6LoWPAN Working Group                                             E. Kim
Internet-Draft                                                      ETRI
Expires: April 4, 2010                                         D. Kaspar
                                              Simula Research Laboratory
                                                          N. Chevrollier
                                                                     TNO
                                                             JP. Vasseur
                                                      Cisco Systems, Inc
                                                         October 1, 2009


               Design and Application Spaces for 6LoWPANs
                     draft-ietf-6lowpan-usecases-04

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 4, 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.




Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 1]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


Abstract

   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.
   A list of use cases and market domains that may benefit and motivate
   the work currently done in the 6LoWPAN WG is provided with the
   characterisitcis of each dimention.  A complete list of practical use
   cases is not the goal of this document.


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.2.  Basic Network Configuration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Design Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   3.  Application Scenarios  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.1.  Industrial Monitoring  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.1.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       3.1.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.2.  Structural Monitoring  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       3.2.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       3.2.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     3.3.  Healthcare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       3.3.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       3.3.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     3.4.  Connected Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
       3.4.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . 18
       3.4.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
     3.5.  Vehicle Telematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       3.5.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       3.5.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     3.6.  Agricultural Monitoring  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
       3.6.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . 23
       3.6.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
   4.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
   5.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   6.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
     6.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
     6.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30









Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 2]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


1.  Introduction

   Low-power and lossy networks (LLNs) is the term commonly used to
   refer to networks made of highly constrained nodes (limited CPU,
   memory, power) interconnected by a variety of "lossy" links (low-
   power radio links or powerline communication (PLC)).  They are
   characterized by low speed, low performance, low cost, and unstable
   connectivity.  A LoWPAN is a particular instance of an LLN, formed by
   devices complying with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard [5].  Their typical
   characteristics can be summarized as follows:

   o  Limited processing capability: the smallest common LoWPAN nodes
      have 8-bit processors with clock rates around 10 MHz.  Other
      models exist with 16-bit and 32-bit cores (typically ARM7),
      running at frequencies in the order of tens of MHz.

   o  Small memory capacity: common RAM sizes for LoWPAN devices consist
      of a few kilobytes, usually 4K or 8K bytes.  However, a wide
      variety of RAM sizes is available, reaching from 1K up to 256K
      bytes.

   o  Low power: wireless radios for LoWPANs are normally battery-
      operated.  Their RF transceivers often have a current draw of
      about 10 to 30 mA, depending on the used transmission power level.
      In order to reach common indoor ranges of up to 30 meters and
      outdoor ranges of 100 meters, the used transmission power is set
      around 0 to 3 dBm.  Depending on the processor type, there is an
      additional battery current consumption of the CPU itself, commonly
      in the order of tens of milliamperes.  However, the CPU power
      consumption can often be reduced by a thousandfold when switching
      to sleep mode.

   o  Short range: the Personal Operating Space (POS) defined by IEEE
      802.15.4 implies a range of 10 meters.  For real implementations,
      the range of LoWPAN radios is typically measured in tens of
      meters, but can reach over 100 meters in line-of-sight situations.

   o  Low bit rate: the IEEE 802.15.4 standard defines a maximum over-
      the-air rate of 250K bit/s, which is most commonly used in current
      deployments.  Alternatively, three lower data rates of 20K, 40K
      and 100K bit/s are defined.

   As any other LLN, a LoWPAN does not necessarily comprise of sensor
   nodes only, but may also consist of actuators.  For instance, in an
   agricultural environment, sensor nodes might be used to detect low
   soil humidity and then send commands to activate the sprinkler
   system.




Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 3]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   After defining common terminology in Section 1.1 and describing the
   characteristics of LoWPANs in Section 2, this document provides a
   list of use cases and market domains that may benefit and motivate
   the work currently done in the 6LoWPAN WG.

1.1.  Terminology

   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 [1].

   Readers are expected to be familiar with all the terms and concepts
   that are discussed in "IPv6 over Low-Power  Wireless Personal Area
   Networks (6LoWPANs): Overview, Assumptions,  Problem Statement, and
   Goals" [3], and " Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4
   Networks" [4].

   Readers would benefit from reading 6LoWPAN ND [6], 6LoWPAN header
   compression [7], and 6LoWPAN Routing Requirements [8] for the details
   of the each 6LoWPAN work.

   This specification makes extensive use of the same terminology
   defined in 6LoWPAN ND [6] unless otherwise redefined below.

   This document defines an additional terms:

   LC(local-coordinator) node

      A logical functional entity that performs the special role of
      coordinating its child nodes for local data aggregation, status
      management of local nodes, etc.  Thus, the local coordinator node
      does not need to coincide with a link-layer PAN coordinator and
      there may be multiple instance in a LoWPAN.

1.2.  Basic Network Configuration

   The IEEE 802.15.4 standard distinguishes between two types of nodes,
   reduced-function devices (RFDs) and full-function devices (FFDs).
   However, as this distinction is not usually present in real
   deployments, a LoWPAN can generally be understood as a network of
   LoWPAN Hosts and LoWPAN Routers (or LoWPAN Mesh Nodes), all of which
   are referred to as LoWPAN Nodes.  LoWPAN Hosts only source or sink
   IPv6 datagrams, while both LoWPAN Routers and LoWPAN Mesh Nodes
   forward data between source-destination pairs.  The difference
   between LoWPAN Routers and LoWPAN Mesh Nodes is the layer they
   operate in.  While LoWPAN Routers perform IP routing, LoWPAN Mesh
   Nodes operate on top of the link layer and use link addresses for
   their forwarding and multihop functionalities.



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 4]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   Example LoWPAN topologies are depicted in Figure 1 and Figure 2.  A
   definition of how mesh topologies are obtained and maintained is out
   of scope of this document.

