Network Working Group J. Hui, Ed.
Internet-Draft Arch Rock Corporation
Updates: 4944 (if approved) P. Thubert
Intended status: Standards Track Cisco
Expires: April 8, 2010 October 5, 2009
Compression Format for IPv6 Datagrams in 6LoWPAN Networks
draft-ietf-6lowpan-hc-06
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
Drafts.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.
The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
This Internet-Draft will expire on April 8, 2010.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2009 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 in effect on the date of
publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info).
Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
and restrictions with respect to this document.
Abstract
This document specifies an IPv6 header compression format for IPv6
packet delivery in 6LoWPAN networks. The compression format relies
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
on shared context to allow compression of arbitrary prefixes. How
the information is maintained in that shared context is out of scope.
This document specifies compression of multicast addresses and a
framework for compressing next headers. This framework specifies UDP
compression.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Specific Updates to RFC 4944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. IPv6 Header Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. LOWPAN_IPHC Encoding Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1.1. Base Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1.2. Context Identifier Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2. IPv6 Header Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.1. Traffic Class and Flow Label Compression . . . . . . . 9
3.2.2. Stateless Multicast Addresses Compression . . . . . . 10
3.2.3. Stateful Multicast Addresses Compression . . . . . . . 11
4. IPv6 Next Header Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.1. LOWPAN_NHC Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2. IPv6 Extension Header Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3. UDP Header Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.3.1. Compressing UDP ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.3.2. Compressing UDP checksum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.3.3. UDP LOWPAN_NHC Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8. Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
1. Introduction
The [IEEE 802.15.4] standard specifies an MTU of 128 bytes, yielding
about 80 octets of actual MAC payload with security enabled, on a
wireless link with a link throughput of 250 kbps or less. The
6LoWPAN adaptation format [RFC4944] was specified to carry IPv6
datagrams over such constrained links, taking into account limited
bandwidth, memory, or energy resources that are expected in
applications such as wireless sensor networks. [RFC4944] defines a
Mesh Addressing header to support sub-IP forwarding, a Fragmentation
header to support the IPv6 minimum MTU requirement [RFC2460], and
stateless header compression for IPv6 datagrams (LOWPAN_HC1 and
LOWPAN_HC2) to reduce the relatively large IPv6 and UDP headers down
to (in the best case) several bytes.
LOWPAN_HC1 and LOWPAN_HC2 are insufficient for most practical uses of
6LoWPAN networks. LOWPAN_HC1 is most effective for link-local
unicast communication, where IPv6 addresses carry the link-local
prefix and an Interface Identifier (IID) directly derived from IEEE
802.15.4 addresses. In this case, both addresses may be completely
elided. However, though link-local addresses are commonly used for
local protocol interactions such as IPv6 ND [RFC4861], DHCPv6
[RFC3315] or routing protocols, they are usually not used for
application-layer data traffic, so the actual value of this
compression mechanism is limited.
Routable addresses must be used when communicating with devices
external to the LoWPAN or in a route-over configuration where IP
forwarding occurs within the LoWPAN. For routable addresses,
LOWPAN_HC1 requires both IPv6 source and destination addresses to
carry the prefix in-line. In cases where the Mesh Addressing header
is not used, the IID of a routable address must be carried in-line.
However, LOWPAN_HC1 requires 64-bits for the IID when carried in-line
and cannot be shortened even when it is derived from the IEEE
802.15.4 16-bit short address. When the destination is an IPv6
multicast address, LOWPAN_HC1 requires the full 128-bit address to be
carried in-line.
As a result, this document defines an encoding format, LOWPAN_IPHC,
for effective compression of Unique Local, Global, and multicast IPv6
Addresses based on shared state within contexts. In addition, this
document also introduces a number of additional improvements over the
header compression format defined in [RFC4944].
LOWPAN_IPHC allows for compression of some commonly-used IPv6 Hop
Limit values. If the LoWPAN is a mesh-under stub, a Hop Limit of 1
for inbound and a default value such as 64 for outbound are usually
enough for application layer data traffic. Additionally, a hop-limit
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
value of 255 is often used for verify that a communication occurs
over a single-hop. This specification enables to compress the IPv6
Hop Limit field in those common cases, whereas LOWPAN_HC1 does not.
