ROLL J. Hui
Internet-Draft Cisco
Intended status: Standards Track R. Kelsey
Expires: March 02, 2014 Silicon Labs
August 29, 2013
Multicast Protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks (MPL)
draft-ietf-roll-trickle-mcast-05
Abstract
This document specifies the Multicast Protocol for Low power and
Lossy Networks (MPL) that provides IPv6 multicast forwarding in
constrained networks. MPL avoids the need to construct or maintain
any multicast forwarding topology, disseminating messages to all MPL
Forwarders in an MPL Domain. MPL uses the Trickle algorithm to
manage message transmissions for both control and data-plane
messages. Different Trickle parameter configurations allow MPL to
trade between dissemination latency and transmission efficiency.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
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."
This Internet-Draft will expire on March 02, 2014.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2013 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
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Applicability Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Protocol Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1. MPL Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2. Information Base Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.3. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.4. Signaling Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5. MPL Parameters and Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.1. MPL Multicast Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.2. MPL Message Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.3. MPL Seed Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.4. MPL Forwarder Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.5. MPL Trickle Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6. Protocol Message Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.1. MPL Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.2. MPL Control Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.3. MPL Seed Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7. Information Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.1. Local Interface Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.2. Domain Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.3. Seed Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.4. Buffered Message Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. MPL Seed Sequence Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
9. MPL Data Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9.1. MPL Data Message Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9.2. MPL Data Message Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9.3. MPL Data Message Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
10. MPL Control Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
10.1. MPL Control Message Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
10.2. MPL Control Message Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
10.3. MPL Control Message Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
11. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
12. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12.1. MPL Option Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12.2. MPL ICMPv6 Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12.3. Well-known Multicast Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
13. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
14. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
14.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
14.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1. Introduction
Low power and Lossy Networks typically operate with strict resource
constraints in communication, computation, memory, and energy. Such
resource constraints may preclude the use of existing IPv6 multicast
routing and forwarding mechanisms. Traditional IP multicast delivery
typically relies on topology maintenance mechanisms to discover and
maintain routes to all subscribers of a multicast group (e.g.
[RFC3973] [RFC4601]). However, maintaining such topologies in LLNs
is costly and may not be feasible given the available resources.
Memory constraints may limit devices to maintaining links/routes to
one or a few neighbors. For this reason, the Routing Protocol for
LLNs (RPL) specifies both storing and non-storing modes [RFC6550].
The latter allows RPL routers to maintain only one or a few default
routes towards a LLN Border Router (LBR) and use source routing to
forward messages away from the LBR. For the same reasons, a LLN
device may not be able to maintain a multicast routing topology when
operating with limited memory.
Furthermore, the dynamic properties of wireless networks can make the
cost of maintaining a multicast routing topology prohibitively
expensive. In wireless environments, topology maintenance may
involve selecting a connected dominating set used to forward
multicast messages to all nodes in an administrative domain.
However, existing mechanisms often require two-hop topology
information and the cost of maintaining such information grows
polynomially with network density.
This document specifies the Multicast Protocol for Low power and
Lossy Networks (MPL), which provides IPv6 multicast forwarding in
constrained networks. MPL avoids the need to construct or maintain
any multicast routing topology, disseminating multicast messages to
all MPL Forwarders in an MPL Domain. By using the Trickle algorithm
[RFC6206], MPL requires only small, constant state for each MPL
device that initiates disseminations. The Trickle algorithm also
allows MPL to be density-aware, allowing the communication rate to
scale logarithmically with density.
2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
[RFC2119].
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
The following terms are used throughout this document:
MPL Forwarder - A router that implements this protocol. An MPL
Forwarder is equipped with at least one MPL
Interface.
MPL Interface - An MPL Forwarder's attachment to a
communications medium, over which it transmits
and receives MPL Data Messages and MPL Control
Messages according to this specification. An MPL
Interface is assigned one or more unicast
addresses and is subscribed to one or more MPL
Domain Addresses.
MPL Domain Address - A multicast address that identifies the set of
MPL Interfaces within an MPL Domain. MPL Data
Messages disseminated in an MPL Domain have the
associated MPL Domain Address as their
destination address.
MPL Domain - A scope zone, as defined in [RFC4007], in which
MPL Interfaces subscribe to the same MPL Domain
Address and participate in disseminating MPL Data
Messages.
MPL Data Message - A multicast message that is used to communicate
a multicast payload between MPL Forwarders within
an MPL domain. An MPL Data Message contains an
MPL Option in the IPv6 header and has as its
destination address the MPL Domain Address
corresponding to the MPL Domain.
MPL Control Message - A link-local multicast message that is used to
communicate information about recently received
MPL Data Messages to neighboring MPL Forwarders.
MPL Seed - An MPL Forwarder that generates MPL Data
Messages and serves as an entry point into an MPL
Domain.
MPL Seed Identifier - An unsigned integer that uniquely identifies an
MPL Seed within an MPL Domain.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
3. Applicability Statement
This protocol is an IPv6 multicast forwarding protocol designed for
the communication characteristics and resource constraints of Low-
Power and Lossy Networks. By implementing controlled disseminations
of multicast messages using the Trickle algorithm, this protocol is
designed for networks that communicate using low-power and lossy
links with widely varying topologies in both the space and time
dimensions.