   Communication to corresponding nodes outside of the LoWPAN is
   becoming increasingly important for convenient data collection and
   remote control purposes.  The intermediate LoWPAN nodes act as packet
   forwarders or LoWPAN routers and connect the entire LoWPAN in a
   multi-hop fashion.  Edge Routers are used to interconnect a LoWPAN to
   other networks, or to form an Extended LoWPAN by connecting multiple
   LoWPANs.  Before LoWPAN nodes obtain their IPv6 addresses and the
   network is configured, each LoWPAN executes a link-layer
   configuration either by the mechanisms specified in 6lowpan ND [6] or
   by using a coordinator who is responsible for link-layer short
   address allocation.  However, the link-layer coordinator
   functionality is out of the scope of this document.

   A LoWPAN can be configured as Mesh Under or Route Over (see
   Terminology in Section 1.1).  In a Mesh Under configuration, the
   link-local scope reaches to the boundaries of the LoWPAN and all
   nodes in a LoWPAN are included in the scope (see Figure 1).  Multihop
   transmission is achieved by LoWPAN Mesh Nodes forwarding data at the
   link layer or in an adaptation layer.  In a Route Over configuration,
   multihop transmission is carried out by LoWPAN Routers using IP
   routing (see Figure 2).  More information about Mesh Under and Route
   Over is in 6LoWPAN ND [6] and 6LoWPAN Routing Requirements [8].


                     m     h
                     |     |          ER: LoWPAN Edge Router
              ER --- m --- m --- h     m: LoWPAN Mesh Node
                      \   / \          h: LoWPAN Host
                        m --- m

                 Figure 1: Example of a Mesh Under LoWPAN


                     r     h
                     |     |          ER: LoWPAN Edge Router
              ER --- r --- r --- h     r: LoWPAN Router
                      \   / \          h: LoWPAN Host
                        r --- r

                 Figure 2: Example of a Route Over LoWPAN







Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 5]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


2.  Design Space

   Inspired by [9], this section lists the dimensions used to describe
   the design space of wireless sensor networks in the context of the
   6lowpan Working Group.  The design space is already limited by the
   unique characteristics of a LoWPAN (e.g., low-power, short range,
   low-bit rate) as described in [3].  The possible dimensions for
   scenario categorization used in this document are described as
   follows:

   o  Deployment: LoWPAN nodes can be scattered randomly or they may be
      deployed in an organized manner in a LoWPAN.  The deployment can
      occur at once, or as an iterative process.  The selected type of
      deployment has an impact on node density and location.  This
      feature affects how to organize (manually or automatically) the
      LoWPAN and how to allocate addresses in the network.

   o  Network Size: The network size takes into account nodes that
      provide the intended network capability.  The number of nodes
      involved in a LoWPAN could be small (10 nodes), moderate (several
      100s), or large (over a 1000).

   o  Power Source: The power source of nodes, whether the nodes are
      battery-powered or mains-powered, influences the network design.
      The power may also be harvested from solar cells or other sources
      of energy.  Hybrid solutions are possible where only part of the
      network is mains-powered.

   o  Connectivity: Nodes within a LoWPAN are considered "always
      connected" when there is a network connection between any two
      given nodes.  However, due to external factors (e.g., extreme
      environment, mobility) or programmed disconnections (e.g.,
      sleeping mode), the network connectivity can be from
      "intermittent" (i.e., regular disconnections) to "sporadic" (i.e.,
      almost always disconnected network).  Differences in L2 duty-
      cycling settings may additionally impact the connectivity due to
      highly varying bit-rates.

   o  Multi-hop communication: The multi-hop communication factor
      highlights the number of hops that has to be traversed to reach
      the edge of the network or a destination node within it.  A single
      hop may be sufficient for simple star-topologies, but a multi-hop
      communication scheme is required for more elaborate topologies,
      such as meshes or trees.  In previous work by academia and
      industry on LoWPANs, various routing mechanisms were introduced,
      such as data-centric, event-driven, address-centric, localization-
      based, geographical routing, etc.  This document does not make use
      of such a fine granularity but rather uses topologies and single/



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 6]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


      multi-hop communication.

   o  Traffic Pattern: several traffic patterns may be used in LoWPANs.
      To name a few, Point-to-Multi-Point (P2MP), Multi-Point-to-Point
      (MP2P) and Point-to-Point (P2P).

   o  Security Level: LoWPANs may carry sensitive information and
      require high-level security support where the availability,
      integrity, and confidentiality of the information are crucial.
      This high level of security may be needed in case of structural
      monitoring of key infrastructure or health monitoring of patients.

   o  Mobility: Inherent to the wireless characteristics of LoWPANs,
      nodes could move or be moved around.  Mobility can be an induced
      factor (e.g., sensors in an automobile), hence not predictable, or
      a controlled characteristic (e.g., pre-planned movement in a
      supply chain).

   o  Quality of Service (QoS): for mission-critical applications,
      support of QoS is mandatory in resource-constrained LoWPANs.































Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 7]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


3.  Application Scenarios

   This section lists a fundamental set of LoWPAN application scenarios
   in terms of system design.  A complete list of practical use cases is
   not the objective of this document.

3.1.  Industrial Monitoring

   LoWPAN applications for industrial monitoring can be associated with
   a broad range of methods to increase productivity, energy efficiency,
   and safety of industrial operations in engineering facilities and
   manufacturing plants.  Many companies currently use time-consuming
   and expensive manual monitoring to predict failures and to schedule
   maintenance or replacements in order to avoid costly manufacturing
   downtime.  LoWPANs can be inexpensively installed to provide more
   frequent and more reliable data.  The deployment of LoWPANs can
   reduce equipment downtime and eliminate manual equipment monitoring
   that is costly to be carried out.  Additionally, data analysis
   functionality can be placed into the network, eliminating the need
   for manual data transfer and analysis.

   Industrial monitoring can be largely split into the following
   application fields:

   o  Process Monitoring and Control: combining advanced energy metering
      and sub-metering technologies with wireless sensor networking in
      order to optimize factory operations, reduce peak demand,
      ultimately lower costs for energy, avoid machine downtimes, and
      increase operation safety.