This document also defines LOWPAN_NHC, an encoding format for
arbitrary next headers. LOWPAN_IPHC indicates whether the following
header is encoded using LOWPAN_NHC. If so, the bits immediately
following the compressed IPv6 header start the LOWPAN_NHC encoding.
In contrast, LOWPAN_HC1 could be extended to support compression of
next headers using LOWPAN_HC2, but only for UDP, TCP, and ICMPv6.
Furthermore, the LOWPAN_HC2 octet sits between the LOWPAN_HC1 octet
and uncompressed IPv6 header fields. This specification moves the
next header encoding bits to follow all IPv6-related bits, allowing
for a properly layered structure and direct support for IPv6
extension headers.
Using LOWPAN_NHC, this document defines a compression mechanism for
UDP. While [RFC4944] defines a compression mechanism for UDP, that
mechanism does not enable checksum compression when rendered possible
by additional upper layer mechanisms such as upper layer Message
Integrity Check (MIC). This specification adds the capability to
elide the UDP checksum over the LoWPAN, which enables to save an
additional pair of octets.
Also using LOWPAN_NHC, this document defines encoding formats for
IPv6-in-IPv6 encapsulation as well as IPv6 Extension Headers. With
LOWPAN_HC1 and LOWPAN_HC2, chains of next headers can not be encoded
efficiently.
1.1. Requirements Language
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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
2. Specific Updates to RFC 4944
This document specifies a header compression format that is intended
to replace that defined in Section 10 of [RFC4944]. Implementation
of Section 10 of [RFC4944] is now NOT RECOMMENDED. New
implementations MAY implement Section 10 decompression, but SHOULD
NOT send section-10-compressed packets.
The header compression format defined in this document preempts the
ESC dispatch value defined in Section 5.1 of [RFC4944]. Instead, the
value of 01 000000 is is reserved as a replacement value for ESC, to
be finally assigned with the first assignment of extension bytes.
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
3. IPv6 Header Compression
In this section, we define the LOWPAN_IPHC encoding format for
compressing the IPv6 header. To enable effective compression
LOWPAN_IPHC relies on information pertaining to the entire 6LoWPAN
network. LOWPAN_IPHC assumes the following will be the common case
for 6LoWPAN communication: Version is 6; Traffic Class and Flow Label
are both zero; Payload Length can be inferred from lower layers from
either the 6LoWPAN Fragmentation header or the IEEE 802.15.4 header;
Hop Limit will be set to a well-known value by the source; addresses
assigned to 6LoWPAN interfaces will be formed using the link-local
prefix or a single routable prefix assigned to the entire 6LoWPAN
network; addresses assigned to 6LoWPAN interfaces are formed with an
IID derived directly from either the 64-bit extended or 16-bit short
IEEE 802.15.4 addresses.
+-------------------------------------+------------------------
| Dispatch + LOWPAN_IPHC (2-3 octets) | Compressed IPv6 Header
+-------------------------------------+------------------------
Figure 1: LOWPAN_IPHC Header
The LOWPAN_IPHC encoding utilizes 13 bits, 5 of which are taken from
the rightmost bit of the dispatch type. The encoding may be extended
by another octet to support additional contexts. Uncompressed IPv6
header fields follow the LOWPAN_IPHC encoding, as shown in Figure 1.
With the above scenario, the LOWPAN_IPHC can compress the IPv6 header
down to two octets (the dispatch octet and the LOWPAN_IPHC encoding)
with link-local communication.
When routing over multiple IP hops, LOWPAN_IPHC can compress the IPv6
header down to 7 octets (1-octet dispatch, 1-octet LOWPAN_IPHC,
1-octet Hop Limit, 2-octet Source Address, and 2-octet Destination
Address). The Hop Limit may not be compressed because it needs to
decremented at each hop and may take any value. Stateful address
compression must be applied to the source and destination IPv6
addresses because they do not statelessly match the source and
destination link layer addresses on intermediate hops.