While designed specifically for Low-Power and Lossy Networks, this
protocol is not limited to use over such networks. This protocol may
be applicable to any network where no multicast routing state is
desired. This protocol may also be used in environments where only a
subset of links are considered Low-Power and Lossy links.
Operationally, the scope of this protocol is administratively
determined. In other words, the scope of dissemination is determined
by routers configured to disallow transmission or reception of MPL
messages on a subset of interfaces.
A host need not be aware that their multicast is supported by MPL as
long as its attachment router forwards multicast messages between the
MPL Domain and the host. However, a host may choose to implement MPL
so that it can take advantage of the broadcast medium inherent in
many Low-Power and Lossy Networks and receive multicast messages
carried by MPL directly.
4. Protocol Overview
The goal of MPL is to deliver multicast messages to all interfaces
that subscribe to the multicast messages' destination address within
an MPL Domain.
4.1. MPL Domains
An MPL Domain is a scope zone, as defined in [RFC4007], in which MPL
Interfaces subscribe to the same MPL Domain Address and participate
in disseminating MPL Data Messages.
By default, an MPL Forwarder SHOULD participate in an MPL Domain
identified by the ALL_MPL_FORWARDERS multicast address with a scope
value of 3 (Realm-Local) [I-D.droms-6man-multicast-scopes]. When
used with MPL, Realm-Local scope is administratively defined and used
to define the boundaries of multicast message dissemination by MPL.
An MPL Forwarder MAY participate in additional MPL Domains identified
by other multicast addresses. An MPL Interface MUST subscribe to the
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
MPL Domain Addresses for the MPL Domains that it participates in.
The assignment of other multicast addresses is out of scope.
For each MPL Domain Address that an MPL Interface subscribes to, the
MPL Interface MUST also subscribe to the same MPL Domain Address with
a scope value of 2 (link-local) when reactive forwarding is in use
(i.e. when communicating MPL Control Messages).
4.2. Information Base Overview
A node records necessary protocol state in the following information
sets:
o The Local Interface Set records the set of local MPL Interfaces
and the unicast addresses assigned to those MPL Interfaces.
o The Domain Set records the set of MPL Domain Addresses and the
local MPL Interfaces that subscribe to those addresses.
o A Seed Set records information about received MPL Data Messages
received from an MPL Seed within an MPL Domain. Each MPL Domain
has an associated Seed Set. A Seed Set maintains the minimum
sequence number for MPL Data Messages that the MPL Forwarder is
willing to receive or has buffered in its Buffered Message Set
from an MPL Seed. MPL uses Seed Sets and Buffered Message Sets to
determine when to accept an MPL Data Message, process its payload,
and retransmit it.
o A Buffered Message Set records recently received MPL Data Messages
from an MPL Seed within an MPL Domain. Each MPL Domain has an
associated Buffered Message Set. MPL Data Messages resident in a
Buffered Message Set have sequence numbers that are greater than
or equal to the minimum threshold maintained in the corresponding
Seed Set. MPL uses Buffered Message Sets to store MPL Data
Messages that may be transmitted by the MPL Forwarder for
forwarding.
4.3. Overview
MPL achieves its goal by implementing a controlled flood that
attempts to disseminate the multicast data message to all interfaces
within an MPL Domain. MPL performs the following tasks to
disseminate a multicast message:
o When having a multicast message to forward into an MPL Domain, the
MPL Seed generates an MPL Data Message that includes the MPL
Domain Address as the IPv6 Destination Address, the MPL Seed
Identifier, a newly generated sequence number, and the multicast
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 6]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
message. If the multicast destination address is not the MPL
Domain Address, IP-in-IP [RFC2473] is used to encapsulate the
multicast message in an MPL Data Message, preserving the original
IPv6 Destination Address.
o Upon receiving an MPL Data Message, the MPL Forwarder extracts the
MPL Seed and sequence number and determines whether or not the MPL
Data Message was previously received using the MPL Domain's Seed
Set and Buffered Message Set.
* If the sequence number is less than the lower-bound sequence
number maintained in the Seed Set or a message with the same
sequence number exists within the Buffered Message Set, the MPL
Forwarder marks the MPL Data Message as old.
* Otherwise, the MPL Forwarder marks the MPL Data Message as new.
o For each newly received MPL Data Message, an MPL Forwarder updates
the Seed Set, adds the MPL Data Message into the Buffered Message
Set, processes its payload, and multicasts the MPL Data Message a
number of times on all MPL Interfaces participating in the same
MPL Domain to forward the message.
o Each MPL Forwarder may periodically link-local multicast MPL
Control Messages on MPL Interfaces to communicate information
contained in an MPL Domain's Seed Set and Buffered Message Set.
o Upon receiving an MPL Control Message, an MPL Forwarder determines
whether there are any new MPL Data Messages that have yet to be
received by the MPL Control Message's source and multicasts those
MPL Data Messages.
MPL's configuration parameters allow two forwarding strategies for
disseminating MPL Data Messages.
Proactive Forwarding - With proactive forwarding, an MPL Forwarder
schedules transmissions of MPL Data Messages using the Trickle
algorithm, without any prior indication that neighboring nodes
have yet to receive the message. After transmitting the MPL Data
Message a limited number of times, the MPL Forwarder may terminate
proactive forwarding for the MPL Data Message message.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 7]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
Reactive Forwarding - With reactive forwarding, an MPL Forwarder
link-local multicasts MPL Control Messages using the Trickle
algorithm [RFC6206]. MPL Forwarders use MPL Control Messages to
discover new MPL Data Messages that have not yet been received.
