6LoWPAN Working Group                                             E. Kim
Internet-Draft                                                      ETRI
Expires: May 22, 2009                                          D. Kaspar
                                              Simula Research Laboratory
                                                                C. Gomez
                                          Tech. Univ. of Catalonia/i2CAT
                                                              C. Bormann
                                                 Universitaet Bremen TZI
                                                       November 18, 2008


         Problem Statement and Requirements for 6LoWPAN Routing
               draft-ietf-6lowpan-routing-requirements-00

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 22, 2009.













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Abstract

   This document provides the problem statement for 6LoWPAN routing.  It
   also defines the requirements for 6LoWPAN routing considering IEEE
   802.15.4 specificities and the low-power characteristics of the
   network and its devices.


Table of Contents

   1.  Problem Statement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Design Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   3.  Scenario Considerations and Parameters for 6LoWPAN Routing . .  8
   4.  6LoWPAN Routing Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.1.  Support of 6LoWPAN Device Properties . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.2.  Support of 6LoWPAN Link Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     4.3.  Support of 6LoWPAN Network Characteristics . . . . . . . . 17
     4.4.  Support of Security  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     4.5.  Support of Mesh-under Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
   5.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
   6.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
   7.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     7.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     7.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 28

























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1.  Problem Statement

   In the context of this document, low-power wireless personal area
   networks (LoWPANs) are formed by devices that are compatible with the
   IEEE 802.15.4 standard [6].  Most of the LoWPAN devices are
   distinguished by their low bandwidth, short range, scarce memory
   capacity, limited processing capability and other attributes of
   inexpensive hardware.  In this document, the characteristics of nodes
   participating in LoWPANs are assumed to be those described in RFC
   4919 [3].

   IEEE 802.15.4 networks support star and mesh topologies and consist
   of two different device types: reduced-function devices (RFDs) and
   full-function devices (FFDs).  RFDs have the most limited
   capabilities and are intended to perform only simple and basic tasks,
   such as reporting sensed data.  RFDs may only associate with a single
   FFD at a time, but FFDs may form arbitrary topologies and implement
   more advanced functions, such as multi-hop routing.

   However, neither the IEEE 802.15.4 standard nor the 6LoWPAN format
   specification ("IPv6 over IEEE 802.15.4" [4]) define how mesh
   topologies could be obtained and maintained.  Thus, the 6LoWPAN
   formation and multi-hop routing should be supported by higher layers,
   either the 6LoWPAN adaptation layer or the IP layer.  A number of IP
   layer routing protocols have been developed in various IETF working
   groups.  However, these existing routing protocols may not satisfy
   the requirements of mesh routing in LoWPANs, for the following
   reasons:

   o  6LoWPAN nodes have special types and roles, such as primary
      battery-operated RFDs, battery-operated and mains-powered FFDs,
      possibly various levels of RFDs and FFDs, mains-powered and high-
      performance gateways, data aggregators, etc. 6LoWPAN routing
      protocols should support multiple device types and roles.

   o  The more stringent requirements that apply to 6LoWPANs, as opposed
      to higher performance or non-battery-operated networks, may not
      suffice. 6LoWPAN nodes are characterized by small memory sizes,
      low processing power, and are running on very limited power
      supplied by primary non-rechargeable batteries (a few KBytes of
      RAM, a few dozens of KBytes of ROM/flash memory, and a few MHz of
      CPU is typical).  A node's lifetime is usually defined by the
      lifetime of its battery.

   o  Handling sleeping nodes is very critical in 6LoWPANs, more than in
      traditional ad-hoc networks. 6LoWPAN nodes might stay in sleep-
      mode for most of the time.  Time synchronization is important for
      efficient forwarding of packets.



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   o  Routing in LoWPANs might possibly translate to a simpler problem
      than routing in higher-performance networks. 6LoWPANs might be
      either transit networks or stub networks.  Under the assumption
      that 6LoWPANs are never transit networks (as implied by [4] and
      [8]), routing protocols may be drastically simplified.  This
      document will primarily focus on stub networks.  Based on the
      necessity, this document may be extended with 6LoWPAN network
      configurations that include transit networks.

   o  Routing in 6LoWPANs might possibly translate to a harder problem
      than routing in higher-performance networks.  Routing in 6LoWPANs
      requires power-optimization, stable operation in harsh
      environments, data-aware routing, etc.  These requirements are not
      easily satisfiable all at once.

   This creates new challenges on obtaining robust and reliable routing
   within LoWPANs.

   The 6LoWPAN problem statement document ("6LoWPAN Problems and Goals"
   [3]) briefly mentions four requirements on routing protocols;

      (a) low overhead on data packets

      (b) low routing overhead

      (c) minimal memory and computation requirements

      (d) support for sleeping nodes considering battery saving

   These four high-level requirements only describe the need for low
   overhead and power saving.  But, based on the fundamental features of
   LoWPAN, more detailed routing requirements are presented in this
   document, which can lead to further analysis and protocol design.