      A plant's monitoring boundary often does not cover the entire
      facility but only those areas considered critical to the process.
      Easy to install wireless connectivity extends this line to include
      peripheral areas and process measurements that were previously
      infeasible or impractical to reach with wired connections.

   o  Machine Surveillance: ensuring product quality and efficient and
      safe equipment operation.  Critical equipment parameters such as
      vibration, temperature, and electrical signature are analyzed for
      abnormalities that are suggestive of impending equipment failure
      (see Section 3.2).

   o  Supply Chain Management and Asset Tracking: with the retail
      industry being legally responsible for the quality of sold goods,
      early detection of inadequate storage conditions with respect to
      temperature will reduce risk and cost to remove products from the
      sales channel.  Examples include container shipping, product
      identification, cargo monitoring, distribution and logistics.



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 8]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   o  Storage Monitoring: sensor systems designed to prevent releases of
      regulated substances to ground water, surface water and soil.
      This application field may also include theft/tampering prevention
      systems for storage facilities or other infrastructure, such as
      pipelines.

3.1.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements

   Example: Hospital Storage Rooms

   In a hospital, maintenance of the right temperature in storage rooms
   is very critical.  Red blood cells need to be stored at 2 to 6
   degrees Celsius, blood platelets at 20 to 24 C, and blood plasma
   below -18 C. For anti-cancer medicine, maintaining a humidity of 45%
   to 55% is required.  Storage rooms have temperature sensors and
   humidity sensors every 25m to 100m, based on the floor plan and the
   location of shelves, as indoor obstacles distort the radio signals.
   At each blood pack a sensor tag can be installed to track the
   temperature during delivery.  A LoWPAN node is installed in each
   container of a set of blood packs.  In this case, highly dense
   networks must be managed.

   All nodes are statically deployed and manually configured with either
   a single- or multi-hop connection.  Different types of LoWPAN nodes
   are configured based on the service and network requirements.

   All LoWPAN nodes do not move unless the blood packs or a container of
   blood packs is moved.  Moving nodes get connected by logical
   attachment to a new LoWPAN.  When containers of blood packs are
   transferred to another place of the hospital or by ambulance, the
   LoWPAN nodes on the containers associate to a new LoWPAN.

   This type of application works based on both periodic and event-
   driven notifications.  Periodic data is used for monitoring the
   temperature and humidity in the storage rooms.  The data over or
   under a pre-defined threshold is meaningful to report.  Blood cannot
   be used if it is exposed to the wrong environment for about 30
   minutes.  Thus, event-driven data sensed on abnormal occurrences is
   time-critical and requires secure and reliable transmission.

   LoWPANs must be provided with low installation and management costs,
   and for the transportation of boold containers, precise location
   tracking of containers is important.  The hospital network manager or
   staff can be provided with an early warning of possible chain
   ruptures, for example by conveniently accessing comprehensive online
   reports and data management systems.

   Dominant parameters in industrial monitoring scenarios:



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                 [Page 9]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   o  Deployment: pre-planned, manually attached

   o  Mobility: no (except for asset tracking)

   o  Network Size: medium to large size, high node density

   o  Power Source: most of the time battery-operated

   o  Security Level: business-critical.  Secure and reliable
      transmission must be guaranteed.

   o  Multi-hop communication: multi-hop mesh networking

   o  Connectivity: always on for crucial processes

   o  QoS: important for time-critical event-driven data

   o  Traffic Pattern: P2P (actuator control), MP2P (data collection)

   o  Other Issues: Sensor network management, location tracking, real-
      time early warning

3.1.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability

   The network configuration of the above use case can differ
   substantially by system design.  As illustrated in Figure 3, the
   simplest way is to build a star topology inside of each storage room,
   and connect the storage rooms with one link.  Each LoWPAN node
   reaches the Edge Router (ER) by a pre-defined routing/forwarding
   mechanism.  Local Coordinator nodes (LCs) play a role in aggregation
   of the sensed data.  A LoWPAN LC is a logical entity that can be
   implemented together with an LoWPAN Edge Router or a LoWPAN Node.  In
   case that the sensed data from an individual node is important, such
   as urgent event-driven data, it will not be accumulated (and further
   delayed) by the LoWPAN LCs but immediately relayed.  In Mesh under,
   link-layer addresses in the mesh-header defined by RFC 4944 [4] are
   used for transmission, and in Route Over, IP forwarding is used.

   Based on the layout and size of the storage room, the LoWPAN can be
   configured in a mesh topology as shown in Figure 4.  More than one
   LoWPAN LCs can be installed in a storage room, and LCs collect data
   as relay points to transmit the sensed data toward the LoWPAN ERs.
   LoWPAN Nodes need to build a multi-hop connection to reach the LCs
   and ER by either Mesh Under or Route Over.  In Mesh Under, more than
   one LCs can be installed in the LoWPAN and the nodes play role in
   transmission multi-point traffic (multicast) by unicast method, not
   only role in data collection.  In Route Over, LoWPAN Routers will
   handle multicast traffic to their LoWPAN links.



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 10]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   Each LoWPAN node configures its link-local address and may get a
   prefix from its default router by an 6LoWPAN ND procedure [6].
   Address auto-configuration is explained in Chapter 6 of RFC 4944 [4].
   When the system is only used within a link-local scope, 16-bit
   addresses can be utilized, but 64-bit addresses are recommended for
   globally unique addressing.

   Packets are compressed by 6LoWPAN header compression mechanism [7].
   The data volume is usually not so big in this case, but it is
   sensitive for delay.  Data aggregators can be installed for each
   storage room, or just one data aggregator can collect all data.  To
   make a light transmission, UDP (encapsulated in 6LoWPAN header or as
   it is) will be chosen, but secure transmission and security mechanism
   should be added.  To increase security, MAC layer mechanisms and/or
   additional security mechanisms can be used.

   Because a failure of a LoWPAN node can critically affect the storage
   of the blood packs, network management is important in this use-case.
   SNMP-lite or other mechanism should be provided for the management.