When discovering that a neighboring MPL Forwarder has not yet
received an MPL Data Message, the MPL Forwarder schedules those
MPL Data Messages for transmission using the Trickle algorithm.
Note that the use of proactive and reactive forwarding strategies
within the same MPL Domain are not mutually exclusive and may be used
simultaneously. For example, upon receiving a new MPL Data messages
when both proactive and reactive forwarding techniques are enabled,
an MPL Forwarder will proactively retransmit the MPL Data Message a
limited number of times and schedule further transmissions upon
receiving MPL Control Messages.
4.4. Signaling Overview
This protocol generates and processes the following messages:
MPL Data Message - Generated by an MPL Seed to deliver a multicast
message across an MPL Domain. The MPL Data Message's source is an
address in the Local Interface Set of the MPL Seed that generated
the message and is valid within the MPL Domain. The MPL Data
Message's destination is the MPL Domain Address corresponding to
the MPL Domain. An MPL Data Message contains:
* The Seed Identifier of the MPL Seed that generated the MPL Data
Message.
* The sequence number of the MPL Seed that generated the MPL Data
Message.
* The original multicast message.
MPL Control Message - Generated by an MPL Forwarder to communicate
information contained in an MPL Domain's Seed Set and Buffered
Message Set to neighboring MPL Forwarders. An MPL Control Message
contains a list of tuples for each entry in the Seed Set. Each
tuple contains:
* The minimum sequence number maintained in the Seed Set for the
MPL Seed.
* A bit-vector indicating the sequence numbers of MPL Data
Messages resident in the Buffered Message Set for the MPL Seed,
where the first bit represents a sequence number equal to the
minimum threshold maintained in the Seed Set.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 8]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
* The length of the bit-vector.
5. MPL Parameters and Constants
This section describes various program and networking parameters and
constants used by MPL.
5.1. MPL Multicast Addresses
MPL makes use of MPL Domain Addresses to identify MPL Interfaces of
an MPL Domain. By default, MPL Forwarders subscribe to the
ALL_MPL_FORWARDERS multicast address with a scope value of 3
[I-D.droms-6man-multicast-scopes].
For each MPL Domain Address that an MPL Interface subscribes to, the
MPL Interface MUST also subscribe to the MPL Domain Address with a
scope value of 2 (link-local) when reactive forwarding is in use.
MPL Forwarders use the link-scoped MPL Domain Address to communicate
MPL Control Messages to neighboring (i.e. on-link) MPL Forwarders.
5.2. MPL Message Types
MPL defines an IPv6 Option for carrying an MPL Seed Identifier and a
sequence number within an MPL Data Message. The IPv6 Option Type has
value MPL_OPT_TYPE.
MPL defines an ICMPv6 Message (MPL Control Message) for communicating
information contained in an MPL Domain's Seed Set and Buffered
Message Set to neighboring MPL Forwarders. The MPL Control Message
has ICMPv6 Type MPL_ICMP_TYPE.
5.3. MPL Seed Identifiers
MPL uses MPL Seed Identifiers to uniquely identify MPL Seeds within
an MPL Domain. For each MPL Domain that the MPL Forwarder serves as
an MPL Seed, the MPL Forwarder MUST have an associated MPL Seed
Identifier. An MPL Forwarder MAY use the same MPL Seed Identifier
across multiple MPL Domains, but the MPL Seed Identifier MUST be
unique within each MPL Domain. The mechanism for assigning and
verifying uniqueness of MPL Seed Identifiers is not specified in this
document.
5.4. MPL Forwarder Parameters
PROACTIVE_FORWARDING A boolean value that indicates whether the MPL
Forwarder should schedule MPL Data Message transmissions after
receiving them for the first time. PROACTIVE_FORWARDING has a
default value of TRUE.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 9]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
SEED_SET_ENTRY_LIFETIME The minimum lifetime for an entry in the
Seed Set. SEED_SET_ENTRY_LIFETIME has a default value of 30
minutes.
It is RECOMMENDED that all MPL Forwarders use the same values for the
MPL Forwarder Parameters above for a given MPL Domain. The mechanism
for setting the MPL Forwarder Parameters is not specified within this
document.
5.5. MPL Trickle Parameters
As specified in [RFC6206], a Trickle timer runs for a defined
interval and has three configuration parameters: the minimum interval
size Imin, the maximum interval size Imax, and a redundancy constant
k.
This specification defines a fourth Trickle configuration parameter,
TimerExpirations, which indicates the number of Trickle timer
expiration events that occur before terminating the Trickle algorithm
for a given MPL Data Message or MPL Control Message.
Each MPL Forwarder uses the following Trickle parameters for MPL Data
Message and MPL Control Message transmissions.
DATA_MESSAGE_IMIN The minimum Trickle timer interval, as defined in
[RFC6206], for MPL Data Message transmissions. DATA_MESSAGE_IMIN
has a default value of 10 times the expected link-layer latency.