   Using the 6LoWPAN header format [4], there are two layers routing
   protocols can be defined at, commonly referred to as "mesh-under" and
   "route-over".  The mesh-under approach supports routing under the IP
   link and is directly based on the link-layer IEEE 802.15.4 standard,
   therefore using (64-bit or 16-bit short) MAC addresses.  On the other
   hand, the route-over approach relies on IP routing and therefore
   supports routing over possibly various types of interconnected links
   (see also Figure 1).  Most statements in this document consider both
   the mesh-under and route-over cases.
   [Note] The ROLL WG is now working on the protocol survey for Low
   power and Lossy Networks (LLNs), not specifically for 6LoWPAN.  After
   that survey, it will be decided whether new solutions will be
   developed or not.  This document is focused on 6LoWPAN specific
   requirements, in alignment with the ROLL WG.



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   Considering the problems above, detailed 6LoWPAN routing requirements
   must be defined.  Application-specific features affect the design of
   6LoWPAN routing requirements and the corresponding solutions.
   However, various applications can be profiled by similar technical
   characteristics, although the related detailed requirements might
   differ (e.g., a few dozens of nodes for home lighting system need
   appropriate scalability for the applications, while billions of nodes
   for a highway infrastructure system also needs appropriate
   scalability).  This document states the routing requirements of
   6LoWPAN applications in general, while trying to give examples for
   different cases of routing.  This routing requirement document does
   not imply that a single routing solution may be the best one for all
   6LoWPAN applications.






































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2.  Design Space

   Apart from a wide variety of routing algorithms possible for 6LoWPAN,
   the question remains as to whether routing should be performed mesh-
   under (in the adaptation layer defined by the 6lowpan format document
   [4]), or by the IP-layer using a route-over approach.  The most
   significant consequence of mesh-under routing is that routing would
   be directly based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, therefore using (64-
   bit or 16-bit short) MAC addresses instead of IP addresses, and a
   LoWPAN would be seen as a single IP link.  In case a route-over
   mechanism is to be applied to a LoWPAN it must also support 6LoWPAN's
   unique properties using global IPv6 addressing.  One radio hop would
   be seen as a single IP link [8].  In case a route-over mechanism is
   to be applied to a LoWPAN it must also support 6LoWPAN's unique
   properties of global IPv6 addressing.

   Figure 1 shows the place of 6LoWPAN routing in the entire network
   stack.

    +-----------------------------+    +-----------------------------+
    |  Application Layer          |    |  Application Layer          |
    +-----------------------------+    +-----------------------------+
    |  Transport Layer (TCP/UDP)  |    |  Transport Layer (TCP/UDP)  |
    +-----------------------------+    +-----------------------------+
    |  Network Layer (IPv6)       |    |  Network       +---------+  |
    +-----------------------------+    |  Layer         | Routing |  |
    |  6LoWPAN       +---------+  |    |  (IPv6)        +---------+  |
    |  Adaptation    | Routing |  |    +-----------------------------+
    |  Layer         +---------+  |    |  6LoWPAN Adaptation Layer   |
    +-----------------------------+    +-----------------------------+
    |  IEEE 802.15.4 (MAC)        |    |  IEEE 802.15.4 (MAC)        |
    +-----------------------------+    +-----------------------------+
    |  IEEE 802.15.4 (PHY)        |    |  IEEE 802.15.4 (PHY)        |
    +-----------------------------+    +-----------------------------+

        Figure 1: Mesh-under (left) and route-over routing (right)

   In order to avoid packet fragmentation and the overhead for
   reassembly, routing packets should fit into a single IEEE 802.15.4
   physical frame and application data should not be expanded to an
   extent that they no longer fit.

   If a mesh-under routing protocol is built for operation in 6LoWPAN's
   adaptation layer, routing control packets are placed after the
   6LoWPAN Dispatch, unless a new code type is assigned for mesh-under
   routing.  Multiple routing protocols can be supported by the usage of
   different Dispatch bit sequences.  In use cases where predefined
   layer two forwarding is appropriate, the mesh-header defined in RFC



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   4944 [4] is sufficient.  When a route-over protocol is built in the
   IPv6 layer, the Dispatch value can be chosen as one of the Dispatch
   patterns for 6LoWPAN, compressed or uncompressed IPv6, followed by
   the IPv6 header.

   As described in RFC 4944 [4], if a 6LoWPAN is formed, the Edge Router
   (ER) is the only IPv6 router in the LoWPAN (see Figure 2).  A mesh-
   under routing mechanism MUST be provided to forward packets which
   require multi-hop forwarding.

   If route-over routing is used in the stub-network, not only the ER
   but also other intermediate nodes become LoWPAN router and set up
   IPv6 paths for multi-hop transmission.


       O   X
      /    |                      ER: Edge Router
     ER --- O --- O --- X          O: Intermediate node (FFD)
          / \                     X: End host (FFD or RFD)
         X   O --- X
             |
            / \
           O - O -- X

                     Figure 2: An example of a 6LoWPAN

   If multiple 6LoPWANs are formed with globally unique IPv6 addresses
   in the 6LoWPANs, and node (a) of 6LoWPAN [A] wants to communicate
   with node (b) of 6LoWPAN [B], the normal IPv6 mechanisms can be
   employed.  For mesh-under, one way is to configure the ER as the
   default router for the outgoing packets of the 6LoWPAN.  This, of
   course, assumes the existence of a mesh-under routing protocol in
   order to reach the ER.  For route-over, a default route to the ER
   could be inserted into the routing system.

