   When a container is moved out from the storage room, and connected to
   the other hospital system (if the hospital buildings are fully or
   partly covered with 6LoWPANs), it should rebind to a new parent node
   and a new LoWPAN. 6LoWPAN ND [6] will support this procedure.  In
   case that it is moved by an ambulance, it will be connected to an
   edge router in the vehicle.  LoWPANs must be provided with low
   installation and management costs, providing benefits such as reduced
   inventory, and precise location tracking of containers, and mobile
   equipment (moving beds at the hospital or ambulances).


                        ER
                        |                     ER: LoWPAN Edge Router
            LC----------LC----------LC        LC: Local Coordinator node
           / | \       / | \       / | \          (Data Aggregator)
          n  n  n     n  n  n     n  n  n      n: LoWPAN Node

            Figure 3: Storage rooms with a simple star topology













Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 11]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


                        GW
           +------------+-----------+         GW: Gateway
           |            |           |         ER: LoWPAN Edge Router
          ER           ER         ER(LC)      LC: Local Coordinator node
           |            |           |             (Data Aggregator)
     n -- LC -- n      LC -- n      n         n: LoWPAN Node
     |     |    |       |    |     / \
     n    LC -- n  n -- n -- LC   n - n
     |     | \          |    |\
     n --- n  n -- n    n -- n n

               Figure 4: Storage rooms with a mesh topology

3.2.  Structural Monitoring

   Intelligent monitoring in facility management can make safety checks
   and periodic monitoring of the architecture status highly efficient.
   Mains-powered nodes can be included in the design phase of a
   construction or battery-equipped nodes can be added afterwards.  All
   nodes are static and manually deployed.  Some data is not critical
   for security protection (such as normal room temperature), but event-
   driven emergency data must be handled in very critical manner.

3.2.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements

   Example: Bridge Safety Monitoring

   A 1000m long concrete bridge with 10 pillars is described.  Each
   pillar and the bridge body contain 5 sensors to measure the water
   level, and 5 vibration sensors are used to monitor its structural
   health.  The LoWPAN nodes are deployed to have 100m line-of-sight
   distance from each other.  All nodes are placed statically and
   manually configured with a single-hop connection to the local
   coordinator.  All LoWPAN nodes do not move while the service is
   provided.  Except from the pillars, there are no special obstacles of
   attenuation to the node signals, but careful configuration is needed
   to prevent signal interference between LoWPAN nodes.

   The physical network topology is changed only in case of node
   failure.  On the top part of each pillar, an sink node is placed to
   collect the sensed data.  The sink nodes of each pillar become data
   gathering point of the LoWPAN hosts at the pillar as local
   coordinators.

   This use case can be extended to medium or large size sensor networks
   to monitor a building or for instance the safety status of highways
   and tunnels.  Larger networks of the same kind still have similar
   characteristics such as static node placement, manual deployment, and



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 12]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   mostly star (or multi-level of star) topologies (see Figure 5), but
   dependent on the blue print of the structure, mesh topologies will be
   built with mains-powered relay points.  Periodic and event-driven
   real-time data gathering is performed and the emergency event-driven
   data MUST be delivered without delay.

   Dominant parameters in structural monitoring applications:

   o  Deployment: static, organized, pre-planned

   o  Mobility: none

   o  Network Size: small (dozens of nodes) to large

   o  Power Source: mains-powered nodes are mixed with battery powered
      (mains-power nodes will be used for coordinators or relays).

   o  Security Level: safety-critical.  Secure transmission must be
      guaranteed.  Only authenticated users should be able to access and
      handle the data.

   o  Multi-hop communication: star-topology (potentially hierarchical)
      In case of hierarchical case, reorganization of routing tree may
      be the issue.

   o  Connectivity: always connected or intermittent by sleeping mode
      scheduling.

   o  QoS: Emergency notification (fire, over-threshold vibrations,
      water level, etc) is required to have priority of delivery and
      must be transmitted in a highly reliable manner.

   o  Traffic Pattern: MP2P (data collection), P2P (localized querying)

   o  Other Issues: accurate sensing and reliable transmission are
      important.  In addition, sensor status reports may be needed to
      maintain a reliable monitoring system.

3.2.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability

   The network configuration of this use case can be very simple, but
   there are many extended use cases for more complex structures.  The
   example bridge monitoring case may be the simplest case.  Dependent
   on the bridge size, the network will be configured by multiple stars
   or a mesh topology.

   Each LoWPAN node configures its link-local address and may get a
   prefix from its default router by an 6LoWPAN ND procedure [6].  Each



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 13]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   pillar may have one local coordinator node(LC) for data collection
   from each pillar.  Each node does not need to get a globally unique
   IPv6 address, as the main communication is from/to the LCs of each
   pillar.  In this manner, this system is likely to be built as a stub
   network, so that 16-bit addresses can be utilized, but 64-bit
   addresses are recommended for the new header format [7].  Globally
   unique addresses MAY be allocated depending on the purpose of the
   system.

   The LoWPAN Nodes are installed on the place after manual optimization
   of their location.  Static data paths to the data gathering points
   can be set in the commissioning phase.  If the network does not use a
   Route Over mechanism, the 6LoWPAN mesh-header described in RFC 4944
   [4] may be used for static data forwarding, unless other mesh under
   mechanisms are provided.

   A logical entity of data gathering can be implemented in each LC.
   Communication schedules must be set up between leaf nodes and their
   LC to efficiently gather the different types of sensed data.  Each
   data packet may include meta-information about its data, or the type
   of sensors could be encoded in its address during the address
   allocation.  The data gathering entity can be programmed to trigger
   actuators installed in the infrastructure, when a certain threshold
   value has been reached.  This type of application works based on both
   periodic and event-driven notifications.  The data over or under a
   pre-defined threshold is meaningful to report.  Event-driven data
   sensed on abnormal occurrences is time-critical and requires secure
   and reliable transmission.  For energy conservation, all nodes may
   have periodic and long sleep modes but wake up on certain events.