DATA MESSAGE_IMAX The maximum Trickle timer interval, as defined in
[RFC6206], for MPL Data Message transmissions. DATA_MESSAGE_IMAX
has a default value equal to DATA_MESSAGE_IMIN.
DATA_MESSAGE_K The redundancy constant, as defined in [RFC6206], for
MPL Data Message transmissions. DATA_MESSAGE_K has a default
value of 1.
DATA_MESSAGE_TIMER_EXPIRATIONS The number of Trickle timer
expirations that occur before terminating the Trickle algorithm's
retransmission of a given MPL Data Message.
DATA_MESSAGE_TIMER_EXPIRATIONS has a default value of 3.
CONTROL_MESSAGE_IMIN The minimum Trickle timer interval, as defined
in [RFC6206], for MPL Control Message transmissions.
CONTROL_MESSAGE_IMIN has a default value of 10 times the worst-
case link-layer latency.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 10]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
CONTROL_MESSAGE_IMAX The maximum Trickle timer interval, as defined
in [RFC6206], for MPL Control Message transmissions.
CONTROL_MESSAGE_IMAX has a default value of 5 minutes.
CONTROL_MESSAGE_K The redundancy constant, as defined in [RFC6206],
for MPL Control Message transmissions. CONTROL_MESSAGE_K has a
default value of 1.
CONTROL_MESSAGE_TIMER_EXPIRATIONS The number of Trickle timer
expirations that occur before terminating the Trickle algorithm
for MPL Control Message transmissions.
CONTROL_MESSAGE_TIMER_EXPIRATIONS has a default value of 10.
Following [RFC6206], it is RECOMMENDED that all MPL Forwarders use
the same values for the Trickle Parameters above for a given MPL
Domain. The mechanism for setting the Trickle Parameters is not
specified within this document.
The default Trickle parameter values above combined with the default
MPL Forwarder parameters in the prior section specify a forwarding
strategy that utilizes both proactive and reactive techniques. Using
these default values, an MPL Forwarder proactively transmits any new
MPL Data Messages it receives then uses MPL Control Messages to
trigger additional MPL Data Message retransmissions where message
drops are detected. Setting DATA_MESSAGE_IMAX to the same as
DATA_MESSAGE_IMIN in this case is acceptable since subsequent MPL
Data Message retransmissions are triggered by MPL Control Messages,
where CONTROL_MESSAGE_IMAX is greater than CONTROL_MESSAGE_IMIN.
6. Protocol Message Formats
The protocol messages generated and processed by an MPL Forwarder are
described in this section.
6.1. MPL Option
The MPL Option is carried in MPL Data Messages in an IPv6 Hop-by-Hop
Options header, immediately following the IPv6 header. The MPL
Option has the following format:
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 11]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Option Type | Opt Data Len |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| S |M|V| rsv | sequence | seed-id (optional) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Option Type MPL_OPT_TYPE
Opt Data Len Length of the Option Data field in octets.
S 2-bit unsigned integer. Identifies the length of
seed-id. 0 indicates that the seed-id is the
IPv6 Source Address and not included in the MPL
Option. 1 indicates that the seed-id is a 16-bit
unsigned integer. 2 indicates that the seed-id
is a 64-bit unsigned integer. 3 indicates that
the seed-id is a 128-bit unsigned integer.
M 1-bit flag. 1 indicates that the value in
sequence is known to be the largest sequence
number that was received from the MPL Seed.
V 1-bit flag. 0 indicates that the MPL Option
conforms to this specification. MPL Data
Messages with an MPL Option in which this flag is
1 MUST be dropped.
rsv 4-bit reserved field. MUST be set to 0 on
transmission and ignored on reception.
sequence 8-bit unsigned integer. Identifies relative
ordering of MPL Data Messages from the MPL Seed
identified by seed-id.
seed-id Uniquely identifies the MPL Seed that initiated
dissemination of the MPL Data Message. The size
of seed-id is indicated by the S field.
The Option Data (in particular the M flag) of the MPL Option is
updated by MPL Forwarders as the MPL Data Message is forwarded.
Nodes that do not understand the MPL Option MUST discard the MPL Data
Message. Thus, according to [RFC2460] the three high order bits of
the Option Type are set to '011'. The Option Data length is
variable.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 12]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
The seed-id uniquely identifies an MPL Seed. When seed-id is 128
bits (S=3), the MPL seed MAY use an IPv6 address assigned to one of
its interfaces that is unique within the MPL Domain. Managing MPL
Seed Identifiers is not within scope of this document.
The sequence field establishes a total ordering of MPL Data Messages
generated by an MPL Seed for an MPL Domain. The MPL Seed MUST
increment the sequence field's value on each new MPL Data Message
that it generates for an MPL Domain. Implementations MUST follow the
Serial Number Arithmetic as defined in [RFC1982] when incrementing a
sequence value or comparing two sequence values.
Future updates to this specification may define additional fields
following the seed-id field.
6.2. MPL Control Message
An MPL Forwarder uses ICMPv6 messages to communicate information
contained in an MPL Domain's Seed Set and Buffered Message Set to
neighboring MPL Forwarders. The MPL Control Message has the
following format:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Code | Checksum |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
. MPL Seed Info[0..n] .
. .
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
IP Fields:
Source Address An IPv6 address in the AddressSet of the
corresponding MPL Interface and MUST be valid
within the MPL Domain.
