Network Working Group                                      G. Montenegro
Internet-Draft                                                 Microsoft
Intended status: Informational                               S. Cespedes
Expires: September 11, 2017                               NIC Labs Chile
                                                               S. Loreto
                                                                Ericsson
                                                              R. Simpson
                                                        General Electric
                                                          March 10, 2017


        HTTP/2 Configuration Profile for the Internet of Things
                draft-montenegro-httpbis-h2ot-profile-00

Abstract

   This document define an HTTP/2 configuration profile for IoT.

Status of This Memo

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 11, 2017.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Configuration Profile of HTTP/2 for IoT . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Negotiation of HTTP/2 for IoT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Implementation Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   Unlike HTTP/1.X, HTTP/2 is suitable for many IoT applications.  Even
   though IoT was not the primary scenario when HTTP/2 was designed, the
   protocol is compact, configurable and flexible.  The use of header
   compression as well as the binary encoding of the protocol reduces
   the size of HTTP/2 flows as compared to HTTP/1.1.  HTTP/2's ability
   to reuse connections for multiple streams reduces connection
   establishment overhead, such as TCP connection establishment and TLS
   session establishment.  HTTP/2 has been found to be amenable to
   implementation on class 2 devices, per the constrained device
   classification in section 3 of [RFC7228].  Furthermore, initial
   efforts have resulted in successful experiments on class 1 devices.

   This document discusses how to configure HTTP/2 so as to adapt it
   better to IoT scenarios, including those in which the devices running
   the protocol have constrained resources.

2.  Configuration Profile of HTTP/2 for IoT

   HTTP/2 has many negotiable settings that can improve its performance
   for IoT applications by reducing bandwidth, codespace, and RAM
   requirements.  Specifically, the following settings and values have
   been found to be useful in IoT applications:

   o  SETTINGS_HEADER_TABLE_SIZE: this setting allows hosts to limit the
      size of the header compression table used for decoding, reducing
      required RAM, but potentially increasing bandwidth requirements.
      Initial value per HTTP/2 is 4096.  IoT scenarios might benefit
      from changing this to a smaller value (e.g., 512), however, to




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      avoid increased bandwidth usage, IoT scenarios should judiciously
      use HTTP headers and the dynamic header table [RFC7541].

   o  SETTINGS_ENABLE_PUSH: This setting allows clients to enable or
      disable server push.  This functionality may not be required in
      some IoT applications.  The initial value per HTTP/2 is 1.

   o  SETTINGS_MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS: this setting allows a sender to
      limit the number of simultaneous streams that a receiver can
      create for a connection.  HTTP/2 recommends this value be no
      smaller than 100.  IoT scenarios may wish to limit this to a much
      smaller number, such as 2 or 3.

   o  SETTINGS_INITIAL_WINDOW_SIZE: this setting allows hosts to limit
      the flow control window, potentially reducing buffer requirements
      at the expense of potentially underutilized bandwidth-delay
      products.  Per HTTP/2 the initial value is 2^16-1 (65,535) octets.
      IoT scenarios may wish to limit this to smaller values in
      accordance with the node's constraints (e.g., a few kilo-octets).

   o  SETTINGS_MAX_FRAME_SIZE: this setting allows hosts to specify the
      largest frame size they are willing to receive.  Per HTTP/2 the
      initial value is 2^14 (16,384) octets.  Somewhat
      counterintuitively, IoT hosts may wish to leave this value large
      and rely on flow control to avoid unnecessary framing overhead
      (see: <https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-
      wg/2014JulSep/1626.html>).

   o  SETTINGS_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE: this setting allows hosts to limit
      the maximum size of the header list they are willing to receive.
      Per HTTP/2 the initial value of this setting is unlimited.  IoT
      scenarios may wish to limit this to smaller values in accordance
      with the node's constraints (e.g., a few kilo-octets).

3.  Negotiation of HTTP/2 for IoT

   For Constrained and Internet scenarios, it is assumed that HTTP/2
   runs over TLS.  Accordingly, the ALPN negotiation in section 3.3 of
   [RFC7540] applies.  As seen above, an IoT scenario may wish to depart
   from the default SETTINGS.  To do so, the usual SETTINGS negotiation
   applies.  In this case, the initial SETTINGS negotiation setup is
   based on the first message exchange initiated by the client.  This is
   simpler than general HTTP/2 case: not having an in-the-clear Upgrade
   path means the client is always in control of first HTTP/2 message,
   including any SETTINGS changes it may wish.

   Additionally, the use of "prior knowledge" per section 3.4 of
   [RFC7540] is likely to also work particularly well in IoT scenarios



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   in which a client and its web service are likely to be closely
   matched.  In such scenarios, prior knowledge may allow for SETTINGS
   to be set in accordance with some shared state implied by the prior
   knowledge.  In such cases, SETTINGS negotiation may not be necessary
   in order to depart from the defaults as defined by HTTP/2.