3.1. LOWPAN_IPHC Encoding Format
This section specifies the format of the LOWPAN_IPHC encoding that
describes how an IPv6 header is compressed. The encoding can be 2
octets long for the base encoding or 3 octets long when an additional
context encoding is present. The IPv6 header fields that are not
fully elided are placed immediately after the LOWPAN_IPHC, either in
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
a compressed form if the field is partially elided, or litteraly.
3.1.1. Base Format
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| 0 | 1 | 1 | TF |NH | HLIM |CID|SAC| SAM | M |DAC| DAM |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Figure 2: LOWPAN_IPHC base Encoding
TF: Traffic Class, Flow Label:
00: ECN + DSCP + 4-bit Pad + Flow Label (4 bytes)
01: ECN + 2-bit Pad + Flow Label (3 bytes), DSCP is elided
10: ECN + DSCP (1 byte), Flow Label is elided
11: Traffic Class and Flow Label are elided.
NH: Next Header:
0: Full 8 bits for Next Header are carried in-line.
1: The Next Header field is compressed and the next header is
encoded using LOWPAN_NHC, which is discussed in Section 4.
HLIM: Hop Limit:
00: The Hop Limit field is carried in-line.
01: The Hop Limit field is compressed and the the hop limit is 1.
10: The Hop Limit field is compressed and the the hop limit is
64.
11: The Hop Limit field is compressed and the hop limit is 255.
CID: Context Identifier Extension:
0: No additional 8-bit Context Identifier Extension is used. If
context-based compression is specified in either SAC or DAC,
context 0 is used.
1: An additional 8-bit Context Identifier Extension field
immediately follows the DAM field.
SAC: Source Address Compression
0: Source address compression uses stateless compression.
1: Source address compression uses stateful, context-based
compression.
SAM: Source Address Mode:
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 6]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
If SAC=0:
00: 128 bits. The full address is carried in-line.
01: 64 bits. The first 64-bits of the address are elided.
The value of those bits is the link-local prefix padded with
zeros. The remaining 64 bits are carried inline.
10: 16 bits. The first 112 bits of the address are elided.
The value of those bits is the link-local prefix padded with
zeros. The remaining 16 bits are carried inline.
11: 0 bits. The address is fully elided. The first 64 bits
of the address are the link-local prefix padded with zeros.
The remaining 64 bits are computed from the link-layer
address as defined in [RFC4944].
If SAC=1:
00: The UNSPECIFIED address, ::
01: 64 bits. The address is derived using context information
and the 64 bits carried inline.
10: 16 bits. The address is derived using context information
and the 16 bits carried inline.
11: 0 bits. The address is derived using context information
and possibly the link-layer addresses.
M: Multicast Compression
0: Destination address is not a multicast address.
1: Destination address is a multicast address.
DAC: Destination Address Compression
0: Destination address compression uses stateless compression.
1: Destination address compression uses stateful, context-based
compression.
DAM: Destination Address Mode:
If M=0 and DAC=0 This case matches SAC=0 but for the destination
address:
00: 128 bits. The full address is carried in-line.
01: 64 bits. The first 64-bits of the address are elided.
The value of those bits is the link-local prefix padded with
zeros. The remaining 64 bits are carried inline.
10: 16 bits. The first 112 bits of the address are elided.
The value of those bits is the link-local prefix padded with
zeros. The remaining 16 bits are carried inline.
11: 0 bits. The address is fully elided. The first 64 bits
of the address are the link-local prefix padded with zeros.
The remaining 64 bits are computed from the link-layer
address as defined in [RFC4944].
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 7]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
If M=0 and DAC=1:
00: Reserved.
01: 64 bits. The address is derived using context information
and the 64 bits carried inline.
10: 16 bits. The address is derived using context information
and the 16 bits carried inline.
11: 0 bits. The address is derived using context information
and possibly the link-layer addresses.
