DNA Working Group                                           S. Narayanan
Internet-Draft                                                 Panasonic
Expires: April 12, 2005                                         G. Daley
                                                  Monash University CTIE
                                                            N. Montavont
                                                             LSIIT - ULP
                                                        October 12, 2004


     Detecting Network Attachment in IPv6 - Best Current Practices
                     draft-narayanan-dna-bcp-01.txt

Status of this Memo

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 12, 2005.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   Hosts experiencing rapid link-layer changes may require further
   configuration change detection procedures than more traditional fixed
   hosts.  Detecting Network Attachment is a set of strategies for
   determining configuration validity in wireless or rapidly changing
   environments.  This document details best current practice for
   Detecting Network Attachment in IPv6 hosts using Neighbor Discovery



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   procedures.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     1.1   Structure of this Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5

   2.  Terms and Abbreviations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6

   3.  Background & Motivation for DNA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6

   4.  Detecting Network Attachment Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     4.1   Validation of current configuration  . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     4.2   Reachability detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8

   5.  Validation of current configuration  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     5.1   Current protocols  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       5.1.1   Link Change and Router Discovery . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       5.1.2   Complete Prefix list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       5.1.3   Router advertisement Timers  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.2   Additional information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       5.2.1   Making use of Prior Information  . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       5.2.2   Transient Link Availability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       5.2.3   Further Procedures on Detection of Network
               Attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     5.3   Conclusions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

   6.  Reachability Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     6.1   Current protocols  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       6.1.1   Specific (Neighbor Solicitation) Tests . . . . . . . . 13
       6.1.2   Non-Specific (Router Solicitation) Tests . . . . . . . 13
       6.1.3   Trade-offs in Reachability Testing . . . . . . . . . . 14
       6.1.4   Hybrid mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       6.1.5   Authorization for using the router . . . . . . . . . . 15
     6.2   Additional information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       6.2.1   Wireless propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       6.2.2   Asymmetric Reachability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     6.3   Conclusions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

   7.  Initiation of DNA Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     7.1   Hint Reception and Processing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     7.2   Handling Hints from Other Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     7.3   Timer Based Hints  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     7.4   Simultaneous Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     7.5   Hint Validity and Hysteresis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     7.6   Hint Management for Inactive Hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

   8.  Current Practice for Configuration Change Detection on



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       Hosts  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
     8.1   Router and Prefix Discovery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     8.2   Address Autoconfiguration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     8.3   Neighbor Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     8.4   Dynamic Host Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     8.5   Multicast Listener State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     8.6   Mobility Management  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     8.7   Other Configuration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

   9.  Current Practice for Routers supporting DNA  . . . . . . . . . 24
     9.1   Router Advertisement Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     9.2   Unicast Response Transmission  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     9.3   Point-to-Point Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     9.4   Prefix Advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     9.5   Secured Neighbor Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

   10.   Analysis of Configuration Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

   11.   Complications to Detecting Network Attachment  . . . . . . . 30
     11.1  Tentative Addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     11.2  Packet Loss  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
     11.3  Router Configurations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
     11.4  Overlapping Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
     11.5  Multicast Snooping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
     11.6  Link Partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

   12.   Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
     12.1  Securing Router Discovery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
     12.2  Replay or impersonation of messages. . . . . . . . . . . . 33
     12.3  Authorization and Detecting Network Attachment . . . . . . 34
     12.4  Addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

   13.   Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

   14.   References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   14.1  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   14.2  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

       Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

   A.  Summary of Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

   B.  Example State Transition Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

   C.  DNA With Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6  . . . . . . . . . . . 41

   D.  DNA with Candidate Access Router Discovery . . . . . . . . . . 41




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       Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 42


















































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1.  Introduction

   When operating in changing environments, IPv6 hosts may experience
   variations in reachability or configuration state over time.  For
   hosts accessing the Internet over wireless media, such changes may be
   caused by changes in wireless propagation or host motion.

   Detecting Network Attachment (DNA) in IPv6 is the task of checking
   for changes in the validity of a host's IP configuration.  Changes
   may occur on establishment or disconnection of a link-layer.  For
   newly connected interfaces, they may be on a different link to the
   existing configuration's routers.

   In these and other cases, IP addressing and default routing
   configuration may be invalid, which prevents packet transfer.

   DNA focuses on determining whether the current configuration is
   invalid, leaving the actual practice of re-configuration to other
   subsystems.

   This document presents the best current practices for IPv6 hosts to
   address the task of Detecting Network Attachment in changing and
   wireless environments.

1.1  Structure of this Document

   Section 3 of this document provides a background and motivation for
   Detecting Network Attachment.

   Elaboration of specific practices for hosts in detecting network
   attachment continues in Section 4, Section 5, Section 6, and Section
   7.  These sections describe how to safely determine network
   attachment with minimal signaling, across a range of environments.

   While the primary focus of this document is the operation of
   intermittently connected hosts, the best current practices for
   operation of routers supporting these hosts is defined in Section 9 .

   A brief analysis of two known configuration algorithms LCS (Lazy
   Configuration Switching) and ECS (Eager Configuration Switching) is
   presented in Section 10.  Section 12 Provides security
   considerations, and details a number of issues which arise due to
   wireless connectivity and the changeable nature of DNA hosts'
   internet connections.

   This document has a number of appendixes.

   Appendix A lists the recommendations for systems wishing to support



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   Best Current Practice.  Appendix B provides an example state machine
   for DNA describing knowledge and belief based on the prior listed
   recommendations.  The final two (Appendix C and Appendix D) look at
   existing experimental protocols that may be used to provide DNA
   processes with access network information before arrival on a new
   link.

2.  Terms and Abbreviations

   There is an existing DNA terminology draft [20].  At this stage, it
   is unclear if this draft or the mobility terminology [21] draft need
   to be referenced, or specific terms need to be placed in this
   document.

   While the mobility terminology draft may be applicable, the focus of
   this draft upon mobile hosts may be distracting for DNA.  Comments on
   this issue are welcome.

3.  Background & Motivation for DNA

   Hosts on the Internet may be connected by various media.  It has
   become common that hosts have access through wireless media and are
   mobile, and have a variety of interfaces, which may be used to
   provide internet connectivity.  The frequency of configuration change
   for wireless and nomadic devices are elevated, due to the vagaries of
   wireless propagation or the motion of the hosts themselves.
   Detecting Network Attachment is a strategy to assist such rapid
   configuration changes by determining whether they are required.

   While DNA has applicability to both wireless and wireline access
   networks, these two sets of networks bring different sets of
   requirements to the problem.

   Verifying the validity of current IP configuration is needed when
   either a wireless or wireline link-layer is in use, but wireless
   hosts are more likely to change their link-layer connection than
   wireline hosts.

   Due to these frequent link-layer changes, an IP configuration change
   detection mechanism for DNA needs to be efficient and rapid.  Making
   such detection procedures rapid helps to avoid unnecessary
   configuration delays upon link-change.

   In an wireless environment, there will typically be a trade-off
   between configuration delays and the energy of the devices or channel
   bandwidth utilized to transmit configuration validity tests or
   re-configuration.  DNA seeks to assist hosts by providing information
   about network state, which may allow hosts to appropriately make



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   decisions regarding such tradeoffs.

   Even though DNA is restricted to determining whether change is
   needed, in some circumstances the process of obtaining information
   for the new configuration may occur simultaneously with the detection
   to improve the efficiency of these two steps.

4.  Detecting Network Attachment Steps

   Two different situations may lead a node to engage a network
   attachment detection procedure.  Either a node receives an indication
   that its link may have changed or it may detect that is configuration
   is not valid any more.

   If a host receives an indication (such as a link-layer hint) that its
   link may have changed, it has to verify the validity of its current
   configuration and confirm the reachability with its default router.
   If one of these two actions do not succeed, initiation of new
   configuration is required.

   If the host detects that its configuration is not valid any more, for
   example because a timer has expired, the node should engage in
   detection of its network attachment in order to determine if it needs
   to create a new configuration.

   While the initiation of the DNA procedures is described in Section 7,
   the different steps involved in detecting network attachment are
   described below.  Once the DNA procedure is engaged, two major tasks
   are to be done: check the validity of the current configuration and
   confirm the reachability with the default router.  Depending on the
   method used, these two steps could be performed independently or
   during the same procedure.

4.1  Validation of current configuration

   When link change occurs, an IPv6 host is likely to have one or more
   IPv6 configurations for the interface in its internal cache.  Upon
   initiation of DNA procedures (as specified in Section 7), the first
   step for the host would be to verify if any of these configurations
   is still valid.