4.  Implementation Considerations

   This section assumes HTTP/2 over TCP, i.e., as specified in
   [RFC7540].  Implementors should consider TCP optimizations for IoT,
   such as [I-D.gomez-core-tcp-constrained-node-networks] as well as
   LoWPAN-related TCP optimizations such as [I-D.aayadi-6lowpan-tcphc].

   In addition to underlying stack issues with respect to IPv4, IPv6,
   TCP, and TLS, there are implementation considerations for HTTP/2 for
   IoT.

   A primary concern is the number of allowed simultaneous HTTP/2
   connections.  As each connection has associated overhead, as well as
   overhead for each of its streams, constrained hosts may wish to limit
   their number of simultaneous connections.  However, implementers
   should note that some popular browsers require more than one
   connection to operate (e.g., both Chrome and Firefox have been
   observed as requiring at least two connections).  Given that one of
   the motivations to use HTTP/2 is to use mainstream technologies, this
   is important for certain scenarios.

   In addition to minimizing the number of simultaneous connections,
   hosts should consider leaving connections open if there is a
   possibility of further communication with the remote peer.  HTTP/2
   contains mechanisms such as PING to periodically check idle
   connections.  Leaving established connections open when there is a
   possibility of future communication allows connection establishment
   overhead (and potentially TLS session establishment overhead) to be
   avoided.

   Should TLS be used, implementers may wish to utilize hardware-based
   encryption to further reduce codespace and RAM requirements.

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no considerations for IANA.

6.  Security Considerations

   This document suggests a profile for HTTP/2 in IoT applications.  All
   the security considerations for [RFC7540] apply.  Given the
   constraints likely to characterize devices common in IoT scenarios,



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   issues related to resource exhaustion and denial-of-service attacks
   are particularly noteworthy.  Nevertheless, the suggestions in this
   document limit the resources used in such a way that any peer
   exceeding such limits will be in protocol violation making those
   connection or connection attempts readily droppable.  Of course,
   resource exhaustion attacks are not mitigated, as these will simply
   obey the limits imposed by the constrained profile specified herein.
   Hence, it is always imperative to safeguard IoT devices by the usual
   means (e.g., by using a firewall or a gateway with richer resources
   to provide some protection).

   As for the potential risks to the infrastructure by attacks launched
   from devices compliant with this specification, each such instance
   represents less of a threat than usually configured and profiled
   HTTP/2 clients.  Nevertheless, the sheer number of IoT devices means
   that the overall threat to infrastructure may be formidable, as has
   been observed in IoT-based DDoS attacks.  Accordingly, it is
   essential for these devices to implement the usual security measures
   to prevent their hijacking by e.g., requiring strong authentication
   of the operators, update capabilities, etc.

7.  Acknowledgements

   This document was produced using the xml2rfc tool [RFC2629][RFC7749].

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC7540]  Belshe, M., Peon, R., and M. Thomson, Ed., "Hypertext
              Transfer Protocol Version 2 (HTTP/2)", RFC 7540,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7540, May 2015,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7540>.

   [RFC7541]  Peon, R. and H. Ruellan, "HPACK: Header Compression for
              HTTP/2", RFC 7541, DOI 10.17487/RFC7541, May 2015,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7541>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.aayadi-6lowpan-tcphc]
              Ayadi, A., Ros, D., and L. Toutain, "TCP header
              compression for 6LoWPAN", draft-aayadi-6lowpan-tcphc-01
              (work in progress), October 2010.







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   [I-D.gomez-core-tcp-constrained-node-networks]
              Gomez, C. and J. Crowcroft, "TCP over Constrained-Node
              Networks", draft-gomez-core-tcp-constrained-node-
              networks-00 (work in progress), June 2016.

   [RFC2629]  Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2629, June 1999,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2629>.

   [RFC7228]  Bormann, C., Ersue, M., and A. Keranen, "Terminology for
              Constrained-Node Networks", RFC 7228,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7228, May 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7228>.

   [RFC7749]  Reschke, J., "The "xml2rfc" Version 2 Vocabulary",
              RFC 7749, DOI 10.17487/RFC7749, February 2016,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7749>.

Authors' Addresses

   Gabriel Montenegro
   Microsoft

   Email: Gabriel.Montenegro@microsoft.com


   Sandra Cespedes
   NIC Labs Chile
   Universidad de Chile

   Email: scespedes@ing.uchile.cl


   Salvatore Loreto
   Ericsson

   Email: salvatore.loreto@ericsson.com


   Robby Simpson
   General Electric

   Email: rsimpson@gmail.com








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