If M=1 and DAC=0:
00: 128 bits. The full address is carried in-line.
01: 48 bits. The address takes the form FFXX::00XX:XXXX:XXXX.
10: 32 bits. The address takes the form FFXX::00XX:XXXX.
11: 8 bits. The address takes the form FF02::00XX.
If M=1 and DAC=1:
00: 48 bits. This format is designed to match Unicast-Prefix-
based IPv6 Multicast Addresses as defined in [RFC3306] and
[RFC3956]. The multicast address takes the form FFXX:XXLL:
PPPP:PPPP:PPPP:PPPP:XXXX:XXXX. where the X are the nibbles
that are carried inline, in the order in which they appear
in this format. P denotes nibbles used to encode the prefix
itself. L denotes nibbles used to encode the prefix length.
The prefix information P and L is taken from the specified
context.
01: reserved
10: reserved
11: reserved
3.1.2. Context Identifier Extension
This specification expects that a conceptual context is shared
between the node that compresses a packet and the node(s) that need
to expand it. How the contexts are shared and maintained is out of
scope. What information is contained within a context information is
out of scope. Actions in response to unknown and/or invalid contexts
are out of scope. The specification enables a node to use up to 16
contexts. The context used to encode the source address does not
have to be the same as the context used to encode the destination
address.
If the CID field is set to '1' in the LOWPAN_IPHC encoding, then an
additional octet extends the LOWPAN_IPHC encoding following the DAM
bits but before the IPv6 header fields that are carried in-line. The
additional octet identifies the pair of contexts to be used when the
IPv6 source and/or destination address is compressed. The context
identifier is 4 bits for each address, supporting up to 16 contexts.
Context 0 is the default context. The encoding is shown in Figure 3.
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 8]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| SCI | DCI |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Figure 3: LOWPAN_IPHC Encoding
SCI: Source Context Identifier Identifies the prefix that is used
when the IPv6 source address is statefully compressed.
DCI: Destination Context Identifier Identifies the prefix that is
used when the IPv6 destination address is statefully compressed.
3.2. IPv6 Header Encoding
Fields carried in-line (in part or in whole) appear in the same order
as they do in the IPv6 header format [RFC2460]. The Version field is
always elided. Unicast IPv6 addresses may be compressed to 64 or 16
bits or completely elided. Multicast IPv6 addresses may be
compressed to 8, 32, or 48 bits. The IPv6 Payload Length field MUST
always be elided and inferred from lower layers using the 6LoWPAN
Fragmentation header or the IEEE 802.15.4 header.
3.2.1. Traffic Class and Flow Label Compression
The Traffic Class field in the IPv6 header comprises 6 bits of
diffserv extension [RFC2474] and 2 bits of Explicit Congestion
Notification (ECN) [RFC3168]. If the ECN information is carried by
the Lower Layers in a compatible fashion then it can be elided from
the 6LoWPAN header. Otherwise, it has to be transported in one of
the following encodings.
The TF field in the LOWPAN_IPHC encoding indicates whether the
Traffic Class and Flow Label are carried in-line in the compressed
IPv6 header. When Flow Label is included while the Traffic Class is
compressed, an additional 4 bits are included to maintain byte-
alignment. Two of the 4 bits contain the ECN bits from the Traffic
Class field.
To ensure that the ECN bits appear in the same location for all
encodings that include them, the Traffic Class field is rotated right
by 2 bits in the compressed IPv6 header. The encodings are shown
below:
1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 9]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
|ECN| DSCP | rsv | Flow Label |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
TF = 00: Traffic Class and Flow Label carried in-line.
1 2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|ECN|rsv| Flow Label |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
TF = 01: Flow Label carried in-line.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|ECN| DSCP |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
TF = 10: Traffic Class carried in-line.