   The validity of a host's configuration can be inferred by determining
   its presence on a particular link.  The host can verify presence on a
   particular link by learning the ranges of valid addresses and routers
   associated with that link and comparing this information with its
   cached configuration.  Learning the routers available on the link and
   the prefixes supported by them can be done either passively by
   listening to the Router Advertisements (RA) periodically sent by



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   routers, or actively by sending Router Solicitation (RS) [1].
   Checking the validity of current configuration is discussed is more
   detail in Section 5.

4.2  Reachability detection

   Reachability state usually relies on timers associated with received
   information.  Reachability detection can be triggered when a host has
   some indications that the link might have changed or when a timer is
   expired.  Reachability detection is very critical, since if the peer,
   e.g.  the current default router, is not reachable anymore, the host
   will have to change its IP configuration to be able to communicate.
   As we will see, reachability detection can be very fast if the peer
   is still reachable.  However, when the peer is not reachable anymore,
   the unreachability detection relies on timeout after transmission of
   solicitations.  These timeouts introduce important delays.Section
   Section 6 discusses reachability detection.

5.  Validation of current configuration

5.1  Current protocols

   Detecting changes in IP configuration requires either knowledge
   gathered from the network upon attachment using such methods as
   Router Discovery, or that known from prior information.

   The current focus of work in DNA Working Group are procedures
   subsequent to attachment.  Some procedures that describe how
   information may be gathered prior to arrival are summarized below.

5.1.1  Link Change and Router Discovery

   Determining the identity of a link in IPv6 relies upon Router
   Discovery.  A link contains a set of mutually reachable interfaces on
   routers, and media connecting them between which there is no
   forwarding hop.

   Monitoring the link-local source address of the Router Advertisement
   is insufficient to prove that a device is still on an IP link, since
   a router may share a single link-local address across multiple
   interfaces.

   Therefore the identity of the link may be determined by monitoring
   the set of routers and IPv6 prefixes advertised on the link.  Any
   router advertising one of the prefixes previously received within an
   advertisement may be assumed to belong to the same link, if the new
   advertisement was received within the Valid Lifetime of the prefix
   [1].



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   Reception of Router Advertisements that do not contain any prefixes
   in common with the previously advertised set MAY be an indicator that
   link change has occurred.  IPv6 Neighbor Discovery [1] explicitly
   allows such configurations to exist though, and additionally allows
   omission of prefix information options in unsolicited Router
   Advertisements.  This leads to the fact that the non-presence of the
   current default router should be determined before considering that
   the link has changed.  This is even more important with mobile hosts,
   which update their location according to their position in the
   Internet.  Considering that the current default router/prefix has
   changed upon the reception of a new IPv6 prefix may lead to excessive
   Binding Update transmission.

   In order to determine validity of configuration in such topologies,
   reachability testing MAY be required.  Additionally, during reception
   of unsolicited Router Advertisements some heuristic SHOULD be used,
   where possible, to ensure that complete prefix information is
   received by the host (see Section 5.1.2).  This may limit the false
   detection of link change due to omitted prefixes.

5.1.2  Complete Prefix list

   Each link can be uniquely identified by the set of prefixes assigned
   to it.  [22] proposes that, at each attached link, the host generates
   the complete prefix list, that is, the prefix list containing all the
   prefixes on the link, and when it receives a hint that indicates a
   possible link change, it detects the identity of the link by
   comparing a the prefix in a new received RA with the existing prefix
   list.  [22] describes how to generate the complete prefix list and to
   robustly check for link change even in the presence of packet losses.

5.1.3  Router advertisement Timers

   Presence of the current router can be validated by an unsolicited
   Router Advertisement (RA) received on the link.  To send RAs, a
   router uses three main timers : MaxRtrAdvInterval, MinRtrAdvInterval
   and MIN_DELAY_BETWEEN_RAS [1].  By default, MinRtrAdvinterval is 0.33
   times MaxRtrAdvInterval (i.e.  200 sec.  if MaxRtrAdvInterval is 600
   sec.).  A host can send a Router Solicitation if it detects that it
   didn't get an RA during 3 times MaxRtrAdvInterval.  So, if we
   consider default values, a host might wait for 30 minutes before
   sending an RS.  We can also notice that by default, the AR can not
   send a new multicast RA within 3 seconds after having sent one.  The
   reply of a RS must also be delayed for a random time between 0 and
   MaxRADelayTime (0.5 sec by default).  The specification of Mobile
   IPv6 [5] identified that these defaults are too long to support
   mobility of host and allows the reduction of the RA transmission
   between 30 and 70ms and to allow a host to send a RS if it didn't



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   receive a RA within the last second.

5.2  Additional information

5.2.1  Making use of Prior Information

   A device that has recently been attached to a particular wireless
   base station may still have state regarding the IP configuration
   valid for use on that link.  This allows a host to begin any
   configuration procedures before checking the ongoing validity and
   security of the parameters.  The experimental protocols FMIPv6 [17]
   and CARD [18] each provide ways to generate such information using
   network-layer signaling, before arrival on a link.  These are
   respectively described in Appendix C and Appendix D.  Additionally,
   the issue is the same when a host disconnects from one L2 Access
   Point and returns to it immediately, or movement occurs between a
   pair of access points (the ping-pong effect).

   Extreme care must be taken in making use of existing prior
   information.  If the assumptions attached to the stored configuration
   are incorrect the configuration cost may be increased, or even cause
   disruption of services to other devices.  Hosts MUST NOT cause any
   disruption of the IP connectivity to other devices due to the
   invalidity or staleness of their configuration.

   In the case that the host arrives back on the same link in time less
   than the DAD completion time (minus a packet transmission and
   propagation time), the host MAY reclaim the address by sending
   Neighbor Advertisement messages as if another host had attempted DAD
   while the host was away.  This will prevent DAD completion by another
   node upon NA reception.

   If a host has not been present on a link to defend its address, and
   has been absent for a full DAD delay (minus transmission time) the
   host MUST undertake the full DAD procedure for each address from that
   link it wishes to configure [3].

5.2.2  Transient Link Availability

   Wireless Internet hosts can experience connectivity changes that may
   or may not be associated with IP configuration change.

   While some wireless base-station transitions are almost
   instantaneous, other cell change procedures take hundreds of
   milliseconds.  In the interval between disconnection at one cell and
   attachment at another, packets sent by the host may be discarded or
   delayed.




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   In some cases, upper layer data with addressing incorrect for the new
   link may remain queued for transmission in the link-layer.  Any
   signaling packets queued behind these packets will be delayed and
   such delays could cause timer expiry and affect the successful
   completion  of reachability confirmation procedures.  Also if
   signaling packets are sent when the link is unavailable, the packet
   may be discarded.  This will lead to timer expiry in the case a
   solicitation is sent.

   If a host knows that connectivity has been lost at the link-layer, it
   SHOULD pause transmission of upper-layer packets to the lower-layer,
   until general data frames can be send on the new cell.  This may help
   to avoid packet loss or the queuing of signaling packets for change
   detection behind data frames.  A host SHOULD also stop sending
   signaling for the purpose of DNA to a link-layer it has been reliably
   informed is unavailable.  It is suggested that implementers utilize
   possible prioritization of the DNA signaling packets over other data
   packets while queuing them to the link-layer.

5.2.3  Further Procedures on Detection of Network Attachment

   Detection of network attachment does not define or prescribe
   configuration procedures.  The actual configuration is therefore left
   to the procedures which are invoked upon arrival on a new link.

   While DNA does not undertake configuration, it does learn about the
   state of the network using neighbor and router discovery.  Where it
   is safe to do so, such state SHOULD be made available to
   configuration processes.  Particularly, state gained from change
   detection procedures for DNA SHOULD NOT be discarded.

5.3  Conclusions

   The first step in DNA Procedure SHOULD be to validate the current
   configuration by identifying the current link and comparing it to the
   identity of the link to which the current configuration belongs.  If
   the current link is reliably identified to be different from the link
   to which the current configuration belongs the IP host MUST initiate
   configuration procedure to update its configuration.  After
   attachment to a new link, it is RECOMMENDED that the IP host confirms
   reachability with the default router as discussed in Section 6.

6.  Reachability Detection

   An IP node needs to confirm bi-directional rechability to its default
   router before it can start communicating with hosts outside its local
   link.  Either a NS-NA or an RS-RA message exchange can be used to
   conduct rechability testing.  But, whether the messages are addressed



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   to multicast or unicast address will have different reachability
   implications.  The reachability implications from the hosts'
   perspective for the four different message exchanges defined by RFC
   2461 [1] are presented in the table below.  The host can confirm
   bi-directional reachability from the neighbor discovery or router
   discovery message exchanges except when a multicast RA is received at
   the host for its RS message.  In this case, the host cannot know
   whether the multicast RA is in response to its solicitation message
   or whether it is a periodic un-solicited transmission from the
   router.