   Packets are compressed by 6LoWPAN header compression mechanism [7].
   Due to the safety-critical data of the structure, authentication and
   security are important issues here.  Only authenticated users should
   be allowed to access the data.  Additional security should be
   provided at the LoWPAN ER for restricting the access from outside of
   the LoWPAN.  The LoWPAN ER may take charge of authentication of
   LoWPAN nodes.  Reliable and secure data transmission should be
   guaranteed.













Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 14]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


                n  n  n
                 \ | /                   ER: LoWPAN Edge Router
             n -- LC --- ER --- n        LC: Local Coordinator node
                 / | \                    n: LoWPAN Node
                n  n  n

              Figure 5: A LoWPAN with a simple star topology.


   ER -- LC ----- LC ------ LC           ER: Edge Router
         /|        |        |            LC: Local Coordinator node
        h n   n -- n -- n   n -- n        r: LoWPAN Router (Route Over)
          /\       |    |   |    |        n: LoWPAN Node
         h  h      n -- n   n -- n -- h   h: LoWPAN host


                  Figure 6: A LoWPAN with a mesh topology

3.3.  Healthcare

   LoWPANs are envisioned to be heavily used in healthcare environments.
   They have a big potential to ease the deployment of new services by
   getting rid of cumbersome wires and simplify patient care in
   hospitals and for home care.  In healthcare environments, delayed or
   lost information may be a matter of life or death.

   Various systems, ranging from simple wearable remote controls for
   tele-assistance or intermediate systems with wearable sensor nodes
   monitoring various metrics to more complex systems for studying life
   dynamics, can be supported by LoWPANs.  In the latter category, a
   large amount of data from various LoWPAN Nodes can be collected:
   movement pattern observation, checks that medicaments have been
   taken, object tracking, and more.  An example of such a deployment is
   described in [10] using the concept of Personal Networks.

3.3.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements

   Example: healthcare at home by tele-assistance

   A senior citizen who lives alone wears one to few wearable LoWPAN
   Nodes to measure heartbeat, pulse rate, etc.  Dozens of LoWPAN Nodes
   are densely installed at home for movement detection.  A LoWPAN ER at
   home will send the sensed information to a connected healthcare
   center.  Portable base stations with LCDs may be used to check the
   data at home, as well.  The different roles of devices have different
   duty-cycles, which affect node management.

   Multipath interference may often occur due to the patients' mobility



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 15]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   at home, where there are many walls and obstacles.  Even during
   sleeping, the change of the body position may affect the radio
   propagation.

   Data is gathered both periodically and event-driven.  In this
   application, event-driven data can be very time-critical.  Thus,
   real-time and reliable transmission must be guaranteed.

   Privacy also becomes an issue in this case, as the sensed data is
   very personal.  In addition, different data will be provided to the
   hospital system from what is given to a patient's family members.
   Role-based access control is needed to support such services, thus
   support of authorization and authentication is important.

   Dominant parameters in healthcare applications:

   o  Deployment: pre-planned

   o  Mobility: moderate (patient's mobility)

   o  Network Size: small, high node density

   o  Power Source: hybrid

   o  Security Level: Data privacy and security must be provided.
      Encryption is required.  Role based access control is required to
      be support by proper authentication mechanism

   o  Multi-hop communicaton: multi-hop for homecare devices, star
      topology on patients body.  Multipath interference due to walls
      and obstacles at home must be considered.

   o  Connectivity: always on

   o  QoS: high level of support (life and death implication), role-
      based

   o  Traffic Pattern: MP2P/P2MP (data collection), P2P (local
      diagnostic)

   o  Other issues: Plug-and-play configuration is required for mainly
      non-technical end-users.  Real-time data acquisition and analysis
      are important.  Efficient data management is needed for various
      devices which have different duty-cycles, and for role-based data
      control.  Reliability and robustness of the network are also
      essential.





Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 16]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


3.3.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability

   In this use case, the local network size is rather small (less than
   10s of nodes).  The home care system is statically configured with
   multi-hop paths and the patient's body network can be built as a star
   topology.  The LoWPAN Edge Router(ER) at home is the sink node in the
   routing path from sources on the patient's body.  A plug-and-play
   configuration is required.  Each home system node will get a link-
   local IPv6 address according to the auto-configuration described in
   RFC 4944 [4].  As the communication of the system is limited to a
   home environment, both 16-bit and 64-bit can be used for IPv6 link-
   local addresses.  However, 64-bit address is recommended to perform
   the 6LoWPAN ND [6] and new header format in [7].  An example topology
   is provided in Figure 7.

   Multi-hop communication can be achieved by either Mesh Under or Route
   Over mechanisms.  In case the Mesh Under mechanism is implemented,
   the LoWPAN ER becomes the only router of the home network, and ND is
   done as 6LoWPAN ND [6] describes.  When a Route Over routing
   mechanism is used, the routers deployed in the home environment will
   form a mesh of IPv6 links.  In Mesh Under, more than one LCs can be
   installed in the LoWPAN and the nodes play role in transmission
   multi-point traffic (multicast) to unicast method.  In Route Over,
   LoWPAN Routers will handle multicast traffic to their LoWPAN Link.

   The patient's body network can be simply configured as a star
   topology with a LC dealing with data aggregation and dynamic network
   attachment when the patient moves around at home.  As multipath
   interference may often occur due to the patients' mobility at home,
   the deployment of LoWPAN nodes and transmission paths should be well
   considered.  At home, some nodes can be installed with power-
   affluence status, and those LoWPAN Nodes can be used for relaying
   points or data aggregation points.

   The sensed information should be maintained with the identification
   of the patient no matter if the patient visits the connected hospital
   or stays at home.  If the patient's LoWPAN uses globally unique IPv6
   address, the address can be used for the identification, however, the
   home system itself does not require globally unique IPv6 address but
   could be run with link-local IPv6 address.  In this case, the
   hospital LoWPAN needs to operate additional identification system.

   The connection between the LoWPAN ER at home and the ER at Hospital
   must be reliable and secure, as the data is privacy-critical.  To
   achieve this, additional policy for security is recommended between
   the two LoWPAN.





Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 17]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


                        n --- n                I: Internet
                        |     |               ER: Edge Router
    ER --- I --- ER --- n --- n --- LC        LC: Local coordinator node
    /|\           |     |           /|\        n: LoWPAN Node
  .. . ..         n --- n          h h h       h: LoWPAN Host

 (hospital)       (home system)  (patient)

                  Figure 7: A mobile healthcare scenario.

3.4.  Connected Home

   The "Connected" Home or "Smart" home is with no doubt an area where
   LoWPANs can be used to support an increasing number of services:

   o  Home safety/security

   o  Home Automation and Control

   o  Healthcare (see above section)

   o  Smart appliances and home entertainment systems

   In home environments LoWPAN networks typically comprise a few dozen
   and probably in the near future a few hundreds of nodes of various
   nature: sensors, actuators and connected objects.

3.4.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements

   Example: Home Automation

   The home automation and control system LoWPAN offers a wide range of
   services: local or remote access from the Internet (via a secured
   edge router) to monitor the home (temperature, humidity, activation
   of remote video surveillance, status of the doors (locked or open),
   ...) but also for home control (activate the air conditioning/
   heating, door locks, sprinkler systems, ...).  Fairly sophisticated
   systems can also optimize the level of energy consumption thanks to a
   wide range of input from various sensors connected to the LoWPAN:
   light sensors, presence detection, temperature, ... in order to
   control electric window shades, chillers, air flow control, air
   conditioning and heating with the objective to optimize energy
   consumption.

   With the emergence of "Smart Grid" applications, the LoWPAN may also
   have direct interactions with the Grid itself via the Internet of the
   Grid network to report the amount of KWatts that could be load shed
   (Home to Grid) and to receive dynamic load shedding information if/



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 18]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   when required (Grid to home): this application is also referred to as
   Demand-Response application.  Another service known as Demand Side
   Management (DSM) could be provided by utilities to monitor and report
   to the user its energy consumption with a fine granularity (on a per
   device basis).  Other inputs such as dynamic pricing can also be
   received by the user from the utility that can then turn on and off
   some appliances according to its local policy in order to reduce its
   energy bill.

   In terms of home safety and security, the LoWPAN is made of motion-
   and audio-sensors, sensors at doors and windows, and video cameras to
   which additional sensors can be added for safety (gas, water, CO,
   Radon, smoke detection).  The LoWPAN typically comprises a few dozen
   of nodes forming an ad-hoc network with multi-hop routing since the
   nodes may not be in direct range.  It is worth mentioning that the
   number of devices tends to grow considering the number of new
   applications for the home.  In its most simple form, all nodes are
   static and communicate with a central control module but more
   sophisticated scenarios may also involve inter-device communication.
   For example, a motion/presence sensor may send a multicast message to
   a group of lights to be switched on, or a video camera will be
   activated sending a video stream to a gateway that can be received on
   a cell phone.

   Ergonomics in Connected Homes is a key and the LoWPAN must be self-
   managed and easy to install.  Traffic patterns may greatly vary
   depending on the applicability and so does the level of reliability
   and QoS expected from the LoWPAN.  Humidity sensing is typically not
   critical and requires no immediate action whereas tele-assistance or
   gas leak detection is critical and requires a high degree of
   reliability.  Furthermore, although some actions may not involve
   critical data, still the response time and network delays must be on
   the order of a few hundreds of milliseconds to preserve the user
   experience (e.g. use a remote control to switch a light on).  A
   minority of nodes are mobile (with slow motion).  With the emergence
   of energy related applications it becomes crucial to preserve data
   confidentiality.  Connected Home LoWPAN usually do not require multi-
   topology or QoS routing and fairly simple QoS mechanisms must be
   supported by the LoWPAN (the number of Class of Services is usually
   limited).

   Dominant parameters for home automation applications:

   o  Deployment: multi-hop topologies

   o  Mobility: some degree of mobility





Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 19]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   o  Network Size: medium number of nodes, potentially high density

   o  Power Source: mix of battery and AC powered devices

   o  Security Level: authentication and encryption required

   o  Multi-hop communication: no requirement for multi-topology or QoS
      routing

   o  Connectivity: intermittent (usage-dependent sleep modes)

   o  QoS: support of limited QoS (small number of Class of Service)

   o  Traffic Pattern: P2P (inter-device), P2MP and MP2P (polling)

3.4.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability

   In the home automation use case, the network topology is made of a
   mix a battery operated and main powered nodes that both communication
   with each other and to outside of the LoWPAN via the LoWPAN ERs.
   That being said it is expected that most LoPWAN nodes will
   communicate with a LC that will process the data and will communicate
   with outside after potential data processing, filtering, etc.

   In home network, installation and management must as extremely simple
   for the user.

   Link local IPv6 addresses can be used by nodes with no external
   communication whereas globally unique IPv6 address will be required
   for the node requiring communication with node outside of the LoWPAN.
   Even in the case of nodes that do not need to communicate with the
   outside world, it is recommended to make use of 64-bit addresses to
   handle new compression header (see [7]).



                           n --- n              I: Internet
                           |     |             ER: Edge Router
Internet/ ------- ER/LC -- n --- n ---- LC     LC: Local coordinator node
Utility network     |      |            /|\     n: LoWPAN Node
                    n ---- n           h h h    h: LoWPAN Host

   (outside)       (home automation system)

                    Figure 8: Home Automation scenario

   In some scenarios, the traffic will be sent to a LC for processing
   that may in turn decide of local actions (switch a light on, ...).



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 20]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   In other scenarios, all devices will send their data to the LCs that
   may also act as the ER for data processing and potential relay of
   data to outside of the LoWPAN.  For the sake of illustration, some of
   the data may be processed to trigger local action (e.g. switch off an
   appliance), simply store and sent once enough data has been
   accumulated (e.g. energy consumption for the past 6 hours for a set
   of appliances) or could trigger an alarm immediately sent to a
   datacenter (e.g. gas leak detection).