3.2.2. Stateless Multicast Addresses Compression
LOWPAN_IPHC supports stateless compression of multicast address when
M = 1 and DAC = 0. An IPv6 multicast address may be compressed down
to 48, 32, or 8 bits using stateless compression. The format
supports compression of the Solicited-Node Multicast Address (FF02::
1:FFXX:XXXX) as well as any IPv6 multicast address where the upper
bits of the multicast group identifier are zero. The compressed
forms only carry the least-significant bits of the multicast group
identifier. The 48 and 32-bit compressed forms carry the multicast
scope and flags in-line.
1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Flags | Scope | Group Identifier |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Group Identifier |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 10]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
DAM = 01. 48-bit Compressed Multicast Address (FFfs::00gg:gggg:gggg)
1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Flags | Scope | Group Identifier |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
DAM = 10. 32-bit Compressed Multicast Address (FFfs:00gg:gggg).
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Group ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
DAM = 11. 8-bit Compressed Multicast Address (FF02::gg).
3.2.3. Stateful Multicast Addresses Compression
LOWPAN_IPHC supports stateful compression of multicast addresses when
M = 1 and DAC = 1. This document currently defines DAM = 00:
context-based compression of Unicast-Prefix-based IPv6 Multicast
Addresses [RFC3306][RFC3956]. In particular, the Prefix Length and
Network Prefix can be taken from a context. As a result, LOWPAN_IPHC
can compress a Unicast-Prefix-based IPv6 Multicast Address down to 6
octets by only carrying the 4-bit Flags, 4-bit Scope, 8-bit RIID, and
32-bit Group Identifier in-line.
1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Flags | Scope | Rsvd / RIID | Group Identifier |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Group Identifier |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
DAM = 01. Unicast-Prefix-based IPv6 Multicast Address Compression
Note that the Reserved field MUST carry the reserved bits from the
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 11]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
multicast address format as described in [RFC3306]. When a
Rendezvous Point is encoded in the multicast address as described in
[RFC3956], the Reserved field carries the RIID bits in-line.
4. IPv6 Next Header Compression
LOWPAN_IPHC elides the IPv6 Next Header field when the NH bit is set
to 1. It also indicates the use of 6LoWPAN next header compression,
LOWPAN_NHC. The value of IPv6 Next Header is recovered from the
first bits in the LOWPAN_NHC encoding. The following bits are
specific to the IPv6 Next Header value. Figure 4 shows the structure
of an IPv6 datagram compressed using LOWPAN_IPHC and LOWPAN_NHC.
+-------------+-------------+-------------+-----------------+--------
| LOWPAN_IPHC | In-line | LOWPAN_NHC | In-line Next | Payload
| Encoding | IP Fields | Encoding | Header Fields |
+-------------+-------------+-------------+-----------------+--------
Figure 4: Typical LOWPAN_IPHC/LOWPAN_NHC Header Configuration
4.1. LOWPAN_NHC Format
Compression formats for different next headers are identified by a
variable-length bit-pattern immediately following the LOWPAN_IPHC
compressed header. When defining a next header compression format,
the number of bits used SHOULD be determined by the perceived
frequency of using that format. However, the number of bits and any
remaining encoding bits SHOULD respect octet alignment. The
following bits are specific to the next header compression format.
This document defines a compression format for IPv6 Extension and UDP
headers.
+----------------+---------------------------
| var-len NHC ID | compressed next header...
+----------------+---------------------------
Figure 5: LOWPAN_NHC Encoding
4.2. IPv6 Extension Header Compression
A necessary property of encoding headers using LOWPAN_NHC is that the
immediately preceding header must either be encoded using LOWPAN_IPHC
or LOWPAN_NHC. In other words, all headers encoded using the 6LoWPAN
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 12]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
encoding format defined in this document must be contiguous. As a
result, this document defines a set of LOWPAN_NHC encodings for
selected IPv6 Extension Headers such that the UDP Header Compression
defined in Section 4.3 may be used in the presence of those extension
headers.