         +-----------------+----+----+----+-----+
         |   Exchanges:    |Upstream |Downstream|
         +-----------------+----+----+----+-----+
         | multicast NS/NA |    Y    |    Y     |
         +-----------------+----+----+----+-----+
         | unicast   NS/NA |    Y    |    Y     |
         +-----------------+----+----+----+-----+
         | RS/multicast RA |         |    Y     |
         +-----------------+----+----+----+-----+
         | RS/unicast RA   |    Y    |    Y     |
         +-----------------+----+----+----+-----+

   Successful exchange of the messages listed in the table indicate the
   corresponding links to be operational.  Lack of reception of response
   from the router may indicate that reachability is broken for one or
   both of the transmission directions or it may indicate an ordinary
   packet loss event in either direction.

   Three different methods for verifying bi-directional reachability
   with the current router and at the same time receive new
   configuration information if the current router is not available is
   presented in Section 6.1.1, Section 6.1.2 and Section 6.1.4.

   If bi-directional reachability can not be confirmed using one of the
   three message exchanges, the host SHOULD attempt to find a better
   connection with possibly another router in the link.  Due to the
   transient nature of the wireless link, the reachability may change
   during communication after reachability is verified.  If multiple
   routers were available, the host MAY defer test of reachability until
   the interface is to be actively used for transmission and reception.

   Hosts should also be aware of particular issues regarding their own
   wireless access technology which impinge on the reliability of
   reachability tests.  Particularly, where unicast and multicast
   propagation behaviors are significantly different, hosts SHOULD
   attempt to test both multicast and unicast reachability, to ensure
   that each works.  Hosts MAY defer such additional tests where either



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   communications method is not likely to be used soon.

6.1  Current protocols

6.1.1  Specific (Neighbor Solicitation) Tests

   Bi-directional reachability can be verified using the Neighbor
   Discovery test to the current access router.  Since ND may involve
   the use of two unicast messages exchanged between the host and the
   access router, a successful ND procedure verifies bi-directional
   reachability.

   The IP node sends NS message to the default router and waits for the
   NA from the router.  This mechanism is efficient if the current
   default router is still reachable : only a round trip time between
   the host and the router is needed to confirm reachability.
   Conversely, if the default router is not available, the host will
   timeout without receiving a NA.  By default, the host can send three
   NS (one every second) before considering that the router is not
   reachable.  However, if the host has indication that the link may
   have changed, this delay may be reduced without significant damage
   for the network by reducing the number of retries.  If the current
   router is considered unreachable (timeout on NS message), the host
   will have to execute router discovery procedure to obtain new
   configuration and reachability information.  The host will send a RS
   message to the All-Routers multicast address.

   In summary, this method works well both when the current default
   router is available and when the current default router is not
   available.  When the current default router is not available though,
   the delay introduced in doing ND before switching to RD could become
   a problem in deploying real time applications in wireless networks.
   Reducing the timer associated with the unreachability testing through
   the exchange of NS/NA might be an issue.  Sometimes this method is
   referred to as Lazy Configuration Switching.

6.1.2  Non-Specific (Router Solicitation) Tests

   Initiating Router Discovery procedure can sometimes lead to
   verification of the bi-directional reachability.  It does not always
   confirm bi-directional reachability because if the router responds
   for the RS with a multicast RA message, there is no way for the host
   to identify whether the RA is in response to the RS or whether it is
   a periodic unsolicited RA transmission.  Even with multicast RA
   response, if SEND is used, bi-directional reachability can confirmed
   because SEND uses a unique nonce to match request and response
   messages [7].  If the router chooses to respond to a RS with a
   unicast RA message, again, the host will be able to match the RS and



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   RA and hence confirm bi-directional reachability.

   Send a RS message to the All-Routers multicast address.  A RA message
   in response to the RS will be received from one of the available
   routers on the link.  This method will lead to quick configuration of
   the interface because if the current default router is not
   accessible, new configuration information can be received from the
   responding router.  However, this can lead to erroneous
   re-configuration of the interface because a response from a new
   router doesn't necessarily mean that the current router is not
   accessible.  Based on RFC2461 [1], the node may have to wait for 3
   times MAX_RA_DELAY_TIME to confirm that the current default router is
   not serving the default IPv6 prefix.  By considering the default
   values of RFC2461, 3 times MAX_RA_DELAY_TIME is 30 minutes, while
   with the values defined in MIPv6, this time is 1 second (due to the
   shorter Router Advertisement frequency).

6.1.3  Trade-offs in Reachability Testing

   There are unique advantages and dis-advantages in using either the
   Specific or the Non-specific test to confirm reachability.

   Specific tests:

   Advantages:

   Confirmation of bi-directional reachability.

   Dis-advantages:

   If the ND test fails, the host has no potential configuration
   information it can use.

   Non-Specific tests:

   Advantages:

   Even when the current access router is not reachable, an RA message
   from any available router will provide information that can used to
   configure the host.

   Confirmation of bi-directional reachability if SEND is used or if the
   router chooses to respond with an unicast RA message.

   Dis-advantages:

   If multicast RA response is received, the host may have to execute an
   ND test to confirm bi-directional reachability.  Such a test may be



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   avoided if upper layer confirmations are received within the DELAY
   period prescribed by IPv6 Neighbor Discovery [1].

   Even when the current access router is reachable, the response may
   arrive from a different access router leading to erroneous
   re-configuration of the host.

6.1.4  Hybrid mechanism

   Send a NS to the current default router and a RS to the All-Routers
   multicast address in parallel.  If the response to the NS is received
   within the timeout period, any response to the RS can be ignored.  If
   no NA is received, the RA received in response to the RS will be used
   to configure the IP interface.  The method works well in both cases
   when the current router is still available and when not, and avoids
   the delay of exchanging RS and RA after the ND timeouts.  When the
   current default router is available, the RS and RA messages are
   unnecessarily transmitted, wasting network resources.

6.1.5  Authorization for using the router

   In addition to reachability information, routing authorization needs
   to be determined for each router.  In SEND [7], routing authorization
   is delegated by certification authorities.  Certificate authorities
   delegate a portion of their routing authority to the router, tying
   them to a public/private key-pair.  While SEND Router Advertisement
   packets contain the public key used to sign the message.  Hosts need
   to test the router's authority to provide routing for the prefixes
   advertised in its Router Advertisement in order to ensure safe
   configuration.

6.2  Additional information

6.2.1  Wireless propagation

   Wireless channel characteristics change both in space and time.  Even
   when a wireless host is not moving, its connectivity to the access
   router can change due to factors like interference from other
   objects, temperature etc.  When the host is moving, the changes can
   be more pronounced because of change in distance, introduction of new
   objects in the LOS (line of sight) etc.  The change to the
   connectivity may affect both directions or it can be only in either
   one of the directions.  Hence, in wireless links, reachability in one
   direction does not guarantee reachability in the other.  Also, these
   variations in the wireless channel can be very short lived, creating
   rapid hints about the status of the link-layer.  It is important to
   consider the transient nature of the wireless links in design the DNA
   mechanism for such channels.



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6.2.2  Asymmetric Reachability

   As mentioned in the previous section, wireless channels can provide
   asymmetric reachability that requires reachability testing on both
   directions.  Even previously verified bi-directional reachability can
   not guaranteed at a later time if there are other (higher layer or
   link-layer) hints implying the loss of bi-directional reachability.

   The frequency of initiation of reachability testing MUST be
   controlled in order to avoid flooding of the network.  Implementers
   are advised to build in rate-limiting mechanisms in responding to the
   hints to avoid switching IP configuration frequently when the quality
   of the wireless channel is fluctuating (see Section 7.5).

6.3  Conclusions

   During bi-directional reachability verification procedure, it is also
   possible to collect information for the re-configuration of the
   interface if the rechability verification fails.  Hosts SHOULD make
   best effort to validate the current configuration, verify
   bi-direction rechability and collect configuration information with
   minimal use of signaling messages.

7.  Initiation of DNA Procedures

   Link change detection procedures are initiated when information is
   received either directly from the network or from other protocol
   layers within the host.  This information indicates that network
   reachability or configuration is suspect and is called a hint.

   Hints MAY be used to update a wireless host's timers or probing
   behavior in such a way as to assist detection of network attachment.
   Hints SHOULD NOT be considered to be authoritative for detecting IP
   configuration change by themselves.

   In some cases, hints will carry significant information (for example
   a hint indicating PPP IPv6CP open state [4]), although details of the
   configuration parameters may be available only after other IP
   configuration procedures.  Implementers are encouraged to treat hints
   as though they may be incorrect, and require confirmation.

   The signaling which causes a hint may be due to network-layer
   messages such as unexpected Router Advertisements, multicast listener
   queries or ICMPv6 error messages [1][8][6].  In these cases, caution
   must be exerted to verify the authenticity of the messages before
   expending resources to initiate DNA procedure.

