signaling in these networks should be minimized. Thus,
LoWPANs may need to define their own keying management method that
requires minimum overhead in terms of packet size and message
exchange [12]. IPsec provides 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 many cases, the security may be requested at the
application layer as needed, while other messages can flow in the
network without security overhead.
NEW:
While IPsec is mandatory with IPv6 [4], considering the power
constraints and limited processing capabilities of IEEE802.15.4
devices, IPsec is computationally expensive; Internet key exchange
(IKEv2) messaging described in [5] is not suited for LoWPANs as the
amount of signaling in these networks should be minimized. Thus,
LoWPANs may need to define their own keying management method that
requires minimum overhead in terms of packet size and message
exchange [12]. IPsec provides 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 many cases, the security may be requested at
the application layer as needed, while other messages can flow in
the network without security overhead. Recent work [13] shows some
promise for minimal IKEv2 implementations.
Add to Section 7.2:
[13] T. Kivinen, "Minimal IKEv2",
kivinen-ipsecme-ikev2-minimal-00.txt, work-in-progress,
February 2011.