The LOWPAN_NHC encodings for IPv6 Extension Headers are composed of a
single LOWPAN_NHC octet followed by the IPv6 Extension Header. The
format of the LOWPAN_NHC octet is shown in Figure 6. The first 7
bits serve as an identifier for the IPv6 Extension Header immediately
following the LOWPAN_NHC octet. The remaining bit indicates whether
or not the following header utilizes LOWPAN_NHC encoding.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | EID |NH |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Figure 6: IPv6 Extension Header Encoding
EID: IPv6 Extension Header ID:
0: IPv6 Hop-by-Hop Options Header[RFC2460]
1: IPv6 Routing Header[RFC2460]
2: IPv6 Fragment Header[RFC2460]
3: IPv6 Destination Options Header[RFC2460]
4: IPv6 Mobility Header [RFC3775]
5: Reserved
6: Reserved
7: IPv6 Header
NH: Next Header:
0: Full 8 bits for Next Header are carried in-line.
1: The Next Header field is elided and the next header is encoded
using LOWPAN_NHC, which is discussed in Section 4.
For the most part, the IPv6 Extension Header is carried verbatim in
the bytes immediately following the LOWPAN_NHC octet, with two
important exceptions: Length Field and Next Header Field.
The Next Header Field contained in IPv6 Extension Headers is elided
when the NH bit is set in the LOWPAN_NHC encoding octet. Note that
doing so allows LOWPAN_NHC to utilize no more overhead than the non-
encoded IPv6 Extension Header.
The Length Field contained in IPv6 Extension Headers indicate the
length of the IPv6 Extension Header in octets, not including the
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 13]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
LOWPAN_NHC byte. Note that this changes the Length Field definition
in [RFC2460] from indicating the header size in 8-octet units, not
including the first 8 octets. Changing the Length Field to be in
units of octets removes wasteful internal fragmentation. However,
specifying units in octets also means that LOWPAN_NHC CANNOT be used
to encode IPv6 Extension Headers that exceed 255 octets.
IPv6 Hop-by-Hop and Destination Options Headers may use Pad1 and PadN
to pad out the header for octet-alignment purposes. When using
LOWPAN_NHC, those Pad1 and PadN options MAY be elided and the length
of the header reduced by the size of those Pad1 and PadN options.
When converting from the LOWPAN_NHC encoding back to the standard
IPv6 encoding, Pad1 and PadN options MUST be used to pad out the
containing header to a multiple of 8 octets in length if necessary.
Note that Pad1 and PadN options that do not appear at the end of the
containing header MUST be carried in-line as they are used to align
subsequent options.
When the identified next header is an IPv6 Header (EID=7), the NH bit
of the LOWPAN_NHC encoding is unused and SHOULD be set to zero. The
bytes following follow the LOWPAN_IPHC encoding as defined in
Section 3.
4.3. UDP Header Compression
This document defines a compression format for UDP headers using
LOWPAN_NHC. The UDP compression format is shown in Figure 7. Bits 0
through 4 represent the NHC ID and '11110' indicates the specific UDP
header compression encoding defined in this section.
4.3.1. Compressing UDP ports
This specification introduces a range of well-known ports (0xF0Bx)
that can be compressed to 4 bits. Considering that this represents
only 16 contiguous ports, it can be expected that many incompatible
applications will use the same port numbers of their own end-to-end
needs.
The overloading of the 0xF0Bx ports increases the risk of getting the
wrong type of payload and misinterpreting the content compared to
ports that reserved at IANA. It is thus recommended that the use of
those ports be associated with a mechanism such as a Transport Layer
Security (TLS) Message Integrity Check (MIC) that validates that the
content is expected and checked for integrity.
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 14]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
4.3.2. Compressing UDP checksum
The UDP checksum operation is mandatory with IPv6 [RFC2460] for all
packets. For that reason [RFC4944] disallows the compression of the
UDP checksum.
With this specification, a compressor in the source transport
endpoint MAY elide the UDP checksum if it is authorized by the Upper
Layer. The compressor SHOULD NOT set the C bit unless it has
received such authorization. The Upper Layer SHOULD only provide the
authorization in the following cases:
Tunneling: In this case, 6LoWPAN is deployed as a wireless pseudo-
fieldbus by tunneling existing field protocols over UDP. If the
tunneled PDU possesses its own addressing, security and integrity
check, the tunneling mechanism MAY authorize to elide the UDP
checksum in order to save on the encapsulation overhead.