   Hosts MUST ensure that untrusted messages do not cause unnecessary



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   configuration changes, or significant consumption of host resources
   or bandwidth.  In order to achieve this aim, a host MAY implement
   hysteresis mechanisms such as token buckets, hint weighting or
   holddown timers in order to limit the effect of excessive hints (see
   Section 7.5).

7.1  Hint Reception and Processing

   When a host arrives on a new link, hints received due to external IP
   packets will typically be due to multicast messages.  A delay before
   receiving these messages is likely as in most cases intervals between
   All-Hosts multicast messages are tightly controlled [1][6].
   Regardless of this, actions based on multicast reception from
   untrusted sources are dangerous due to the threat of transmitter
   impersonation.  This issue is discussed further in Section 12.

   State changes within the network-layer itself may initiate
   link-change detection procedures.  Existing subsystems for router and
   neighbor discovery, address leasing and multicast reception maintain
   their own timers and state variables.  Changes to the state of one or
   more of these mechanisms may hint that link change has occurred, and
   initiate detection of network attachment.

7.2  Handling Hints from Other Layers

   Timeouts and state change at other protocol layers may provide hints
   of link change to detection of network attachment.  Two examples of
   such state change are TCP retransmission timeout and completion of
   link-layer access procedures.  While hints from other protocol layers
   originate from within the host's own stack, the network layer SHOULD
   NOT treat hints from other protocol layers as authoritative
   indications of link change.  This is because state changes within
   other protocol layers may be triggered by untrusted messages, come
   from compromised sources (for example 802.11 WEP Encryption [19]) or
   be inaccurate with regard to network-layer state.

   While these hints come from the host's own stack, the causes for such
   hints may be due to packet reception or non-reception events at the
   originating layers.  As such, it may be possible for other devices to
   instigate hint delivery on a host or multiple hosts deliberately, in
   order to prompt packet transmission, or configuration modification.
   This ability to create hints may even extend to the parameters
   supplied with a hint that give indications of the network's status.

   Therefore, hosts SHOULD NOT change their configuration state based on
   hints from other protocol layers.  A host MAY choose to adopt an
   appropriate link change detection strategy based upon hints received
   from other layers, with suitable caution and hysteresis, as described



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   in Section 7.5.

7.3  Timer Based Hints

   When receiving messages from upper and lower layers, or when
   maintaining reachability information for routers or hosts, timers may
   expire due to non-reception of messages.  In some cases the expiry of
   these timers may be a good hint that DNA procedures are necessary.

   Hosts SHOULD NOT start DNA procedures simply because a data link is
   idle, in accordance with [1].  Hosts MAY act on hints associated with
   non-reception of expected signaling or data.

   Since DNA is likely to be used when communicating with devices over
   wireless links, suitable resilience to packet loss SHOULD be
   incorporated into either the hinting mechanism, or the DNA initiation
   system.  Notably, non-reception of data associated with end-to-end
   communication over the Internet may be caused by reception errors at
   either end or because of network congestion.  Hosts SHOULD NOT act
   immediately on packet loss indications, delaying until it is clear
   that the packet losses aren't caused by transient events.

   Use of the Advertisement Interval Option specified in [5] follows
   these principles.  Routers sending this option indicate the maximum
   interval between successive router advertisements.  Hosts receiving
   this option monitor for multiple successive packet losses and
   initiate change discovery.

7.4  Simultaneous Hints

   While some link-layer hints may be generated by individual actions,
   other events which generate hints may affect a number of devices
   simultaneously.  It is possible that hints arrive synchronously on
   multiple hosts at the same time.  For example, if a wireless base
   station goes down, all the hosts on that base station are likely to
   initiate link-layer configuration strategies after losing track of
   the last beacon or pilot signal from the base station.  As described
   in [1][6] , a host SHOULD delay randomly before acting on a widely
   receivable advertisement, in order to avoid response implosion.

   Since a host's detection of network attachment may include Router
   Solicitations sent to multicast addresses, a host may receive
   responses from each of multiple routers on a link.  Therefore, Router
   Solicitations may eventually cause additional bandwidth consumption,
   and require additional constraint.

   Where a host considers it may be on a new link and learns this from a
   hint generated by a multicast message, the host SHOULD defer 0-1000ms



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   in accordance with [1][3].  Please note though that a single
   desynchronization is required for any number of transmissions
   subsequent to a hint, regardless of which messages need to be sent.

   Additional delays are only required if in response to messages
   received from the network which are themselves multicast, and it is
   not possible to identify which of the receivers the packet is in
   response to.

   In link-layers where sufficient serialization occurs after an event
   experienced by multiple hosts, each host MAY avoid the random delays
   before sending solicitations specified in [1].

7.5  Hint Validity and Hysteresis

   Anecdotal evidence from the initial Detecting Network Attachment BoF
   indicated that hints received at the network layer often did not
   correspond to changes in IP connectivity [16].

   In some cases, hints could be generated at an elevated rate, which
   didn't reflect actual changes in IP configuration.  In other cases,
   hints were received prior to the availability of the medium for
   network-layer packets.

   Additionally, since packet reception at the network and other layers
   are a source for hints, it is possible for traffic patterns on the
   link to create hints, through chance or malicious intent.  Therefore,
   it may be necessary to classify hint sources and types for their
   relevance and recent behavior.

   When experiencing a large number of hints, a host SHOULD employ
   hysteresis techniques to prevent excessive use of network resources.
   The host MAY change the weight of particular hints, to devalue them
   if their accuracy has been poor,  suggests invalid configurations, or
   are suspicious  (refer to Section 12).

   It is notable, that such hysteresis may cause sub-optimal change
   detection performance, and may themselves be used to block legitimate
   hint reception.

7.6  Hint Management for Inactive Hosts

   If a host does not expect to send or receive packets soon, it MAY
   choose to defer detection of network attachment.  This may preserve
   resources on latent hosts, by removing any need for packet
   transmission when a hint is received.

   These hosts SHOULD delay 0-1000ms before sending a solicitation, and



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   MAY choose to wait up to twice the advertised Router Advertisement
   Interval (plus the random delay) before sending a solicitation [5].

   When deferring this signaling, the host therefore relies upon the
   regular transmission of unsolicited advertisements for timely
   detection of link change.

   One benefit of inactive hosts' deferral of DNA procedures is that
   herd-like host configuration testing is mitigated when base-station
   failure or simultaneous motion occur.  When latent hosts defer DNA
   tests, the number of devices actively probing for data simultaneously
   is reduced to those hosts which currently support existing data
   sessions.

   When a device begins sending packets, it will be necessary to test
   bidirectional reachability with the router (whose current Neighbor
   Cache state is STALE).  As described in [1], the host will delay
   before probing to allow for the probability that upper layer packet
   reception confirms reachability.

   SN: The following paragraph needs to be clarified - re-written.

   If no packet transmission on the wireless link has occurred, before
   the new IP configuration is used for upper layer protocols, hosts MAY
   choose not to delay the reachability probe to the router, if the
   transmission time is unrelated to received multicast packets.  This
   is because the initial delay is unlikely to be synchronized with
   other devices on this link, and timely liveness detection for the
   configuration may then be required.

8.  Current Practice for Configuration Change Detection on Hosts

   Various protocols within IPv6 provide their own configuration
   processes.  While Detecting Network Attachment seeks to provide
   efficient change detection without undertaking configuration, it is
   necessary to describe these protocols and their relationship to each
   other.

   Each of the protocols has a role to play in configuration of hosts,
   but many maintain their own change discovery mechanisms.In rapidly
   changing and wireless environments it is necessary to rationalize the
   discovery techniques on a minimal subset of procedures and messages,
   sufficient to determine change validity and authorization.

   This section aims provide a non-exhaustive list of configuration
   detection mechanisms used in IPv6.





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8.1  Router and Prefix Discovery

   Router Discovery is designed to provide hosts with a set of locally
   configurable prefixes and default routers.  These may then be
   configured by hosts for access to the Internet [1].

   It allows hosts to discover routers and manage lists of eligible next
   hop gateways, and is based on IPv6 Neighbor Discovery.  When one of
   the routers in the router list is determined to be no longer
   reachable, its destination cache entry is removed, and new router is
   selected from the list.  If the currently configured router is
   unreachable, it is quite likely that other devices on the same link
   are no longer reachable.

   On determining that link-change has occurred, the default router list
   SHOULD have entries removed which are related to unreachable routers,
   and consequently these routers' destination cache entries SHOULD be
   removed [1].  If no eligible default routers are in the default
   router list, Router Solicitations MAY be sent, in order to discover
   new routers.

8.2  Address Autoconfiguration

   Unicast addresses are required to send all packets on the Internet,
   except a restricted subset of local signaling such as router and
   neighbor solicitations.