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3.  Scenario Considerations and Parameters for 6LoWPAN Routing

   IP-based low-power WPAN technology is still in its early stage of
   development, but the range of conceivable usage scenarios is
   tremendous.  The numerous possible applications of sensor networks
   make it obvious that mesh topologies will be prevalent in LoWPAN
   environments and robust routing will be a necessity for expedient
   communication.  Research efforts in the area of sensor networking
   have put forth a large variety of multi-hop routing algorithms [7].
   Most related work focuses on optimizing routing for specific
   application scenarios, which can largely be categorized into several
   models of communication, including the following ones:

   o  Flooding (in very small networks)

   o  Data-aware routing (dissemination vs. gathering)

   o  Event-driven vs. query-based routing

   o  Geographic routing

   o  Probabilistic routing

   o  Hierarchical routing

   Depending on the topology of a 6LoWPAN and the application(s) running
   over it, different types of routing may be used.  However, this
   document abstracts from application-specific communication and
   describes general routing requirements valid for overall routing in
   6LoWPANs.

   The following parameters can be used to describe specific scenarios
   in which the candidate routing protocols could be evaluated.

   a.  Network Properties:

       *  Number of Devices, Density and Network Diameter:
          These parameters usually affect the routing state directly
          (e.g. the number of entries in a routing table or neighbor
          list).  Especially in large and dense networks, policies must
          be applied for discarding "low-quality" and stale routing
          entries in order to prevent memory overflow.

       *  Connectivity:
          Due to external factors or programmed disconnections, a
          6LoWPAN can be in several states of connectivity; anything in
          the range from "always connected" to "rarely connected".  This
          poses great challenges to the dynamic discovery of routes



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          across a LoWPAN.

       *  Dynamicity (including mobility):
          Location changes can be induced by unpredictable external
          factors or by controlled motion, which may in turn cause route
          changes.  Also, nodes may dynamically be introduced into a
          LoWPAN and removed from it later.  The routing state and the
          volume of control messages may heavily dependent on the number
          of moving nodes in a LoWPAN and their speed.

       *  Deployment:
          In a LoWPAN, it is possible for nodes to be scattered randomly
          or to be deployed in an organized manner.  The deployment can
          occur at once, or as an iterative process, which may also
          affect the routing state.

       *  Spatial Distribution of Nodes and Gateways:
          Network connectivity depends on the spatial distribution of
          the nodes, and on other factors like device number, density
          and transmission range.  For instance, nodes can be placed on
          a grid, or can be randomly placed in an area (bidimensional
          Poisson distribution), etc.  In addition, if the LoWPAN is
          connected to other networks through infrastructure nodes
          called gateways, the number and spatial distribution of
          gateways affects network congestion and available bandwidth,
          among others.

       *  Traffic Patterns, Topology and Applications:
          The design of a LoWPAN and the requirements on its application
          have a big impact on the network topology and the most
          efficient routing type to be used.  For different traffic
          patterns (point-to-point, multipoint-to-point, point-to-
          multipoint) and network architectures, various routing
          mechanisms have been introduced, such as data-aware, event-
          driven, address-centric, and geographic routing.

       *  Classes of Service:
          For mission-critical applications, support of multiple classes
          of service may be required in resource-constrained LoWPANs and
          may require a certain degree of routing protocol overhead.

       *  Security:
          LoWPANs may carry sensitive information and require a high
          level of security support where the availability, integrity,
          and confidentiality of data are primordial.  Secured messages
          cause overhead and affect the power consumption of LoWPAN
          routing protocols.




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   b.  Node Parameters:

       *  Processing Speed and Memory Size:
          These basic parameters define the maximum size of the routing
          state.  LoWPAN nodes may have different performance
          characteristics beyond the common RFD/FFD distinction.

       *  Power Consumption and Power Source:
          The number and topology of battery- and mains-powered nodes in
          a LoWPAN affect routing protocols in their selection of
          optimal paths for network lifetime maximization.

       *  Transmission Range:
          This parameter affects routing.  For example, a high
          transmission range may cause a dense network, which in turn
          results in more direct neighbors of a node, higher
          connectivity and a larger routing state.

       *  Traffic Pattern: This parameter affects routing since high-
          loaded nodes (either because they are the source of packets to
          be transmitted or due to forwarding) may incur a greater
          contribution to delivery delays and may consume more energy
          than lightly loaded nodes.  This applies to both data packets
          and routing control messages.

   c.  Link Parameters:
       This section discusses link parameters that apply to IEEE
       802.15.4 legacy mode (i.e. not making use of improved modulation
       schemes).