Destination Address The link-scoped MPL Domain Address corresponding
to the MPL Domain.
Hop Limit 255
ICMPv6 Fields:
Type MPL_ICMP_TYPE
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 13]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
Code 0
Checksum The ICMP checksum. See [RFC4443].
MPL Seed Info[0..n] List of zero or more MPL Seed Info entries.
The MPL Control Message indicates the sequence numbers of MPL Data
Messages that are within the MPL Domain's Buffered Message Set. The
MPL Control Message also indicates the sequence numbers of MPL Data
Messages that an MPL Forwarder is willing to receive. The MPL
Control Message allows neighboring MPL Forwarders to determine
whether there are any new MPL Data Messages to exchange.
6.3. MPL Seed Info
An MPL Seed Info encodes the minimum sequence number for an MPL Seed
maintained in the MPL Domain's Seed Set. The MPL Seed Info also
indicates the sequence numbers of MPL Data Messages generated by the
MPL Seed that are stored within the MPL Domain's Buffered Message
Set. The MPL Seed Info has the following format:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| min-seqno | bm-len | S | seed-id (0/2/8/16 octets) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
. buffered-mpl-messages (variable length) .
. .
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
min-seqno 8-bit unsigned integer. The lower-bound sequence
number for the MPL Seed.
bm-len 6-bit unsigned integer. The size of buffered-
mpl-messages in octets.
S 2-bit unsigned integer. Identifies the length of
seed-id. 0 indicates that the seed-id value is
the IPv6 Source Address and not included in the
MPL Seed Info. 1 indicates that the seed-id
value is a 16-bit unsigned integer. 2 indicates
that the seed-id value is a 64-bit unsigned
integer. 3 indicates that the seed-id is a
128-bit unsigned integer.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 14]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
seed-id Variable-length unsigned integer. Indicates the
MPL Seed associated with this MPL Seed Info.
buffered-mpl-messages Variable-length bit vector. Identifies the
sequence numbers of MPL Data Messages maintained
in the corresponding Buffered Message Set for the
MPL Seed. The i'th bit represents a sequence
number of min-seqno + i. '0' indicates that the
corresponding MPL Data Message does not exist in
the Buffered Message Set. '1' indicates that the
corresponding MPL Data Message does exist in the
Buffered Message Set.
The MPL Seed Info does not have any octet alignment requirement.
7. Information Base
7.1. Local Interface Set
The Local Interface Set records the local MPL Interfaces of an MPL
Forwarder. The Local Interface Set consists of Local Interface
Tuples, one per MPL Interface: (AddressSet).
AddressSet - a set of unicast addresses assigned to the MPL
Interface.
7.2. Domain Set
The Domain Set records the MPL Interfaces that subscribe to each MPL
Domain Address. The Domain Set consists of MPL Domain Tuples, one
per MPL Domain: (MPLInterfaceSet).
MPLInterfaceSet - a set of MPL Interfaces that subscribe to the MPL
Domain Address that identifies the MPL Domain.
7.3. Seed Set
A Seed Set records a sliding window used to determine the sequence
numbers of MPL Data Messages that an MPL Forwarder is willing to
accept generated by the MPL Seed. An MPL Forwarder maintains a Seed
Set for each MPL Domain that it participates in. A Seed Set consists
of MPL Seed Tuples: (SeedID, MinSequence, Lifetime).
SeedID - the identifier for the MPL Seed.
MinSequence - a lower-bound sequence number that represents the
sequence number of the oldest MPL Data Message the MPL Forwarder
is willing to receive or transmit. An MPL Forwarder MUST ignore
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 15]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
any MPL Data Message that has sequence value less than than
MinSequence.
Lifetime - indicates the minimum remaining lifetime of the Seed Set
entry. An MPL Forwarder MUST NOT free a Seed Set entry before the
remaining lifetime expires.
7.4. Buffered Message Set
A Buffered Message Set records recently received MPL Data Messages
from an MPL Seed within an MPL Domain. An MPL Forwarder uses a
Buffered Message Set to buffer MPL Data Messages while the MPL
Forwarder is forwarding the MPL Data Messages. An MPL Forwarder
maintains a Buffered Message Set for each MPL Domain that it
participates in. A Buffered Message Set consists of Buffered Message
Tuples: (SeedID, SequenceNumber, DataMessage).
SeedID - the identifier for the MPL Seed that generated the MPL Data
Message.
SequenceNumber - the sequence number for the MPL Data Message.
DataMessage - the MPL Data Message.
All MPL Data Messages within a Buffered Message Set MUST have a
sequence number greater than or equal to MinSequence for the
corresponding SeedID. When increasing MinSequence for an MPL Seed,
the MPL Forwarder MUST delete any MPL Data Messages from the
corresponding Buffered Message Set that have sequence numbers less
than MinSequence.
8. MPL Seed Sequence Numbers
Each MPL Seed maintains a sequence number for each MPL Domain that it
serves. The sequence numbers are included in MPL Data Messages
generated by the MPL Seed. The MPL Seed MUST increment the sequence
number for each MPL Data Message that it generates for an MPL Domain.