   In dynamic environments, hosts need to undertake automatic
   configuration of addresses, and select which addresses to use based
   on prefix information advertised in Router Advertisements.  Such
   configurations may be based on either Stateless Address
   Autoconfiguration [3] or DHCPv6 [12].

   For any configured address, Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) MUST be
   performed [3].  DAD defines that an address is treated tentatively
   until either series of timeouts expire after probe transmissions or
   an address owner defends its address.  Tentative addresses cannot
   modify peers' neighbor cache entries, nor can they receive packets.

   Additionally, IPv6 requires configuration of link-local addresses
   which are to be used for signaling within a link.  Possession of a
   non-tentative link-local address allows transmission of all neighbor
   and router discovery messages, as well as unicast reception of
   configuration data.

8.3  Neighbor Discovery

   Neighbor caches allow for delivery of packets to peers on the same



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   link.  Neighbor cache entries are created by router or neighbor
   discovery signaling, and may be updated either by upper-layer
   reachability confirmations or explicit neighbor discovery exchanges.

   In order to determine which link-layer address a peer is at, nodes
   send solicitations to the link-local solicited-node multicast address
   of their peer.  If hosts are reachable on this address, then they
   will respond to the solicitation with a unicast response.

   This reliance on multicast packet delivery may mean that MLD
   (Multicast Listener Discovery) reporting needs to be completed before
   solicited-node's packet reception can occur (see Section 11.5).

   By default, neighbor cache entries exist for at least 30 seconds
   after reachability confirmation, before becoming STALE.  They may
   exist for any length of time in the STALE state until they are used,
   and then a Neighbor Unreachability Detection test is performed
   (taking up to 8 seconds).  After this, a neighbor cache entry is
   deleted.

   When link change occurs, the reachability of all existing neighbor
   cache entries is likely to be invalidated, if link change prevents
   packet reception from an old link.  For these links, the neighbor
   cache entries SHOULD be removed when a host moves to a new link
   (although it MAY be possible to keep keying and authorization
   information for such hosts cached on a least-recently-used basis
   [7]).

   Reachability of a single node may support the likelihood of reaching
   the rest of the link, for example if a particular access technology
   relays such messages through wireless base stations.

8.4  Dynamic Host Configuration

   Dynamic Host Configuration Procedures for IPv6 define their own
   detection procedures [12].  In order to check if the current set of
   configuration is valid, a host can send a 'Confirm'  message with a
   sample of its current configuration, which is able to be responded to
   by any DHCP relay on a link.

   If the replying relay knows it is not on the same link, it may
   respond, indicating that the host's configuration is invalid.
   Current use of this technique is hampered by the lack of wide scale
   deployment of DHCPv6 and hence the detection mechanism doesn't work
   when the host moves to a link which doesn't contain DHCP relays or
   servers.

   When used for address configuration, It is notable that while



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   Stateless Address Autoconfiguration can operate with tentative
   addresses, DHCP hosts require a non-tentative link-local address to
   undertake DHCPv6 configuration.

8.5  Multicast Listener State

   Multicast routers on a link are aware of which groups are in use
   within a link.  This information is used to undertake initiation of
   multicast routing for off-link multicast sources to the link [8][10].

   When a node arrives on a link, it may need to send Multicast Listener
   Discovery (MLD) reports, if the multicast stream is not already being
   received on the link.  If it is an MLDv2 node it SHOULD send state
   change reports upon arrival on a link [10].

   Since the identity of the link is tied to the presence and identity
   of routers, initiation of these procedures may be undertaken when DNA
   procedures have been completed.  In the absence of received data
   packets from a multicast stream, it is unlikely that a host will be
   able to determine if the multicast stream is being received on a new
   link, and will have to send state change reports, in addition to
   responses to periodic multicast queries [8][10].

   For link scoped multicast, reporting needs to be done to ensure that
   packet reception in the link is available due to multicast snoopers.
   Some interaction is possible when sending messages for the purpose of
   DNA on a network where multicast snooping is in use.  This issue is
   described in Section 11.5.

   While RFC2710 [8] specifies that routers may ignore messages from
   unspecified source addresses RFC 3590 [9] indicates that for the
   benefit of snooping switches such messages MAY be transmitted.

   Since DNA procedures are likely to force link-local addresses to be
   tentative, this means MLD messages may need to be transmitted with
   unspecified source addresses while link-locals are tentative, in
   order to complete DNA.  This is discussed further in Section 11.5

8.6  Mobility Management

   Mobile IPv6 provides global mobility signaling for hosts wishing to
   preserve sessions when their configured address becomes topologically
   incorrect [5].  This system relies upon signaling messages and tunnel
   movement to provide reachability at a constant address, while
   directing packets to its visited network.

   The Mobile IPv6 RFC3775 [5] defines 'movement detection' procedures,
   which themselves rely upon Neighbor Discovery, to initiate mobility



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   signaling.  These procedures allow for some modification of Neighbor
   Discovery to enable faster change or movement detection.  While this
   document references parameters defined in [5], hosts are not required
   to undertake global mobility signaling or tunneling in order to
   benefit from detecting network attachment.

   After change detection occurs, a Mobile IPv6 mobile node still needs
   to undertake global address configuration, and then mobility
   signaling as specified in [5].

8.7  Other Configuration

   When attempting to access the Internet, several other configuration
   services may be required, dependent on the requirements of the access
   networks.

   In this case, it is likely that configuration parameters can be
   passed to hosts using DHCPv6 [12].  The availability of such
   additional configuration information can be advertised using Router
   Advertisements [1].

   IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration [3] describes an
   OtherConfigFlag which is set when either the 'O' or the 'M' flags are
   set in the Router Advertisement header.  Hosts use the
   OtherConfigFlag to determine if they need to undertake further
   (non-addressing related) DHCPv6 procedures.

   If the Advertisement's 'O' flag was set, but not the 'M' flag, the
   host sends a DHCPv6 Information-Request message asking for such
   configuration.  This signaling may occur after completion of DNA
   procedures.

9.  Current Practice for Routers supporting DNA

   This section provides guidance for those routers which wish to
   support hosts undertaking detection of network attachment using
   existing router and neighbor discovery techniques.

   It should be noted that many deployed routers will not support these
   recommendations, and that hosts SHOULD NOT rely on their being in
   place, unless they have particular reason to do so.

9.1  Router Advertisement Intervals

   The router discovery mechanism defined in RFC 2461 [1] recommends a
   set of interval timers that affect the performance of the router
   discovery procedure.  The following table summarizes the values and
   their effect.



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         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         |   Timer               |Maximum  |Default   |Minimum   |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         | MaxRtrAdvInterval     |  1800   |   600    |    4     |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         | MinRtrAdvInterval     |   594   |   198    |    3     |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         |Avg. Multicast RA time |  1197   |   399    |   3.5    |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         |RA MCast response time |   3.5   |    NA    |    0     |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         |RA Ucast response time |   0.5   |    NA    |    0     |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+


   Assuming Poisson arrival of router solicitation messages at the rate
   of 0.05 messages per second, the average multicast RA response time
   can be calculated as follows

   Probability of at least one arrival in MIN_DELAY_BETWEEN_RAS time is:


         (p) = 1 - exp (lambda * t) (i.e. 1 - P[X(t) == 0])


   where lambda is the arrival rate of RS messages and t is
   MIN_DELAY_BETWEEN_RAS

   Given a Poisson occurrences in an interval, these occurrences are
   uniformly located in that interval.  Hence the delay introduced by
   arrival in MIN_DELAY_BETWEEN_RAS time is p * t/2.  Adding 0.250 for
   the random delay introduced, the average multicast RA response time
   is 0.458938 seconds.

   The average unicast RA response time of course is 0.250 seconds.

   The table gets modified as follows based on the recommendation of RFC
   3775 [5]













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         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         |   Timer               |Maximum  |Default   |Minimum   |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         | MaxRtrAdvInterval     |  1800   |   600    |  0.07    |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         | MinRtrAdvInterval     |   594   |   198    |  0.03    |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         |Avg. Multicast RA time |  1197   |   399    |  0.05    |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         |RA MCast response time |  0.5    |    NA    |    0     |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+
         |RA UCast response time |  0.5    |    NA    |    0     |
         +-----------------------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+

   Assuming Poisson arrival of router solicitation messages at the rate
   of 0.05 messages per second, the average multicast RA response time =
   0.250022 seconds.  The average unicast RA response time is the same
   0.250 seconds.  Changing the minimum values for these protocol
   constants as recommended by RFC 3775 [5] reduces the average time
   delay introduced by both solicited and un-solicited Router
   Advertisements.  Adopting these values for the unsolicited Router
   Advertisements will increase the bandwidth overhead for these RA
   messages.  With the minimum allowed average for un-solicited Router
   Advertisements there would be 20 message per second, assuming the
   minimum packet size for an RA with one prefix as 88 bytes, the
   bandwidth used the RAs alone will be 14 kbps.  If SEND packets are
   used for these Router Advertisements, with the keys and certificates
   the average packet size and hence the bandwidth used will increase
   dramatically.  The increased packet size because of SEND is not
   present always, as the certificate transport is initiated only when
   needed and will not affect ping-pong situations.