       *  Throughput:
          The maximum user data throughput of a bulk data transmission
          between a single sender and a single receiver through an
          unslotted IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz channel in ideal conditions is
          as follows [19]:

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 151.6 kbps

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 139.0 kbps

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 135.6 kbps

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 124.4 kbps

          In the case of 915 MHz band:

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 31.1 kbps




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          +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 28.6 kbps

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 27.8 kbps

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 25.6 kbps

          In the case of 868 MHz band:

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 15.5 kbps

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 14.3 kbps

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: 13.9 kbps

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: 12.8 kbps

       *  Latency:
          The range of latencies of a frame transmission between a
          single sender and a single receiver through an unslotted IEEE
          802.15.4 2.4 GHz channel in ideal conditions are as shown next
          [19].  For unreliable mode, the actual latency is provided.
          For reliable mode, the round-trip-time including transmission
          of a layer two acknowledgment is provided:

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [1.92 ms, 6.02 ms]

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [2.46 ms, 6.56 ms]

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [2.75 ms, 6.02 ms]

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [3.30 ms, 6.56 ms]

          In the case of 915 MHz band:

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [5.85 ms, 29.35 ms]

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [8.35 ms, 31.85 ms]

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [8.95 ms, 29.35 ms]

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [11.45 ms, 31.85 ms]

          In the case of 868 MHz band:

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [11.7 ms, 58.7 ms]

          +  16-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [16.7 ms, 63.7 ms]




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          +  64-bit MAC addresses, unreliable mode: [17.9 ms, 58.7 ms]

          +  64-bit MAC addresses, reliable mode: [22.9 ms, 63.7 ms]
















































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4.  6LoWPAN Routing Requirements

   This section defines a list of requirements for 6LoWPAN routing.  The
   most important design property unique to low-power networks is that
   6LoWPANs have to support multiple device types and roles, for
   example:

   o  primarily battery-operated host nodes (called "power-constrained
      nodes" in the following)

   o  mains-powered host nodes (an example for what we call "power-
      affluent nodes")

   o  power-affluent (but not necessarily mains-powered) high-
      performance gateway(s)

   o  possibly various levels of nodes (data aggregators, relayers,
      etc.)

   Due to these unique device types and roles 6LoWPANs need to consider
   the following two primary attributes:

   o  Power conservation: some devices are mains-powered, but most are
      battery-operated and need to last several months to a few years
      with a single AA battery.  Many devices are mains-powered most of
      the time, but still need to function for possibly extended periods
      from batteries (e.g. on a construction site before building power
      is switched on for the first time).

   o  Low performance: tiny devices, small memory sizes, low-performance
      processors, low bandwidth, high loss rates, etc.

   These fundamental attributes of LoWPANs affect the design of routing
   solutions, so that existing routing specifications should be
   simplified and modified to the smallest extent possible when there
   are appropriate solutions to adapt, otherwise, new solutions should
   be introduced in order to fit the low-power requirements of LoWPANs,
   meeting the requirements described in the following.

4.1.  Support of 6LoWPAN Device Properties

   The general objectives listed in this section should be followed by
   6LoWPAN routing protocols.  The importance of each requirement is
   dependent on what device type the protocol is running on and what the
   role of the device is.  The following requirements are based on
   battery-powered LoWPAN devices.

   [R01] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD allow to be implemented with



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   small code size and require low routing state to fit the typical
   6LoWPAN node capacity (e.g., code size considering its typical flash
   memory size, and routing table less than 32 entries).

      A LoWPAN routing protocol solution should consider the limited
      memory size typically starting at 4KB.  RAM size of 6LoWPAN nodes
      often ranges between 2KB and 10KB, and program flash memory
      normally consists of 48KB to 128KB. (e.g., in the current market,
      MICAz has 128KB program flash, 4KB EEPROM, 512KB external flash
      ROM; TIP700CM has 48KB program flash, 10KB RAM, 1MB external flash
      ROM).

      Due to these hardware restrictions, code length should be
      considered to fit within a small memory size; no more than 48KB to
      128KB of flash memory including at least a few tens of KB of
      application code size.  A routing protocol of low complexity helps
      to achieve the goal of reducing power consumption, improves
      robustness, requires lower routing state, is easier to analyze,
      and may be implicitly less prone to security attacks.

      In addition, operation with low routing state (such as routing
      tables and neighbor lists) SHOULD be maintained since some typical
      memory sizes preclude to store state of a large number of nodes.
      For instance, industrial monitoring applications need to support
      at maximum 20 hops [15].  Small networks can be designed to
      support a smaller number of hops.  It is highly dependent on the
      network architecture, but considering the 6LoWPAN device
      properties, there should be at least one mode of operation that
      can function with 32 forwarding entries or less.

   [R02] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD cause minimal power
   consumption by the efficient use of control packets (e.g., minimize
   expensive multicast which cause broadcast to the entire LoWPAN) and
   by the efficient routing of data packets.

      One way of battery lifetime optimization is by achieving a minimal
      control message overhead.  Compared to functions such as in many
      devices, computational operations or taking sensor samples, radio
      communications is by far the dominant factor of power consumption
      [9].  Power consumption of transmission and/or reception depends
      linearly on the length of data units and on the frequency of
      transmission and reception of the data units [12].

      The energy consumption of two example RF controllers for low-power
      nodes is shown in [10].  The TR1000 radio consumes 21mW when
      transmitting at 0.75mW, and 15mW on reception (with a receiver
      sensitivity of -85dBm).  The CC1000 consumes 31.6mW when
      transmitting 0.75mW, and 20mW for receiving (with a receiver



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      sensitivity of -105dBm).  The power continuation under the concept
      of an idealized power source is explained in [10].  Based on the
      energy of an idealized AA battery, the CC1000 can transmit for
      approximately 4 days straight or receive for 9 consecutive days.
      Note that availability for reception consumes power as well.