Implementations MUST follow the Serial Number Arithmetic as defined
in [RFC1982] when incrementing a sequence value or comparing two
sequence values. This sequence number is used to establish a total
ordering of MPL Data Messages generated by an MPL Seed for an MPL
Domain.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 16]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
9. MPL Data Messages
9.1. MPL Data Message Generation
MPL Data Messages are generated by MPL Seeds when these messages
enter the MPL Domain. All MPL Data messages have the following
properties:
o The IPv6 Source Address MUST be an address in the AddressSet of a
corresponding MPL Interface and MUST be valid within the MPL
Domain.
o The IPv6 Destination Address MUST be set to the MPL Domain Address
corresponding to the MPL Domain.
o An MPL Data Message MUST contain an MPL Option in its IPv6 Header
to identify the MPL Seed that generated the message and the
ordering relative to other MPL Data Messages generated by the MPL
Seed.
When the destination address is an MPL Domain Address and the source
address is in the AddressLIst of an MPL Interface that belongs to
that MPL Domain Address, the application message and the MPL Data
Message MAY be identical. In other words, the MPL Data Message may
contain a single IPv6 header that includes the MPL Option.
Otherwise, IPv6-in-IPv6 encapsulation MUST be used to satisfy the MPL
Data Message requirements listed above [RFC2473]. The complete IPv6
-in-IPv6 message forms an MPL Data Message. The outer IPv6 header
conforms to the MPL Data Message requirements listed above. The
encapsulated IPv6 datagram encodes the multicast data message that is
communicated beyond the MPL Domain.
9.2. MPL Data Message Transmission
An MPL Forwarder manages transmission of MPL Data Messages in its
Buffered Message Sets using the Trickle algorithm [RFC6206]. An MPL
Forwarder MUST use a separate Trickle timer for each MPL Data Message
that it is actively forwarding. In accordance with Section 5 of RFC
6206 [RFC6206], this document defines the following:
o This document defines a "consistent" transmission as receiving an
MPL Data Message that has the same MPL Domain Address, seed-id,
and sequence value as the MPL Data Message managed by the Trickle
timer.
o This document defines an "inconsistent" transmission as receiving
an MPL Data Message that has the same MPL Domain Address, seed-id
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 17]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
value, and the M flag set, but has a sequence value less than MPL
Data Message managed by the Trickle timer.
o This document does not define any external "events".
o This document defines MPL Data Messages as Trickle messages.
o The actions outside the Trickle algorithm that the protocol takes
involve managing the MPL Domain's Seed Set and Buffered Message
Set.
As specified in [RFC6206], a Trickle timer has three variables: the
current interval size I, a time within the current interval t, and a
counter c. MPL defines a fourth variable, e, which counts the number
of Trickle timer expiration events since the Trickle timer was last
reset.
After DATA_MESSAGE_TIMER_EXPIRATIONS Trickle timer events, the MPL
Forwarder MUST disable the Trickle timer. When a buffered MPL Data
Message does not have an associated Trickle timer, the MPL Forwarder
MAY delete the message from the Buffered Message Set by advancing
MinSequence of the corresponding MPL Seed in the Seed Set. When the
MPL Forwarder no longer buffers any messages for an MPL Seed, the MPL
Forwarder MUST NOT increment MinSequence for that MPL Seed.
When transmitting an MPL Data Message, the MPL Forwarder MUST either
set the M flag to zero or set it to a level that indicates whether or
not the message's sequence number is the largest value that has been
received from the MPL Seed.
9.3. MPL Data Message Processing
Upon receiving an MPL Data Message, the MPL Forwarder first processes
the MPL Option and updates the Trickle timer associated with the MPL
Data Message if one exists.
Upon receiving an MPL Data Message, an MPL Forwarder MUST perform one
of the following actions:
o Accept the message and enter the MPL Data Message in the MPL
Domain's Buffered Message Set.
o Accept the message and update the corresponding MinSequence in the
MPL Domain's Seed Set to 1 greater than the message's sequence
number.
o Discard the message without any change to the MPL Information
Base.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 18]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
If a Seed Set entry exists for the MPL Seed, the MPL Forwarder MUST
discard the MPL Data Message if its sequence number is less than
MinSequence or exists in the Buffered Message Set.
If a Seed Set entry does not exist for the MPL Seed, the MPL
Forwarder MUST create a new entry for the MPL Seed before accepting
the MPL Data Message.
If memory is limited, an MPL Forwarder SHOULD reclaim memory
resources by:
o Incrementing MinSequence entries in a Seed Set and deleting MPL
Data Messages in the corresponding Buffered Message Set that fall
below the MinSequence value.
o Deleting other Seed Set entries that have expired and the
corresponding MPL Data Messages in the Buffered Message Set.
If the MPL Forwarder accepts the MPL Data Message, the MPL Forwarder
MUST perform the following actions:
o Reset the Lifetime of the corresponding Seed Set entry to
SEED_SET_ENTRY_LIFETIME.
o If PROACTIVE_FORWARDING is true, the MPL Forwarder MUST initialize
and start a Trickle timer for the MPL Data Message.
o If the MPL Control Message Trickle timer is not running and
CONTROL_MESSAGE_TIMER_EXPIRATIONS is non-zero, the MPL Forwarder
MUST initialize and start the MPL Control Message Trickle timer.
o If the MPL Control Message Trickle timer is running, the MPL
Forwarder MUST reset the MPL Control Message Trickle timer.