Upper Layer Message Integrity Check: In this case, there is some
other form of integrity check in the UDP payload that covers at
least the same information as the UDP checksum (pseudo-header,
data) and has at least the same strength.
A forwarding node MAY imply authorization from an incoming packet if
the C bit is set. A forwarding node that cannot unambiguously derive
such authorization SHOULD NOT elide the UDP checksum when performing
6LoWPAN compression. The forwarding node that expands a 6LoWPAN
packet with the C bit on MUST compute the UDP checksum on behalf of
the source node and place that checksum in the restored UDP header as
specified in the incumbent standards [RFC0768], [RFC2460].
If a 6LoWPAN termination is also the transport endpoint and it
receives a compressed packet with the C bit set, then it is entitled
to ignore the UDP checksum process completely. If the C bit is not
set, the packet might have been forwarded by an edge router, so this
is not an indication that the MIC is not present. If the terminating
node knows that the message integrity will be validated by the upper
layer by some state associated to the Service Access Point, it is
entitled to ignore the checksum operation as if the C bit was set.
4.3.3. UDP LOWPAN_NHC Format
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | C | P |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 15]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
Figure 7: UDP Header Encoding
C: Checksum:
0: All 16 bits of Checksum are carried in-line.
1: All 16 bits of Checksum are elided. The Checksum is recovered
by recomputing it on the 6LoWPAN termination point.
P: Ports:
00: All 16 bits for both Source Port and Destination Port are
carried in-line.
01: All 16 bits for Source Port are carried in-line. First 8
bits of Destination Port is 0xF0 and elided. The remaining 8
bits of Destination Port are carried in-line.
10: First 8 bits of Source Port are 0xF0 and elided. The
remaining 8 bits of Source Port are carried in-line. All 16
bits for Destination Port are carried in-line.
11: First 12 bits of both Source Port and Destination Port are
0xF0B and elided. The remaining 4 bits for each are carried
in-line.
Fields carried in-line (in part or in whole) appear in the same order
as they do in the UDP header format [RFC0768]. The UDP Length field
MUST always be elided and is inferred from lower layers using the
6LoWPAN Fragmentation header or the IEEE 802.15.4 header.
5. IANA Considerations
This document defines a new IPv6 header compression format for
6LoWPAN networks. The document allocates the following 32 Dispatch
type field values for LOWPAN_IPHC:
01 100000
through
01 111111
This assignment preempts the assignment of 01 111111 for ESC
[RFC4944], which is possible as no extension bytes have been
allocated yet that would enable the use of ESC. Instead, the value:
01 000000
is reserved as a replacement value for ESC, to be finally assigned
with the first assignment of extension bytes.
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 16]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
6. Security Considerations
The definition of LOWPAN_IPHC permits the compression of header
information on communication that could take place in its absence,
albeit in a less efficient form. It recognizes that a IEEE 802.15.4
PAN may have associated with it a number of prefixes through shared
context. How the shared context is assigned and managed is beyond
the scope of this document.
The overloading of the 0xF0Bx ports increases the risk of getting the
wrong type of payload and misinterpreting the content compared to
ports that reserved at IANA. It is thus recommended that the use of
those ports be associated with a mechanism such as a Transport Layer
Security (TLS) Message Integrity Check (MIC) that validates that the
content is expected and checked for integrity.
7. Acknowledgements
Thanks to Julien Abeille, Carsten Bormann, Christos Polyzois, Erik
Nordmark, Robert Assimiti, Shoishi Sakane, Zach Shelby, Stephen
Dawson-Haggerty, Jay Werb and Mathilde Durvy for useful design
consideration and implementation feedback.
8. Changes
Draft 06:
- Reworked introduction.
- Fixed description of number of bits used for IPHC encoding.