      One multicast packet causes reception of the entire nodes in the
      LoWPAN, while only the nodes in the path use the reception energy
      at unicast.  Thus, 6LoWPAN routing protocol SHOULD minimize the
      control cost by the routing packets.  Another document discusses
      control cost of routing protocols in low power and lossy networks
      [18].

4.2.  Support of 6LoWPAN Link Properties

   6LoWPAN links have the characteristics of low bandwidth and possibliy
   high loss rates.  The routing requirements described in this section
   are derived from the link properties.

   [R03] 6LoWPAN routing protocol control messages SHOULD not create
   fragmentation of physical layer (PHY) frames.

      In order to save energy, routing overhead should be minimized to
      prevent fragmentation of frames on the physical layer (PHY).
      Therefore, 6LoWPAN routing should not cause packets to exceed the
      IEEE 802.15.4 frame size.  This reduces the energy required for
      transmission, avoids unnecessary waste of bandwidth, and prevents
      the need for packet reassembly.  As calculated in RFC4944 [4], the
      maximum size of a 6LoWPAN frame, in order not to cause
      fragmentation on the PHY layer, is 81 octets.  This may imply the
      use of semantic fragmentation and/or algorithms that can work on
      small increments of routing information.

   [R04] The design of routing protocols for 6LoWPANs must consider the
   fact that packets are to be delivered with sufficient probability
   according to application requirements.

      Requirements on successful end-to-end packet delivery ratio (where
      delivery may be bounded within certain latency) vary depending on
      applications.  In industrial applications, some non-critical
      monitoring applications may tolerate successful delivery ratio of
      less than 90% with hours of latency; in some other cases, a
      delivery ratio of 99.9% is required [15].  In building automation
      applications, application layer errors must be below 0.01% [17].

      Successful end-to-end delivery of packets in a IEEE 802.15.4 mesh
      depends on the quality of the path selected by the routing
      protocol and on the ability of the routing protocol to cope with



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      short-term and long-term quality variation.  The metric of the
      routing protocol strongly influences performance of the routing
      protocol in terms of delivery ratio.

      The quality of a given path depends on the individual qualities of
      the links (including the devices) that compose that path.  IEEE
      802.15.4 settings affect the quality perceived at upper layers.
      In particular, in IEEE 802.15.4 reliable mode, if an
      acknowledgment frame is not received after a given period, the
      originator retries frame transmission up to a maximum number of
      times.  If an acknowledgment frame is still not received by the
      sender after performing the maximum number of transmission
      attempts, the MAC sub-layer assumes the transmission has failed
      and notifies the next higher layer of the failure.  Note that
      excessive retransmission may be detrimental, see RFC 3819 [5].

   [R05] The design of routing protocols for 6LoWPANs must consider the
   end-to-end latency requirements of applications and IEEE 802.15.4
   link latency characteristics.

      Latency requirements may differ from a few hundreds milliseconds
      to minutes, depending on the type of application.  Real-time
      building automation applications usually need response times below
      500 ms between egress and ingress, while forced entry security
      alerts must be routed to one or more fixed or mobile user devices
      within 5 seconds [17].  Non-critical closed loop applications for
      industrial automation have latency requirements that can be as low
      as 100 ms but many control loops are tolerant of latencies above
      1s [15].  In contrast to this, urban monitoring applications allow
      latencies smaller than the typical intervals used for reporting
      sensed information; for instance, in the order of seconds to
      minutes [16].

      The range of latencies of a frame transmission between a single
      sender and a single receiver through an ideal unslotted IEEE
      802.15.4 2.4 GHz channel is between 2.46ms and 6.02ms in 64 bit
      MAC address unreliable mode and 2.20 ms to 6.56ms in 64 bit
      address reliable mode.  The range of latencies of 868 MHz band is
      from 11.7 ms to 63.7 ms, depending on the address type and
      reliable/unreliable mode used.  Note that the latencies may be
      larger than that depending on channel load, MAC sublayer settings
      that regulate medium access procedure, reliable/unreliable mode
      choice and nodes sleeping.

      Some routing protocols are aware of the hop count of a path.  This
      parameter may be used as an input to select paths on an end-to-end
      latency basis if necessary.




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      Note that a tradeoff exists between [R05] and [R04].

   [R06] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD be robust to dynamic loss
   caused by link failure or device unavailability either in short-term
   (e.g. due to RSSI variation, interference variation, noise and
   asynchrony) or in long-term (e.g. due to a depleted power source,
   hardware breakdown, operating system misbehavior, etc).

      An important trait of 6LoWPAN devices is their unreliability due
      to limited system capabilities, and also because they might be
      closely coupled to the physical world with all its unpredictable
      variation.  In harsh environments, LoWPANs easily suffer from link
      failure.  Collision or link failure easily increases Send Queue/
      Receive Queue (SQ/RQ) and it can lead to queue overflow and packet
      losses.