10. MPL Control Messages
10.1. MPL Control Message Generation
An MPL Forwarder generates MPL Control Messages to communicate an MPL
Domain's Seed Set and Buffered Message Set to neighboring MPL
Forwarders. Each MPL Control Message is generated according to
Section 6.2, with an MPL Seed Info for each entry in the MPL Domain's
Seed Set. Each MPL Seed Info entry has the following content:
o S set to the size of the seed-id field in the MPL Seed Info entry.
o min-seqno set to MinSequence of the MPL Seed.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 19]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
o bm-len set to the size of buffered-mpl-messages in octets.
o seed-id set to the MPL seed identifier.
o buffered-mpl-messages with each bit representing whether or not an
MPL Data Message with the corresponding sequence number exists in
the Buffered Message Set. The i'th bit represents a sequence
number of min-seqno + i. '0' indicates that the corresponding MPL
Data Message does not exist in the Buffered Message Set. '1'
indicates that the corresponding MPL Data Message does exist in
the Buffered Message Set.
10.2. MPL Control Message Transmission
An MPL Forwarder transmits MPL Control Messages using the Trickle
algorithm. An MPL Forwarder maintains a single Trickle timer for
each MPL Domain. When CONTROL_MESSAGE_TIMER_EXPIRATIONS is 0, the
MPL Forwarder does not execute the Trickle algorithm and does not
transmit MPL Control Messages. In accordance with Section 5 of RFC
6206 [RFC6206], this document defines the following:
o This document defines a "consistent" transmission as receiving an
MPL Control Message that results in a determination that neither
the receiving nor transmitting node has any new MPL Data Messages
to offer.
o This document defines an "inconsistent" transmission as receiving
an MPL Control Message that results in a determination that either
the receiving or transmitting node has at least one new MPL Data
Message to offer.
o The Trickle timer is reset in response to external "events." This
document defines an "event" as increasing MinSequence of any entry
in the corresponding Seed Set or adding a message to the
corresponding Buffered Message Set.
o This document defines an MPL Control Message as a Trickle message.
As specified in [RFC6206], a Trickle timer has three variables: the
current interval size I, a time within the current interval t, and a
counter c. MPL defines a fourth variable, e, which counts the number
of Trickle timer expiration events since the Trickle timer was last
reset. After CONTROL_MESSAGE_TIMER_EXPIRATIONS Trickle timer events,
the MPL Forwarder MUST disable the Trickle timer.
10.3. MPL Control Message Processing
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 20]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
An MPL Forwarder processes each MPL Control Message that it receives
to determine if it has any new MPL Data Messages to receive or offer.
An MPL Forwarder determines if a new MPL Data Message has not been
received from a neighboring node if any of the following conditions
hold true:
o The MPL Control Message includes an MPL Seed that does not exist
in the MPL Domain's Seed Set.
o The MPL Control Message indicates that the neighbor has an MPL
Data Message in its Buffered Message Set with sequence number
greater than MinSequence (i.e. the i-th bit is set to 1 and min-
seqno + i > MinSequence) and is not included in the MPL Domain's
Buffered Message Set.
When an MPL Forwarder determines that it has not yet received an MPL
Data Message buffered by a neighboring device, the MPL Forwarder MUST
reset its Trickle timer associated with MPL Control Message
transmissions. If an MPL Control Message Trickle timer is not
running, the MPL Forwarder MUST initialize and start a new Trickle
timer.
An MPL Forwarder determines if an MPL Data Message in the Buffered
Message Set has not yet been received by a neighboring MPL Forwarder
if any of the following conditions hold true:
o The MPL Control Message does not include an MPL Seed for the MPL
Data Message.
o The MPL Data Message's sequence number is greater than or equal to
min-seqno and not included in the neighbor's corresponding
Buffered Message Set (i.e. the MPL Data Message's sequence number
does not have a corresponding bit in buffered-mpl-messages set to
1).
When an MPL Forwarder determines that it has at least one MPL Data
Message in its corresponding Buffered Message Set that has not yet
been received by a neighbor, the MPL Forwarder MUST reset the MPL
Control Message Trickle timer. Additionally, for each of those
entries in the Buffered Message Set, the MPL Forwarder MUST reset the
Trickle timer and reset e to 0. If a Trickle timer is not associated
with the MPL Data Message, the MPL Forwarder MUST initialize and
start a new Trickle timer.
11. Acknowledgements
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 21]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
The authors would like to acknowledge the helpful comments of Robert
Cragie, Esko Dijk, Ralph Droms, Paul Duffy, Adrian Farrel, Ulrich
Herberg, Owen Kirby, Kerry Lynn, Joseph Reddy, Michael Richardson,
Don Sturek, Dario Tedeschi, and Peter van der Stok, which greatly
improved the document.
12. IANA Considerations
This document defines one IPv6 Option, a type that must be allocated
from the IPv6 "Destination Options and Hop-by-Hop Options" registry
of [RFC2780].
This document defines one ICMPv6 Message, a type that must be
allocated from the "ICMPv6 "type" Numbers" registry of [RFC4443].
This document registers two well-known multicast addresses from the
IPv6 multicast address space.