- Specify M=0 only for non-multicast addresses and M=1 only for
multicast addresses.
- Move 128-bit multicast encoding to DAC=0.
- Redefined ESC dispatch value to 01 000000.
- Many detailed edits.
Draft 05:
- Added LOWPAN_NHC encodings for IPv6 Extension Headers.
- Specify use of context 0 when CID is 0.
- Indicate that first 64-bits is link-local prefix padded with
zeros when link-local prefix is elided.
- Made prefix-based multicast encoding format more explicit for
clarity.
- Changed wording around stateful compression to allow for using
the inline bits as an additional index to identify the compressed
address.
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 17]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
- Removed support for compressing unspecified address.
- Full 128-bit addr inline only in stateless encoding.
Draft 04:
- Fixed typos leftover from the changes in 03.
- Gave more details on UDP checksum compression.
- Clarify that the context information is out of scope.
- Added security concern on 0xF0Bx port overloading.
Draft 03:
- Decoupled meaning of SAM bits from the destination address.
- Have separate bit to indicate multicast address compression.
- More extensive support for multicast address compression,
including Unicast-Prefix-based Multicast Addresses.
Draft 02:
- Updated wording with compression mode to clarify that a
compression mode does not enforce what kind of destination address
is being used. Specifically changed Destination Dependent Field
to Compression Mode.
- Specify that the configuration and management of contexts is out
of scope of this document.
Draft 01:
- HC back to 1 byte by default by stealing a few bits from the
dispatch field.
- Added better support for multicast address compression.
- Fixed alignment for UDP port compression.
- Better support for Traffic Class and Flow Label compression.
- Pascal joined as an author.
9. References
9.1. Normative References
[RFC0768] Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6, RFC 768,
August 1980.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC2460] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
(IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998.
[RFC2474] Nichols, K., Blake, S., Baker, F., and D. Black,
"Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS
Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers", RFC 2474,
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 18]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
December 1998.
[RFC3168] Ramakrishnan, K., Floyd, S., and D. Black, "The Addition
of Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to IP",
RFC 3168, September 2001.
[RFC3775] Johnson, D., Perkins, C., and J. Arkko, "Mobility Support
in IPv6", RFC 3775, June 2004.
[RFC4007] Deering, S., Haberman, B., Jinmei, T., Nordmark, E., and
B. Zill, "IPv6 Scoped Address Architecture", RFC 4007,
March 2005.
[RFC4291] Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
Architecture", RFC 4291, February 2006.
[RFC4302] Kent, S., "IP Authentication Header", RFC 4302,
December 2005.
[RFC4303] Kent, S., "IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)",
RFC 4303, December 2005.
[RFC4944] Montenegro, G., Kushalnagar, N., Hui, J., and D. Culler,
"Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4
Networks", RFC 4944, September 2007.
9.2. Informative References
[IEEE 802.15.4]
IEEE Computer Society, "IEEE Std. 802.15.4-2006",
October 2006.
[RFC3306] Haberman, B. and D. Thaler, "Unicast-Prefix-based IPv6
Multicast Addresses", RFC 3306, August 2002.
[RFC3315] Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C.,
and M. Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for
IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.
[RFC3956] Savola, P. and B. Haberman, "Embedding the Rendezvous
Point (RP) Address in an IPv6 Multicast Address",
RFC 3956, November 2004.
[RFC4861] Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
"Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861,
September 2007.
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 19]
Internet-Draft 6LoWPAN Compression of IPv6 Datagrams October 2009
Authors' Addresses
Jonathan W. Hui (editor)
Arch Rock Corporation
501 2nd St. Ste. 410
San Francisco, California 94107
USA
Phone: +415 692 0828
Email: jhui@archrock.com
Pascal Thubert
Cisco Systems
Village d'Entreprises Green Side
400, Avenue de Roumanille
Batiment T3
Biot - Sophia Antipolis 06410
FRANCE
Phone: +33 4 97 23 26 34
Email: pthubert@cisco.com
Hui & Thubert Expires April 8, 2010 [Page 20]