9.2  Unicast Response Transmission

   The IPv6 Router Discovery allows the routers to respond to RS message
   with a unicast RA, but does not mandate it [1].  The advantage in
   responding with an unicast RA message is to allow the IP host to
   infer bi-directional reachability from the RS-RA exchange.  The
   dis-advantage is that the router will not be able to aggregate its
   response for multiple RS messages received during the wait period and
   incorporate.

   It is important to note that the MIN_DELAY_BETWEEN_RAS restriction
   required by the Router Discovery is applicable only to multicast RAs
   [1].  Routers MAY choose to respond to RS messages with a unicast RA
   response to reduce the response delay if it sent a multicast RA
   within the last MIN_DELAY_BETWEEN_RAS seconds.  This difference may
   not be very high if the value (0.03) suggested in Mobile IPv6 is



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   implemented [5].

9.3  Point-to-Point Links

   IPv6 Router Discovery mandates the delay of RA responses by stating
   (in section 6.2.6 of [1]):

      "In all cases, Router Advertisements sent in response to a
       Router Solicitation MUST be delayed by a random time
       between 0 and MAX_RA_DELAY_TIME seconds."

   Cases where the router is on a point-to-point link, this restriction
   is too stringent as the router in question will be the only router on
   the link.  Routers on such point-to-point links MAY avoid the delay
   by not waiting for the prescribed random time before responding for
   the Router Solicitation message.

9.4  Prefix Advertisement

   A router MAY choose to split the options in the RA and send multiple
   RAs to reduce bandwidth overhead or to reduce the size of the RA to
   below the link MTU (see section 6.2.3 of [1]).

   If such a choice is made, average multicast RA time discussed in
   Section 9.1 increases for each subset of the prefixes included in the
   split RA messages.  Routers SHOULD consistently include one of the
   prefixes in each of its RA messages to provide the host with a unique
   identifier based on the combination of link-local address and the
   constant prefix, to identify the router every time a RA message is
   received from the router.

9.5  Secured Neighbor Discovery

   Routers supporting DNA SHOULD provide secured router discovery
   services [7].

   This requires not only digitally signed messaging from hosts to
   provide immutability of neighbor discovery messages on the access
   link, but delegated authority from the network infrastructure to
   route particular prefixes.

   This delegation chain is transmitted and received in Certification
   Path Solicitation and Certification Path Advertisement Messages.
   These messages are rate limited in a similar fashion to Router
   Advertisements and RS/RA exchanges [7].

   The certificates can be used by hosts to identify routers and their
   owner organizations, as well as to determine their authorization to



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   route for the advertised prefixes.

10.  Analysis of Configuration Algorithms

   Hosts that travel in wireless IPv6 networks of unknown topology must
   determine appropriate procedures in order to minimize detection
   latency or preserve energy resources.  If a host is prepared to
   accept any received Router Advertisement for configuring a default
   router, then it will complete link change detection more quickly than
   a device that explicitly checks for the current router's
   unreachability.

   This mechanism is called Eager Configuration Switching [14].  It may
   cause unnecessary configuration operations, especially if unsolicited
   advertisements from multiple routers on a link are received
   containing disjoint sets of prefixes.  In this case, a configuration
   per distinct set will result [1].

   Additionally, use of only unsolicited Router Advertisements may cause
   detection or configuration of links where routers are unable to
   receive packets from the host.  Reachability testing SHOULD be done
   in accordance with [1].

   Another alternative, which reduces the problem associated with
   disjoint prefixes, only allows eager switching after link-layer hint
   indicating that a cell change has occurred.  Although another router
   on the link may respond faster than the currently configured default
   router, it will not lead to erroneous detection if the router was
   previously seen before the link-layer hint was processed.

   An alternative mechanism is called Lazy Configuration Switching [14].
   This algorithm checks that the currently configured router is
   reachable before indicating configuration change.  In this case, new
   configuration will be delayed until a timeout occurs, if the
   currently configured router is unreachable.

   Since the duration of such a timeout will significantly extend the
   duration to detect link change, this procedure is best used if the
   cell change to link change ratio is very low.

   For example, if the expected time to:

         Successfully test reachability (with NS/NA) is N
         Test unreachability with a timeout is T
         Receive a Router Advertisement is R
         Reconfigure the host is C

   Then the probability of L3 link change given a L2 point of attachment



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   has changed is

         p = (Number of L3 links)/(Number of L2 Point of attachment)

   The probability of received RA being from a router different from the
   current access router is

         p1 = (sum of all (nr - 1)/ NR)

   Where nr is the number of routers in each L3 link and NR is the total
   number of routers in the whole network under study.

   Note that if you don't have multiple routers in the same L3 link,
   then all the (nr - 1) will be zero leading to

         p1 = 0

   Then the mean cost of Eager Configuration switching is:

         Cost(ECS)= (R + C) *  (p + p1)

   And the cost of Lazy switching is:

         Cost(LCS)= (T + R + C) * p + (1 - p) * N

   The mean cost due to Lazy Configuration Switching is lower than that
   of Eager Configuration Switching if:

         ( T + R + C ) * p  + (1 - p) * N < (R + C) * (p + p1)

   Using the indicative figures:

   N=100ms

   T=1000ms

   R=100ms

   C=500ms

   The values for p where LCS is better than ECS are:

         p * (1000 + 100 + 500 )ms +           < (500 + 100)ms *
                             (1 - p)*100ms                 (p + p1)

         1600ms * p + 100ms - 100ms * p        < 600ms * (p + p1)

         900ms * p + 100 ms                    < 600ms  * p1



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   when p1 = 30%

         900 * p + 100 < 180

         900 * p       < 80

         p             < 0.0888

   For these parameters, the Lazy Configuration Switching has better
   performance if the mean number of cells a device resides in before it
   has a link change is > 11.

   It may be noted that these costs are indicative of a system which
   requires a retransmission timeout of 1000ms to test unreachability,
   routers respond with unicast Router Advertisements, and DAD is
   neglected or has only 100ms of cost.

   If the reconfiguration cost is C=1000ms you will have


         900 * p + 100 ms < 1100 * p1

   if p1 = 30 %

         900 * p          < 230
         p                < 0.2555


   For these parameters, the Lazy Configuration Switching has better
   performance if the mean number of cells a device resides in before it
   has a link change is between 3 & 4.  This system describes a similar
   one to that above, except that in this case, the delays due to DAD or
   configuration are the default value of 1000ms.

11.  Complications to Detecting Network Attachment

   Detection of network attachment procedures can be delayed or may be
   incorrect due to different factors.  As the reachability testing
   mainly relies on timeout, packet loss or different router
   configurations may lead to erroneous conclusions.  This section gives
   some examples where complications may interfere with DNA processing.

11.1  Tentative Addressing

   When a host connects to a new link, it needs to create a link-local
   address.  But as the link-local address must be unique on a link,
   Duplication Address Detection (DAD) must be performed [3] by sending
   NS targeted at the link-local address undergoing validation.  An



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   address that is being validated is said to be a tentative address.
   The host that only has a tentative address must not accept packets
   intended to this destination, neither may send packets with it.  If
   the host does not get any reply to its DAD Neighbor Solicitations,
   the tentative link-local address can be allocated to the interface of
   the host.  From that point, the link-local address can be used and
   the prefix and router discovery can then take place.

   Several NS's can be sent to perform DAD on a tentative link local
   address.  However, the default number of transmissions of Neighbor
   Solicitations is 1.  If an NA is not received within one second after
   the NS transmission, the tentative address is considered as unique.
   However, if the NS or NA are lost for some reason, the tentative
   address will be considered as unique while another node might have
   the same address.  Notably though, each additional transmission of an
   NS introduces a delay of one second in the configuration
   establishment, which has an important impact on IP configuration
   latency.

   While hosts performing DNA do not know if they have arrived on a new
   link, they SHOULD treat their addresses as if they were.  This means
   that link-local addresses SHOULD be treated as tentative, and
   globally unique addresses SHOULD NOT be used in a way which creates
   neighbor cache state on their peers, while DNA procedures are
   underway.  The different treatment of IP addressing comes from the
   fact that on the global addresses cannot have an address conflict if
   they move to a topologically incorrect network where link-local
   addresses may.  Even though global addresses will not collide, the
   incorrect creation of neighbor cache entries on legacy peers may
   cause them some harm.