   Although in the majority of cases nodes within the LoPWAN will be in
   direct range, some nodes will reach the ER/LC with a 2-3 hops path
   using Mesh Under or very likely a Route Over solution (with the
   emergence of several low power media such as low power PLC) in which
   case LoWPAN routers will be deployed in the home to interconnect the
   various IPv6 links.

   The home LoWPAN must be able to provide extremely reliable
   communication in support of some specific application (e.g. fire, gas
   leak detection, health monitoring) whereas other application may not
   be critical at all (e.g humidity monitoring).  Similarly some
   information may require the use of security mechanisms for
   authentication, confidentiality).

3.5.  Vehicle Telematics

   LoWPANs play an important role in intelligent transportation systems.
   Incorporated in roads, vehicles, and traffic signals, they contribute
   to the improvement of safety of transporting systems.  Through
   traffic or air-quality monitoring, they increase the possibilities in
   terms of traffic flow optimization and help reducing road congestion.

3.5.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements

   Example: Telematics

   As shown in Figure 9, scattered LoWPAN Nodes are included in roads
   during their construction for motion monitoring.  When a car passes
   over these nodes, the possibility is then given to track the
   trajectory and velocity of cars for safety purposes.  The lifetime of
   the LoWPAN Nodes incorporated into roads is expected to be as long as
   the life time of the roads (10 years).  Multihop communication is
   possible between LoWPAN Nodes, and the network should be able to cope
   with the deterioration over time of the node density due to power
   failures.  Sink nodes placed at the road side are mains-powered,
   LoWPAN Nodes in the roads run on battery.  Power savings schemes
   might intermittently disconnect the nodes.  A rough estimate of 4
   nodes per square meter is needed.  Other applications may involve
   car-to-car communication for increased road safety.



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 21]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   Dominant parameters in vehicle telematics applications:

   o  Deployment: scattered, pre-planned

   o  Mobility: none (road infrastructure), high (vehicle)

   o  Network Size: large (road infrastructure), small (vehicle)

   o  Power Source: mostly battery powered

   o  Security Level: low

   o  Multi-hop communication: multi-hop, especially ad-hoc

   o  Connectivity: intermittent

   o  QoS: support of limited QoS

   o  Traffic Pattern: mostly Point-to-Point (P2P), Point-to-Multi-Point
      (P2MP)

3.5.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability

   For this use case, the network topology includes fixed LoWPAN Edge
   Routers that are mains-powered and have a connection to a gateway in
   order to reach the transportation control center.  These LoWPAN ERs
   are logically combined with LC nodes as data sinks for a number of
   LoWPAN Nodes inserted in the tarmac of the road.

   In contrast to the LoWPAN ERs, the LoWPAN Nodes can generally operate
   with link-local IPv6 addresses as no direct access from outside the
   LoWPAN is established to the LoWPAN Nodes.  Based on the purpose of
   the service, globally unique IPv6 addresses can be allocated during
   the network setup procedure described in RFC 4944 [4] and 6LoWPAN ND
   [6].  In Infrastructure LoWPANs, each ER is connected by a backbone
   link and additional registration procedures may be required for
   management of multiple LoWPANs.  Details of this registration are
   described in 6LoWPAN ND .

   In this topology, a LoWPAN with one LoWPAN ER forms a fixed network
   and the LoWPAN Nodes are installed by manual optimization of their
   location.  Static data paths to the data gathering point can be set
   in the commissioning phase.  If the network does not use a Route Over
   mechanism, the 6LoWPAN mesh under forwarding is used.  Forwarding/
   Routing tables are not changed unless a node failure occurs.






Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 22]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


           +----+
           | ER |----------------------------- ER ...
           +----+    (at the road side)
    -------|------------------------------
                   |
      n -- n --- n --- n   +---|---+       ER: LoWPAN Edge Router
          / \          |   | h-n-h |        n: LoWPAN Node
         n  n          n   +---|---+        h: LoWPAN Host
                             (cars)
    --------------------------------------

       Figure 9: Multi-hop LoWPAN combined with mobile star LoWPAN.

3.6.  Agricultural Monitoring

   Accurate temporal and spatial monitoring can significantly increase
   agricultural productivity.  Due to natural limitations, such as a
   farmers' inability to check the crop at all times of day or
   inadequate measurement tools, luck often plays a too large role in
   the success of harvests.  Using a network of strategically placed
   sensors, indicators such as temperature, humidity, soil condition,
   can be automatically monitored without labor intensive field
   measurements.  For example, sensor networks could provide precise
   information about crops in real time, enabling businesses to reduce
   water, energy, and pesticide usage and enhancing environment
   protection.  The sensing data can be used to find optimal
   environments for the plants.  In addition, the data on the planting
   condition can be saved by sensor tags, which can be used in supply
   chain management.

3.6.1.  A Use Case and its Requirements

   Example: Automated Vineyard

   In a vineyard with medium to large geographical size, a number of 50
   to 100 LC nodes are manually deployed in order to provide full signal
   coverage over the study area.  An additional number of 100 to 1000
   leaf nodes with (possibly heterogeneous) specialized sensors (i.e.,
   humidity, temperature, soil condition, sunlight) are attached to the
   LCs in local wireless star topologies, periodically reporting
   measurements to the associated LoWPAN LCs.  For example, in a 20-acre
   vineyard with 8 parcels of land, 10 LoWPAN Nodes are placed within
   each parcel to provide readings on temperature and soil moisture.
   The LoWPAN Nodes are able to support a multi-hop forwarding/routing
   scheme to enable data forwarding to a sink node at the edge of the
   vineyard.  Each of the 8 parcels contains one data aggregator to
   collect the sensed data.  Ten intermediate nodes are used to connect
   the sink nodes to the main gateway.



Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 23]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


   Localization is important for geographical routing, for pinning down
   where an event occurred, and for combining gathered data with their
   actual position.  Using manual deployment, device addresses can be
   used.  For randomly deployed nodes, a localization algorithm needs to
   be applied.