12.1. MPL Option Type
IANA is requested to allocate an IPv6 Option Type from the IPv6
"Destination Options and Hop-by-Hop Options" registry of [RFC2780],
as specified in Table 1 below:
+--------------+-------+-----+------------+-------------+-----------+
| Mnemonic | act | chg | rest | Description | Reference |
+--------------+-------+-----+------------+-------------+-----------+
| MPL_OPT_TYPE | 01 | 1 | TBD | MPL Option | This |
| | | | (suggested | | Document |
| | | | value | | |
| | | | 01101) | | |
+--------------+-------+-----+------------+-------------+-----------+
Table 1: IPv6 Option Type Allocation
12.2. MPL ICMPv6 Type
IANA is requested to allocate an ICMPv6 Type from the "ICMPv6 "type"
Numbers" registry of [RFC4443], as specified in Table 2 below:
+---------------+------+---------------------+---------------+
| Mnemonic | Type | Name | Reference |
+---------------+------+---------------------+---------------+
| MPL_ICMP_TYPE | TBD | MPL Control Message | This Document |
+---------------+------+---------------------+---------------+
Table 2: IPv6 Option Type Allocation
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 22]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
12.3. Well-known Multicast Addresses
IANA is requested to allocate an IPv6 multicast address, with Group
ID in the range [0x01,0xFF] for 6LoWPAN compression [RFC6282],
"ALL_MPL_FORWARDERS" from the "Variable Scope Multicast Addresses"
sub-registry of the "INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 6 MULTICAST ADDRESSES"
registry.
13. Security Considerations
MPL uses sequence numbers to maintain a total ordering of MPL Data
Messages from an MPL Seed. The use of sequence numbers allows a
denial-of-service attack where an attacker can spoof a message with a
sufficiently large sequence number to: (i) flush messages from the
Buffered Message List and (ii) increase the MinSequence value for an
MPL Seed in the corresponding Seed Set. The former side effect
allows an attacker to halt the forwarding process of any MPL Data
Messages being disseminated. The latter side effect allows an
attacker to prevent MPL Forwarders from accepting new MPL Data
Messages that an MPL Seed generates while the sequence number is less
than MinSequence.
More generally, the basic ability to inject messages into a Low-power
and Lossy Network can be used as a denial-of-service attack
regardless of what forwarding protocol is used. For these reasons,
Low-power and Lossy Networks typically employ link-layer security
mechanisms to disable an attacker's ability to inject messages.
To prevent attackers from injecting packets through an MPL Forwarder,
the MPL Forwarder MUST NOT accept or forward MPL Data Messages from a
communication interface that does not subscribe to the MPL Domain
Address identified in message's destination address.
MPL uses the Trickle algorithm to manage message transmissions and
the security considerations described in [RFC6206] apply.
14. References
14.1. Normative References
[I-D.droms-6man-multicast-scopes]
Droms, R., "IPv6 Multicast Address Scopes", draft-droms-
6man-multicast-scopes-02 (work in progress), July 2013.
[RFC1982] Elz, R. and R. Bush, "Serial Number Arithmetic", RFC 1982,
August 1996.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 23]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC2460] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
(IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998.
[RFC2473] Conta, A. and S. Deering, "Generic Packet Tunneling in
IPv6 Specification", RFC 2473, December 1998.
[RFC2780] Bradner, S. and V. Paxson, "IANA Allocation Guidelines For
Values In the Internet Protocol and Related Headers", BCP
37, RFC 2780, March 2000.
[RFC4007] Deering, S., Haberman, B., Jinmei, T., Nordmark, E., and
B. Zill, "IPv6 Scoped Address Architecture", RFC 4007,
March 2005.
[RFC4443] Conta, A., Deering, S., and M. Gupta, "Internet Control
Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol
Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", RFC 4443, March 2006.
[RFC6206] Levis, P., Clausen, T., Hui, J., Gnawali, O., and J. Ko,
"The Trickle Algorithm", RFC 6206, March 2011.
[RFC6282] Hui, J. and P. Thubert, "Compression Format for IPv6
Datagrams over IEEE 802.15.4-Based Networks", RFC 6282,
September 2011.
[RFC6550] Winter, T., Thubert, P., Brandt, A., Hui, J., Kelsey, R.,
Levis, P., Pister, K., Struik, R., Vasseur, JP., and R.
Alexander, "RPL: IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and
Lossy Networks", RFC 6550, March 2012.
14.2. Informative References
[RFC3973] Adams, A., Nicholas, J., and W. Siadak, "Protocol
Independent Multicast - Dense Mode (PIM-DM): Protocol
Specification (Revised)", RFC 3973, January 2005.
[RFC4601] Fenner, B., Handley, M., Holbrook, H., and I. Kouvelas,
"Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM):
Protocol Specification (Revised)", RFC 4601, August 2006.
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 24]
Internet-Draft MPL August 2013
Authors' Addresses
Jonathan W. Hui
Cisco
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, California 95134
USA
Phone: +408 424 1547
Email: jonhui@cisco.com
Richard Kelsey
Silicon Labs
25 Thomson Place
Boston, Massachusetts 02210
USA
Phone: +617 951 1225
Email: richard.kelsey@silabs.com
Hui & Kelsey Expires March 02, 2014 [Page 25]