11.2  Packet Loss

   Generally, packet loss introduces significant delays in validation of
   current configuration or discovery of new configuration.  Because
   most of the protocols rely on timeout to consider that a peer is not
   reachable anymore, packet loss may lead to erroneous conclusions.

11.3  Router Configurations

   Each router can have its own configuration with respect to sending
   RA, and the treatment of router and neighbor solicitations.
   Different timers and constants might be used by different routers,
   such as the delay between Router Advertisements or delay before
   replying to an RS.  If a host is changing is IPv6 link, new router on
   that link may have a different configuration and may introduce more
   delay than the previous default router of the host.  The time needed
   to discover the new link can then be longer than expected by the



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   host.

11.4  Overlapping Coverage

   If a host can be attached to different links at the same time with
   the same interface, the host will probably listen to different
   routers, at least one on each link.  To be simultaneously attached to
   several links may be very valuable for a MN when it moves from one
   access network to another.  If the node can still be reachable
   through its old link while configuring the interface for its new
   link, packet loss can be minimized.  Such a situation may happen in a
   wireless environment if the link layer technology allows the MN to be
   simultaneously attached to several points of attachment and if the
   coverage area of access points are overlapping.  For the purposes of
   DNA, the different links should not be classified as a unique link.
   Because if one router or an entire link where the node is attached
   comes down doesn't mean that the other link is also down.

11.5  Multicast Snooping

   When a host is participating in DNA on a link where multicast
   snooping is in use, multicast packets may not be delivered to the
   LAN-segment to which the host is attached until MLD signaling has
   been performed [8][10][15].  Where DNA relies upon multicast packet
   delivery (for example, if a router needs to send a Neighbor
   Solicitation to the host), its function will be degraded until after
   an MLD report is sent.

   Where it is possible that multicast snooping is in operation, hosts
   MUST send MLD group joins (MLD reports) for solicited nodes'
   addresses swiftly after starting DNA procedures.

11.6  Link Partition

   Link partitioning occurs when a link's internal switching or relaying
   hardware fails, or if the internal communications within a link are
   prevented due to topology changes or wireless propagation.

   When a host is on a link which partitions, only a subset of the
   addresses or devices it is communicating with may still be available.
   Where link partitioning is rare (for example, with wired
   communication between routers on the link), existing router and
   neighbor discovery procedures may be sufficient for detecting change.

12.  Security Considerations

   Detecting Network Attachment is a mechanism which allows network
   messages to change the node's belief about its IPv6 configuration



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   state.  As such, it is important that the need for rapid testing of
   link change does not lead to situations where configuration is
   invalidated by malicious third parties, nor that information passed
   to configuration processes exposes the host to other attacks.

   Since DNA relies heavily upon IPv6 Neighbor Discovery,the threats
   which are applicable to those procedures also affect Detecting
   Network Attachment.  These threats are described in [11].

   Some additional threats are outlined below.

12.1  Securing Router Discovery

   DNA relies particularly heavily upon router discovery in order to
   test the validity of routing and addressing configuration.  In
   addition to reachability and configuration parameters,routing
   authorization needs to be determined for each router.In SEND [7],
   routing authorization is delegated by certificate authorities.

   SEND Router Advertisement packets contain the router's public key
   from a key pair used to sign the message.  Certificate authorities
   delegate a portion of their routing authority to the router, tying
   them to the public key of the router.  Hosts need to test the
   router's authority to provide routing for the prefixes advertised in
   its RAs in order to ensure safe configuration.

12.2  Replay or impersonation of messages.

   If a host receives a series of messages which authenticate the
   transmission of Router Advertisements, but aren't sent in response to
   the host's own solicitation, there is no guarantee that the router is
   actually present on the link.

   If an attacking device can replay advertisements elsewhere, such a
   router may be accepted based on the freshness of its timestamps in
   accordance with [7], until the host attempts bidirectional
   reachability tests with the false router.

   Where the bidirectional reachability attempts may be replayed by the
   attacker between a pair of links, a device with the ability to forge
   link-layer addresses may be able to fool both the router and host to
   believing they are directly adjacent.

   Additionally, when moving between several different networks, timing
   state as perceived by routers and hosts may become mismatched.  In
   this case it may be possible to allow a wider window of attacks by
   determining if a host has a delayed clock, and replaying signaling
   messages.



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   Additionally, if hosts' clocks can be made to slow down or speed up,
   secured neighbor discovery messages can be forced outside the valid
   window, and prevent correctly configured SEND messages from being
   processed.  In this case, it may be possible to bid down the host to
   choose an unsecured Router Advertisement that doesn't perform SEND to
   a valid router that does.

12.3  Authorization and Detecting Network Attachment

   Hosts connecting to the Internet over wireless media may be exposed
   to a variety of network configurations with differing robustness,
   controls and security.

   When a host is determining if link change has occurred, it may
   receive messages from devices with no advertised security mechanisms
   purporting to be routers, nodes sending signed router advertisements
   but with unknown delegation, or routers whose credentials need to be
   checked [11].  Where a host wishes to configure an unsecured router,
   it SHOULD at least confirm bidirectional reachability with the
   device, and it MUST mark the device as unsecured as described in [7].

   In any case, a secured router SHOULD be preferred over an unsecured
   one, except where other factors (unreachability) make the router
   unsuitable.  Since secured routers' advertisement services may be
   subject to attack, alternative (secured) reachability mechanisms from
   upper layers, or secured reachability of other devices known to be on
   the same link may be used to check reachability in the first
   instance.

12.4  Addressing

   While a DNA host is checking attachment, and observing DAD, it may
   receive a DAD defense NA from an unsecured source.

   SEND says that DAD defenses MAY be accepted even from non SEND nodes
   for the first configured address [7].

   While this is a valid action in the case where a host collides with
   another address owner after arrival on a new link, In the case that
   the host returns immediately to the same link, such a DAD defense NA
   message can only be a denial-of-service attempt.

   If a non-SEND node forges a DAD defense for an address which is still
   in peers' neighbor cache entries, a host may send a SEND protected
   unicast neighbor solicitation without a source link-layer address
   option to one its peers (which also uses SEND).  If this peer is
   reachable, it will not have registered the non-SEND DAD defense NA in
   its neighbor cache, and will send a direct NA back to the soliciting



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   host.  Such an NA reception disproves the DAD defense NA's validity.

   Therefore, a SEND host performing DNA which receives a DAD defense
   from a non-SEND node SHOULD send a unicast Neighbor Solicitation to a
   STALE or REACHABLE secure neighbor cache entry, omitting source
   link-layer address options.  In this case, the host should pick an
   entry which is likely to have a corresponding entry on the peer.  If
   the host responds within a RetransTimer interval, then the DAD
   defense was an attack, and the host SHOULD inform its systems
   administrator without disabling the address.

13.  Acknowledgments

   JinHyeock Choi and Erik Nordmark have done lots of work regarding
   inference of link identity through sets of prefixes.  Bernard Aboba's
   work on DNA for IPv4 significantly influenced this document.

14.  References

14.1  Normative References

   [1]  Narten, T., Nordmark, E. and W. Simpson, "Neighbor Discovery for
        IP Version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 2461, December 1998.

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

   [3]  Thomson, S. and T. Narten, "IPv6 Stateless Address
        Autoconfiguration", RFC2462 2462, December 1998.

   [4]  Haskin, D. and E. Allen, "IP Version 6 over PPP", RFC 2472,
        December 1998.

   [5]  Johnson, D., Perkins, C. and J. Arkko, "Mobility Support in
        IPv6", RFC 3775, June 2004.

   [6]  Conta, A. and S. Deering, "Internet Control Message Protocol
        (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
        Specification", RFC2463 2463, December 1998.

   [7]  Arkko, J., Kempf, J., Sommerfeld, B., Zill, B. and P. Nikander,
        "SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)", draft-ietf-send-ndopt-05
        (work in progress), April 2004.

14.2  Informative References

   [8]   Deering, S., Fenner, W. and B. Haberman, "Multicast Listener
         Discovery (MLD) for IPv6", RFC 2710, October 1999.



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   [9]   Haberman, B., "Source Address Selection for the Multicast
         Listener Discovery (MLD) Protocol", RFC 3590, September 2003.

   [10]  Vida, R. and L. Costa, "Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2
         (MLDv2) for IPv6", RFC 3810, June 2004.

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

   [12]  Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C. and M.
         Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6
         (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.

   [13]  Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
         Addressing Architecture", RFC 3513, April 2003.

   [14]  Fikouras, N A., K"onsgen, A J. and C. G"org, "Accelerating
         Mobile IP Hand-offs through Link-layer Information",
         Proceedings of the International Multiconference on
         Measurement, Modelling, and Evaluation of
         Computer-Communication Systems (MMB) 2001, September 2001.