      For home applications, where users expect feedback after carrying
      out actions (such as handling a remote control while moving
      around), routing protocols must converge within 2 seconds if the
      destination node of the packet has moved and must converge within
      0.5 seconds if only the sender has moved [14].  The tolerance of
      the recovery time can vary depending on the application, however,
      the routing protocol must provide the detection of short-term
      unavailability and long-term disappearance.  The routing protocol
      has to exploit network resources (e.g. path redundancy) to offer
      good network behavior despite of node failure.

   [R07] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD be designed to correctly
   operate in the presence of link asymmetry.

      Link asymmetry occurs when the probability of successful
      transmission between two nodes is significantly higher in one
      direction than in the other one.  This phenomenon has been
      reported in a large number of experimental studies and it is
      expected that 6LoWPANs will exhibit link asymmetry.

4.3.  Support of 6LoWPAN Network Characteristics

   6LoWPANs can be deployed in different sizes and topologies, adhere to
   various models of mobility, tolerate various levels of interference,
   etc.  In any case, 6LoWPANs must maintain low energy consumption.
   The requirements described in the following subsection are derived
   from the network attributes of 6LoWPANs.

   [R08] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD be reliable despite
   unresponsive nodes due to periodic hibernation.





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      Many nodes in 6LoWPAN environments might periodically hibernate
      (i.e. disable their transceiver activity) in order to save energy.
      Therefore, routing protocols must ensure robust packet delivery
      despite nodes frequently shutting off their radio transmission
      interface.  Feedback from the lower IEEE 802.15.4 layer may be
      considered to enhance the power-awareness of 6LoWPAN routing
      protocols.

      CC1000-based nodes must operate at a duty cycle of approximately
      2% to survive for one year from idealized AA battery power source
      [10].  For home automation purposes, it is suggested that that the
      devices have to maximize the sleep phase with a duty cycle lower
      than 1% [14], while in building automation applications, batteries
      must be operational for at least 5 years when the sensing devices
      are transmitting data (e.g. 64 bytes) once per minute [17].

      Dependent on the application in use, packet rates differ from
      1/sec to 1/day.  Routing protocols need to know the cycle of the
      packet transmission and utilize the information to calculate
      routing paths.

   [R09] The metric used by 6LoWPAN routing protocols MAY utilize a
   combination of the inputs provided by the MAC layer and other
   measures to obtain the optimal path considering energy balance and
   link quality.

      In homes, buildings, or infrastructure, some nodes will be
      installed with mains power.  Such power-installed nodes MUST be
      considered as a relay points for more roles in packet delivery.
      6LoWPAN routing protocols MUST know the power constraints of the
      nodes.

      Simple hop-count-only mechanisms may be inefficient in 6LoWPANs.
      There is a Link Quality Indicator (LQI), Link Delivery Ratio
      (LDR), or/and RSSI from IEEE 802.15.4 that may be taken into
      account for better metrics.  The metric to be used (and its goal)
      may depend on application and requirements.

      The numbers in Figure 3 represent the Link Delivery Ratio (LDR) of
      each pair of nodes.  There are studies that show a piecewise
      linear dependence between LQI and LDR [13].










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                                     0.6
                                  A-------C
                                   \     /
                                0.9 \   / 0.9
                                     \ /
                                      B

                         Figure 3: An example network

      In this simple example, there are two options in routing from node
      A to node C, with the following features:

      A.  Path AC:

          +  (1/0.6) = 1.67 avg. transmissions needed for each packet

          +  one-hop path

          +  good in energy consumption and end-to-end latency of data
             packets, bad in delivery ratio (0.6)

          +  bad in probability of route reconfigurations

      B.  Path ABC

          +  2*(1/0.81) = 2.47 avg. transmissions needed for each packet

          +  two-hop path

          +  bad in energy consumption and end-to-end latency of data
             packets, good in delivery ratio (0.81)

      If energy consumption of the network must be minimized, path AC is
      the best (this path would be chosen based on a hop count metric).
      However, if the delivery ratio in that case is not sufficient, the
      best path is ABC (it would be chosen by an LQI based metric).
      Combinations of both metrics can be used.

      The metric also affects the probability of route reconfiguration.
      Route reconfiguration, which may be triggered by packet losses,
      may require transmission of routing protocol messages.  It is
      possible to use a metric aimed at selecting the path with low
      route reconfiguration rate by using LQI as an input to the metric.
      Such a path has good properties, including stability and low
      control message overhead.

   [R10] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD be designed to achieve both
   scalability from a few nodes to millions of nodes and minimality in



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   terms of used system resources.

      A 6LoWPAN may consist of just a couple of nodes (for instance in a
      body-area network), but may expand to much higher numbers of
      devices (e.g. monitoring of a city infrastructure or a highway).
      For home automation applications it is envisioned that the routing
      protocol must support 250 devices in the network [14], while
      routing protocols for metropolitan-scale sensor networks must be
      capable of clustering a large number of sensing nodes into regions
      containing on the order of 10^2 to 10^4 sensing nodes each [16].
      It is therefore necessary that routing mechanisms are designed to
      be scalable for operation in various network sizes.  However, due
      to a lack of memory size and computational power, 6LoWPAN routing
      might limit forwarding entries to a small number, such as at
      maximum 32 routing table entries.

