IEEE 802.15.4 Information Element for the IETF
RFC 8137

• Status
• IESG evaluation record
• IESG writeups
• Email expansions
• History

• Versions
• 00
• 01
• 02
• 03
• 04
• 05
• 06

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                        T. Kivinen
Request for Comments: 8137                                 INSIDE Secure
Category: Informational                                        P. Kinney
ISSN: 2070-1721                                    Kinney Consulting LLC
                                                                May 2017

             IEEE 802.15.4 Information Element for the IETF

Abstract

   IEEE Std 802.15.4 defines Information Elements (IEs) that can be used
   to extend 802.15.4 in an interoperable manner.  The IEEE 802.15
   Assigned Numbers Authority (ANA) manages the registry of the
   Information Elements.  This document formulates a request for ANA to
   allocate a number from that registry for the IETF and describes how
   the IE is formatted to provide subtypes.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8137.

Copyright Notice

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

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Kivinen & Kinney              Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 8137       IEEE 802.15.4 Information Element for IETF       May 2017

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Working Groups Benefiting from the IETF 802.15.4 IE . . . . .   3
   4.  IETF IE Subtype Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  Request to Allocate an IETF IE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Appendix A.  Vendor Specific IE in IEEE 802.15.4  . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   IEEE Std 802.15.4 [IEEE802.15.4] is a standard, referred to by RFC
   4944 [RFC4944] and other documents, that enables very low-cost and
   low-power communications.  The standard defines numerous optional
   Physical Layers (PHYs) operating in many different frequency bands
   with a simple and effective Medium Access Control (MAC).

   IEEE Std 802.15.4 defines Information Elements (IEs) that can be used
   to extend 802.15.4 in an interoperable manner.  An IE provides a
   flexible, extensible, and easily implementable method of
   encapsulating information.  The general format of an IE as defined in
   Section 7.4 of IEEE Std 802.15.4-2015 [IEEE802.15.4] consists of an
   identification (ID) field, a length field, and a content field.
   Multiple IEs may be concatenated, and elements with unknown ID values
   in a list of IEs can be skipped since their length is known.  IEs
   provide a flexible container for information that allows the addition
   of new IE definitions in future versions of the standard in a
   backwards-compatible manner.

   There are two different IE types, Header IE and Payload IE.  A Header
   IE is part of the MAC header; it is never encrypted, but it may be
   authenticated.  Most of the Header IE processing is done by the MAC,
   and IETF protocols should not have any direct effect on that
   processing.  A Payload IE is part of the MAC payload and may be
   encrypted and authenticated.

   IETF protocols will need to insert information in the 802.15.4
   frames; the 802.15.4 standard enables that by including one or more
   payload IEs in the frame that will contain the information.  For this
   purpose, the IETF requests a dedicated Payload IE from the IEEE