   [15]  Christensen, M., Kimball, K. and F. Solensky, "Considerations
         for IGMP and MLD Snooping Switches", draft-ietf-magma-snoop-11
         (work in progress), May 2004.

   [16]  Kniveton, T J. and B C. Pentland, "Session minutes of the
         Detecting Network Attachment (DNA) BoF", Proceedings of the
         fifty-seventh Internet Engineering Task Force Meeting IETF57,
         July 2003.

   [17]  Koodli, R., "Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6",
         draft-ietf-mipshop-fast-mipv6-01 (work in progress), February
         2004.

   [18]  Liebsch, M., "Candidate Access Router Discovery",
         draft-ietf-seamoby-card-protocol-06 (work in progress), January
         2004.

   [19]  O'Hara, B. and G. Ennis, "Wireless LAN Medium Access Control
         (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications", ANSI/IEEE Std
         802.11, 1999.

   [20]  Yamamoto, S., "Detecting Network Attachment Terminology",
         draft-yamamoto-dna-term-00 (work in progress), February 2004.

   [21]  Manner, J. and M. Kojo, "Mobility Related Terminology",
         draft-ietf-seamoby-mobility-terminology-06 (work in progress),



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         February 2004.

   [22]  Choi, J. and E. Nordmark, "DNA with unmodified routers: Prefix
         list based approach", draft-jinchor-dna-cpl-00.txt (work in
         progress), June 2004.


Authors' Addresses

   Sathya Narayanan
   Panasonic Digital Networking Lab
   Two Research Way, 3rd Floor
   Princeton, NJ  08536
   USA

   Phone: 609 734 7599
   EMail: sathya@Research.Panasonic.COM
   URI:


   Greg Daley
   Centre for Telecommunications and Information Engineering
   Department of Electrical adn Computer Systems Engineering
   Monash University
   Clayton, Victoria  3800
   Australia

   Phone: +61 3 9905 4655
   EMail: greg.daley@eng.monash.edu.au


   Nicolas Montavont
   LSIIT - Univerity Louis Pasteur
   Pole API, bureau C444
   Boulevard Sebastien Brant
   Illkirch  67400
   FRANCE

   Phone: (33) 3 90 24 45 87
   EMail: montavont@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr
   URI:   http://www-r2.u-strasbg.fr/~montavont/

Appendix A.  Summary of Recommendations

   The signaling which causes a hint may be due to network-layer
   messages such as unexpected Router Advertisements, multicast listener
   queries or ICMPv6 error messages [1][8][10][6].  In these cases,
   caution must be exerted.



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   Hosts MUST ensure that untrusted messages do not cause unnecessary
   configuration changes, or significant consumption of host resources
   or bandwidth.

   Care must be taken when there is a chance of an error or change in
   the configuration.  Otherwise, if the assumptions due to the stored
   configuration are incorrect the configuration cost may be increased,
   or even harm to other devices.

   Hosts MUST ensure that they will cause no harm to other devices due
   to the invalidity or staleness of their configuration.

   If a host has not been present on a link to defend its address, and
   has been absent for a full DAD delay (minus transmission time) the
   host MUST undertake the full DAD procedure for each address from that
   link it wishes to configure [3].

   A host SHOULD accept a response from a previously known and
   authorized router if it is received while awaiting completion of
   authorization checks for a new router.  Note that previously known
   but unsecured routers MUST NOT override routers whose authorization
   is being assessed, as their advertisement may constitute a denial of
   service attack.

   Hosts that travel in wireless IPv6 networks of unknown topology must
   determine appropriate procedures in order to minimize detection
   latency or preserve energy resources.

   Where a host wishes to configure an unsecured router, it SHOULD at
   least confirm bidirectional reachability with the device, and it MUST
   mark the device as unsecured [7].

   Hints SHOULD NOT be considered to be authoritative for detecting IP
   configuration change by themselves.

   Therefore, hosts SHOULD NOT change their configuration state based on
   hints from other protocol layers.

   While hints from other protocol layers originate from within the
   host's own stack, the network layer SHOULD NOT treat hints from other
   protocol layers as authoritative indications of link change.

   Hosts SHOULD NOT start DNA procedures simply because a data link is
   idle, in accordance with [1].  Hosts MAY act on hints associated with
   non-reception of expected signaling or data.

   Since DNA is likely to be used when communicating with devices over
   wireless links, suitable resilience to packet loss SHOULD be



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   incorporated into either the hinting mechanism, or the DNA initiation
   system.

   Hosts SHOULD NOT act immediately on packet loss indications, delaying
   until it is clear that the packet losses aren't caused by transient
   events.

   It is possible that hints arrive synchronously on multiple hosts at
   the same time.  As described in [1][3], a host SHOULD delay randomly
   before acting on a widely receivable advertisement, in order to avoid
   response implosion.

   Where a host considers it may be on a new link and learns this from a
   hint generated by a multicast message, the host SHOULD defer 0-1000ms
   in accordance with [1].

   When experiencing a large number of hints, a host SHOULD employ
   hysteresis techniques to prevent excessive use of network resources.
   The host MAY change the weight of particular hints, to devalue them
   if their accuracy has been poor, or suggests invalid configurations.

   These (inactive) hosts SHOULD delay 0-1000ms before sending a
   solicitation, and MAY choose to wait up to twice the advertised
   Router Advertisement Interval (plus the random delay) before sending
   [5].

   A host MAY choose to adopt an appropriate link change detection
   strategy based upon hints received from other layers, with suitable
   caution and hysteresis.

   If a host knows that connectivity has been lost at the link-layer, it
   SHOULD pause transmission of upper-layer packets to the lower-layer,
   until general data frames can be send on the new cell.

   A host SHOULD also stop sending signaling for the purpose of DNA to a
   link-layer it has been reliably informed is unavailable.

   In order to determine validity of configuration in such topologies,
   reachability testing MAY be required.  Additionally, reception of
   solicited Router Advertisements some heuristic SHOULD be used, where
   possible, to ensure that complete prefix information is received by
   the host.  This may limit the false detection of link change due to
   omitted prefixes.

   If a host has recently received a solicited Router Advertisement from
   the configured router, it SHOULD see all prefixes configured on the
   router's interface at the time [1].  Subsequent reception of a Router
   Advertisement with a prefix not in the set means that the current IP



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   configuration is invalid, and addressing and routing configuration
   procedures SHOULD be started.

   Also, some networks enforce IP address changes when link-layer change
   occurs.  Devices that are aware of such procedures SHOULD start IP
   configuration immediately on attachment to a new link-layer.

   While most wireless access networks today contain one advertising
   router, hosts SHOULD NOT immediately assume that only one router is
   on a link.

   Importantly, a host SHOULD NOT change its configuration if a new
   router advertises a prefix known to be used by another router on the
   same IP link.  For such cases, hosts SHOULD undertake reachability
   testing with the previously configured router before updating their
   routing configuration [1].

   Additionally, use of only unsolicited Router Advertisements may cause
   detection or configuration of links where routers are unable to
   receive packets from the host.  Reachability testing SHOULD be done
   in accordance with [1].

   In any case, a secured router SHOULD be preferred over an unsecured
   one, except where other factors (unreachability) make the router
   unsuitable.

   When using the passive method, absence of Router Advertisements (RA)
   from the current default router MAY require verification and
   acquisition of configuration using one of the active mechanisms

   Hints MAY be used to update a wireless host's timers or probing
   behavior in such a way as to assist detection of network attachment.

   A host MAY choose to adopt an appropriate link change detection
   strategy based upon hints received from other layers, with suitable
   caution and hysteresis.

   Hosts MAY act on hints associated with non-reception of expected
   signaling or data.

   If a host does not expect to send or receive packets soon, it MAY
   choose to defer detection of network attachment.

   If no packet transmission on the wireless link has occurred, before
   the new IP configuration is used for upper layer protocols, hosts MAY
   choose not to delay the reachability probe to the router, if the
   transmission time is unrelated to received multicast packets.




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   In the case that the host arrives back on the same link in time less
   than the DAD completion time (minus a packet transmission and
   propagation time), the host MAY reclaim the address by sending
   Neighbor Advertisement messages as if another host had attempted DAD
   while the host was away.  This will prevent DAD completion by another
   node upon NA reception.

   Reception of Router Advertisements that do not contain any prefixes
   in common with the previously advertised set MAY be an indicator that
   link change has occurred.  IPv6 Neighbor Discovery [1] explicitly
   allows such configurations to exist though, and additionally allows
   omission of prefix information options in unsolicited Router
   Advertisements.  In order to determine validity of configuration in
   such topologies, reachability testing MAY be required.

Appendix B.  Example State Transition Diagram

   TBD

Appendix C.  DNA With Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6

   TBD

Appendix D.  DNA with Candidate Access Router Discovery

   TBD

























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