   [R11] The procedure of route repair and related control messages
   should not harm overall energy consumption from the routing
   protocols.

      Local repair improves throughput and end-to-end latency,
      especially in large networks.  Since routes are repaired quickly,
      fewer data packets are dropped, and a smaller number of routing
      protocol packet transmissions are needed since routes can be
      repaired without source initiated Route Discovery [11].  One
      important consideration here may be to avoid premature depletion,
      even in case that impairs other requirements.

   [R12] 6LoWPAN routing protocols SHOULD allow for dynamically adaptive
   topologies and mobile nodes.  When supporting dynamic topologies and
   mobile nodes, route maintenance should should keep in mind the goal
   of a minimal routing state and routing protocol message overhead.

      Building monitoring applications, for instance, require that the
      mobile devices SHOULD be capable of leaving (handing-off) from an
      old network joining onto a new network within 15 seconds [17].
      More interactive applications such as used in home automation
      systems, where users are giving input and expect instant feedback,
      mobility requirements are also stricter and a convergence time
      below 0.5 seconds is commonly required [14].  In industrial
      environments, where mobile equipment such as cranes move around,
      the support of vehicular speeds of up to 35 km/ph are required to
      be supported by the routing protocol [15].  Currently, 6LoWPANs
      are not being used for such a fast mobility, but dynamic
      association and disassociation MUST be supported in 6LoWPAN.

      There are several challenges that should be addressed by a 6LoWPAN
      routing protocol in order to create robust routing in dynamic



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      environments:

      *  Mobile nodes changing their location inside a 6LoWPAN:
         If the nodes' movement pattern is unknown, mobility cannot
         easily be detected or distinguished by the routing protocols.
         Mobile nodes can be treated as nodes that disappear and re-
         appear in another place.  Movement pattern tracking increases
         complexity and can be avoided by handling moving nodes using
         reactive route updates.

      *  Movement of a 6LoWPAN with respect to other (inter)connected
         6LoWPANs:
         Within stub networks, more powerful gateway nodes need to be
         configured to handle moving 6LoWPANs.

      *  Nodes permanently joining or leaving the 6LoWPAN:
         In order to ease routing table updates and reduce error control
         messages, it would be helpful if nodes leaving the network
         inform their coordinator about their intention to disassociate.

   [R13] 6LoWPAN routing protocol SHOULD support various traffic
   patterns; point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, and multipoint-to-
   point, while avoid excessive multicast traffic (broadcast in link
   layer) in 6LoWPAN.

      6LoWPANs often have point-to-multipoint or multipoint-to-point
      traffic patterns.  Many emerging applications include point-to-
      point communication as well. 6LoWPAN routing protocols should be
      designed with the consideration of forwarding packets from/to
      multiple sources/destinations.  Current WG drafts in the ROLL
      working group explain that the workload or traffic pattern of use
      cases for 6LoWPANs tend to be highly structured, unlike the any-
      to-any data transfers that dominate typical client and server
      workloads.  In many cases, exploiting such structure may simplify
      difficult problems arising from resource constraints or variation
      in connectivity.

4.4.  Support of Security

   The routing requirement described in this subsection allows secure
   transmission of routing messages.  Solutions may take into account
   the specific features of IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layers.

   [R14] 6LoWPAN protocols SHOULD support secure delivery of control
   messages.  A minimal security level can be achieved by utilizing AES-
   based mechanism provided by IEEE 802.15.4.





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      Security threats within LoWPANs may be different from existing
      threat models in ad-hoc network environments.  Neighbor Discovery
      in IEEE 802.15.4 links may be susceptible to threats as listed in
      RFC3756 [2].  Bootstrapping may also impose additional threats.
      Security is also very important for designing robust routing
      protocols, but it should not cause significant transmission
      overhead.  While there are applications which require very high
      security, such as in traffic control, other applications are less
      easily harmed by wrong node behavior, such as a home entertainment
      system.

      The IEEE 802.15.4 MAC provides an AES-based security mechanism.
      Routing protocols need to define how this mechanism can be used to
      obtain the intended security.  Byte overhead of the mechanism,
      which depends on the security services selected, must be
      considered.  In the worst case in terms of overhead, the mechanism
      consumes 21 bytes of MAC payload.

4.5.  Support of Mesh-under Forwarding

   Reception of an acknowledgement after a frame transmission may render
   unnecessary the transmission of explicit Hello messages, for example.

   [R15] In case a routing protocol operates in 6LoWPAN's adaptation
   layer, then routing tables and neighbor lists MUST support 16-bit
   short and 64-bit extended addresses.

   [R16] For neighbor discovery, 6LoWPAN devices SHOULD avoid sending
   "Hello" messages.  Instead, link-layer mechanisms (such as
   acknowledgments) MAY be utilized to keep track of active neighbors.

      Reception of an acknowledgement after a frame transmission may
      render unnecessary the transmission of explicit Hello messages,
      for example.

   [R17] In case there are one or more nodes allocated to coordinator
   roles, the coordinators MAY take the role of keeping track of node
   association and de-association within the LoWPAN.