   There might be various types of sensor devices deployed in a single
   LoWPAN, each providing raw data with different semantics.  Thus, an
   additional method is required to correctly interpret sensor readings.
   Each data packet may include meta-information about its data, or a
   type of a sensor could be encoded in its address during address
   allocation.

   Dominant parameters in agricultural monitoring:

   o  Deployment: pre-planned

      The nodes are installed outdoors or in a greenhouse with high
      exposure to water, soil, dust, in dynamic environments of moving
      people and machinery, with growing crop and foliage.  LoWPAN nodes
      can be deployed in a pre-defined manner, considering the harsh
      environment.

   o  Mobility: all static

   o  Network Size: medium to large, low to medium density

   o  Power Source: all nodes are battery-powered, except the sink

   o  Security Level: business-critical.  Light-weight security or a
      global key management can be used depending on the business
      purpose.

   o  Mutli-hop communication: mesh topology with local star
      connections.

   o  Connectivity: intermittent (many sleeping nodes)

   o  QoS: not critical

   o  Traffic Pattern: Mainly MP2P/P2MP.  P2P for Gateway communication
      or actuator triggering.

   o  Other issues: Time synchronization among sensors are required, but
      the traffic interval may not be frequent (e.g. once in 30 minutes
      to 1 hour).





Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 24]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


3.6.2.  6LoWPAN Applicability

   The network configuration in this use case might, in the most simple
   case, look like illustrated in Figure 10.  This static scenario
   consists of one or more fixed LoWPAN ER that are mains-powered and
   have a high-bandwidth connection to a gateway via a backbone link,
   which might be placed in a control center, or connect to the
   Internet.  The LoWPAN ERs are strategically located at the border of
   vineyard parcels, acting as data sinks.  A number of LC nodes are
   placed along a row of plants with individual LoWPAN Hosts spread
   around them.

   While the LoWPAN ERs implement the IPv6 Neighbor Discovery protocol
   (RFC 4861), the LoWPAN Nodes operate a more energy-considering ND
   described in [6], which includes basic bootstrapping and address
   assignment.  Link-local addresses are used for communication within
   the network.  Each LoWPAN ER can have predefined forward management
   information, if necessary.

   The intermediate nodes must implement a multi-hop forwarding/routing
   protocol (Mesh Under or Route Over) and they are responsible to
   transmit the measured data at the LoWPAN hosts to the LoWPAN ERs.  In
   this simplest case, the LoWPAN Routers (not edge routers) or Mesh
   nodes can build static forwarding/routing paths, and all end-nodes
   can be placed in one radio hop distance from its forwarder.  In more
   advanced setups, mesh routing is used for data distribution.  Packets
   are forwarded to each router or mesh node and relayed to the LoWPAN
   ER.

   LoWPAN nodes may send event-driven notifications when readings exceed
   certain thresholds, such as low soil humidity; which may
   automatically trigger a water sprinkler in the local environment.
   For increased energy efficiency, all LoWPAN Nodes are in periodic
   sleep state.  However, the LoWPAN LCs need to be aware of sudden
   events from the leaf nodes.  Their sleep periods should therefore be
   set to shorter intervals.  Communication schedules must be set up
   between master and leaf nodes, and global time synchronization is
   needed to account for clock drift.

   Also, the result of data collection may activate actuators.  Context-
   awareness, node identification and data collection on the application
   level are necessary.









Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 25]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


     +----+
     | GW |
     +----+
        |    h h h   h h h   h h h       GW: Gateway
        |     \|/     \|/     \|/        ER: LoWPAN Edge Router
       ER---- LC-------LC------LC        CN: Local Coordinator node
        |     /|\     /|\     /|\         h: LoWPAN Host
        |    h h h   h h h   h h h
       ER
       ...

                  Figure 10: An aligned multi-hop LoWPAN.







































Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 26]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


4.  Security Considerations

   Security requirements differ by use case.  For example, industrial
   and structural monitoring applications are safety-critical.  Secure
   transmission must be guaranteed, and only authenticated users should
   be able to access and handle the data.  Lightweight key mechanisms
   can be used.  In health care system, data privacy is an important
   issue.  Encryption is required, and role-based access control is
   required to be supported by a proper authentication mechanism.










































Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 27]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


5.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to David Cypher for giving more insight on the IEEE 802.15.4
   standard and to Irene Fernandez for her review and valuable comments.















































Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 28]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

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

   [2]   Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
         "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861,
         September 2007.

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

6.2.  Informative References

   [6]   Shelby, Z., Thubert, P., Hui, J., Chakrabarti, S., Bormann, C.,
         and E. Nordmark, "6LoWPAN Neighbor Discovery",
         draft-ietf-6lowpan-nd-06 (work in progress), September 2009.

   [7]   Hui, J. and P. Thubert, "Compression Format for IPv6 Datagrams
         in 6LoWPAN Networks", draft-ietf-6lowpan-hc-05 (work in
         progress), June 2009.

   [8]   Kim, E., Kaspar, D., Gomez, C., and C. Bormann, "Problem
         Statement and Requirements for 6LoWPAN Routing",
         draft-ietf-6lowpan-routing-requirements-04 (work in progress),
         July 2009.

   [9]   Roemer, K. and F. Mattern, "The Design Space of Wireless Sensor
         Networks", December 2004.

   [10]  den Hartog, F., Schmidt, J., and A. de Vries, "On the Potential
         of Personal Networks for Hospitals", May 2006.








Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 29]


Internet-Draft       6LoWPAN Design and Applications        October 2009


Authors' Addresses

   Eunsook 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: +47-4748-9307
   Email: dokaspar.ietf@gmail.com


   Nicolas G. Chevrollier
   TNO
   Brassersplein 2
   P.O. Box 5050
   Delft  2600
   The Netherlands

   Phone: +31-15-285-7354
   Email: nicolas.chevrollier@tno.nl


   JP Vasseur
   Cisco Systems, Inc
   1414 Massachusetts Avenue
   Boxborough  MA 01719
   USA

   Phone:
   Email: jpv@cisco.com









Kim, et al.               Expires April 4, 2010                [Page 30]