   [R18] If the routing protocol functionality includes enabling IP
   multicast, then it may want to employ coordinator roles, if any, as
   relay points of group-targeting messages instead of using link-layer
   multicast (broadcast).








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5.  Security Considerations

   Security issues are described in Section 4.4.  Security
   considerations of RFC 4919 [3] and RFC 4944 [4] apply as well.  More
   security considerations will result from the 6LoWPAN security
   analysis work.













































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6.  Acknowledgements

   The authors thank Myung-Ki Shin for giving the idea of writing this
   draft.  The authors also thank to S. Chakrabarti who gave valuable
   comments for mesh-under requirements.














































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7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [1]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
         Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [2]   Nikander, P., Kempf, J., and E. Nordmark, "IPv6 Neighbor
         Discovery (ND) Trust Models and Threats", RFC 3756, May 2004.

   [3]   Kushalnagar, N., Montenegro, G., and C. Schumacher, "IPv6 over
         Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs): Overview,
         Assumptions, Problem Statement, and Goals", RFC 4919,
         August 2007.

   [4]   Montenegro, G., Kushalnagar, N., Hui, J., and D. Culler,
         "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4 Networks",
         RFC 4944, September 2007.

   [5]   Karn, P., Bormann, C., Fairhurst, G., Grossman, D., Ludwig, R.,
         Mahdavi, J., Montenegro, G., Touch, J., and L. Wood, "Advice
         for Internet Subnetwork Designers", BCP 89, RFC 3819,
         July 2004.

   [6]   IEEE Computer Society, "IEEE Std. 802.15.4-2006 (as amended)",
         2007.

7.2.  Informative References

   [7]   Bulusu, N. and S. Jha, "Wireless Sensor Networks", July 2005.

   [8]   Shelby, Z., Thubert, P., Hui, J., Chakrabarti, S., and E.
         Nordmark, "LoWPAN Neighbor Discovery Extensions,
         draft-shelby-6lowpan-nd-00 (work in progress)", October 2008.

   [9]   Pister, K. and B. Boser, "Smart Dust: Wireless Networks of
         Millimeter-Scale Sensor Nodes".

   [10]  Hill, J., "System Architecture for Wireless Sensor Networks".

   [11]  Lee, S., Belding-Royer, E., and C. Perkins, "Scalability Study
         of the Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance-Vector Routing Protocol",
         March 2003.

   [12]  Shih, E., "Physical Layer Driven Protocols and Algorithm Design
         for Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks", July 2001.

   [13]  Chen, B., Muniswamy-Reddy, K., and M. Welsh, "Ad-Hoc Multicast



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         Routing on Resource-Limited Sensor Nodes", 2006.

   [14]  Brandt, A., Buron, J., and G. Porcu, "Home Automation Routing
         Requirement in Low Power and Lossy Networks,
         draft-ietf-roll-home-routing-reqs-04 (work in progress)",
         October 2008.

   [15]  Pister, K., Thubert, P., Dwars, S., and T. Phinney, "Industrial
         Routing Requirements in Low Power and Lossy Networks,
         draft-ietf-roll-indus-routing-reqs-01 (work in progress)",
         July 2008.

   [16]  Dohler, M., Watteyne, T., Winter, T., Barthel, D., and C.
         Jacquenet, "Urban WSNs Routing Requirements in Low Power and
         Lossy Networks, draft-ietf-roll-urban-routing-reqs-02 (work in
         progress)", October 2008.

   [17]  Martocci, J., De Mil, P., Vermeylen, W., and N. Riou, "Building
         Automation Routing Requirements in Low Power and Lossy
         Networks, draft-ietf-roll-building-routing-reqs-01 (work in
         progress)".

   [18]  Levis, P., Tavakoli, A., and S. Dawson-Haggerty, "Overview of
         Existing Routing Protocols for Low Power and Lossy Networks ,
         draft-ietf-roll-protocols-survey-02 (work in progress)".

   [19]  Latre, M., De Mil, P., Moerman, I., Dhoedt, B., and P.
         Demeester, "Throughput and Delay Analysis of Unslotted IEEE
         802.15.4", May 2006.






















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Authors' Addresses

   Eunsook Eunah Kim
   ETRI
   161 Gajeong-dong
   Yuseong-gu
   Daejeon  305-700
   Korea

   Phone: +82-42-860-6124
   Email: eunah.ietf@gmail.com


   Dominik Kaspar
   Simula Research Laboratory
   Martin Linges v 17
   Snaroya  1367
   Norway

   Phone: +47-6782-8223
   Email: dokaspar.ietf@gmail.com


   Carles Gomez
   Tech. Univ. of Catalonia/i2CAT
   Escola Politecnica Superior de Castelldefels
   Avda. del Canal Olimpic, 15
   Castelldefels  08860
   Spain

   Phone: +34-93-413-7206
   Email: carlesgo@entel.upc.edu


   Carsten Bormann
   Universitaet Bremen TZI
   Postfach 330440
   Bremen  D-28359
   Germany

   Phone: +49-421-218-63921
   Fax:   +49-421-218-7000
   Email: cabo@tzi.org








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