Concluded WG Ad-Hoc Network Autoconfiguration (autoconf)

Note: The data for concluded WGs is occasionally incorrect.

WG Name Ad-Hoc Network Autoconfiguration
Acronym autoconf
Area Internet Area (int)
State Concluded
Charter charter-ietf-autoconf-05 Approved
Document dependencies
Additional resources Issue tracker, Wiki
Personnel Chairs Ryuji Wakikawa, Thomas H. Clausen
Area Director Jari Arkko
Mailing list Address autoconf@ietf.org
To subscribe https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/autoconf
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/search/?email_list=autoconf

Final Charter for Working Group

RFC 5889 presents one possible IPv6 addressing model for ad hoc
nodes. In this model the ad hoc routers need to configure their
network interface(s) with addresses valid in the ad hoc network, and
may configure additional prefixes for use by attached nodes.

After completing the work on RFC 5889, the main purpose of the
AUTOCONF WG is to standardize how existing IPv6 address configuration
tools can be used for address configuration.

  1. DHCPv6 operation over MANET, including:

  • A DHCPv6-based mechanism for configuring required interface
    addresses for the routers in the ad hoc network. This mechanism
    is expected to produce addresses with properties outlined in RFC
    5889. This mechanism uses the existing DHCPv6 protocol unchanged,
    and assumes a central node that can allocate addresses on a
    first-come-first-served basis. Nodes in the ad hoc network
    will relay messages to the central node in order to help a new
    node get an address for itself. This mechanism is only suitable
    for deployments were a central node can be set up. It should be
    noted that many existing deployments employ Internet gateways
    that can act as such a central node as well. Future extensions
    such as central node election may make this mechanism suitable
    for also for stand-alone ad hoc networks.

  • A DHCPv6-based mechanism for delegating a prefix(es) to each
    router for use by applications running on the routers themselves,
    or for configuration of attached hosts/networks. This mechanism
    works in a similar manner to the one above, but allocates
    prefixes instead of addresses.

Both mechanisms should be independent from operation of any specific
MANET routing protocol, although may exploit information maintained by
such a routing protocol, if available.

The working group will adapt and/or reuse existing protocols whenever
reasonable and possible. No new duplicate address detection mechanisms
will be specified.

  1. Analysis of Problem Space for distributed address configuration and
    service discovery. This analysis is necessary in order to understand
    what type of distributed solution(s) can be standardized. There is
    already quite a lot of material about possible solutions in the
    literature.

The working group plans to establish design teams for rapidly advancing
towards initial submissions for these two work items. The group shall
also work with the 6LOWPAN and ROLL working group to ensure that
the results from AUTOCONF working group are useful for the larger
community and do not overlap with work already in progress in these
other working groups.

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Jun 2012 Submission of the 'Distributed Solution' to the IESG for publication as an Proposed Standard RFC
Jun 2012 Rechartering or Closing WG
Oct 2011 First working group draft of the 'Distributed Solution'
Sep 2011 Submission of the 'Analysis of Problem Space' the IESG for publication as Informational RFC
Sep 2011 Submission of the 'DHCPv6 operation over MANET' to the IESG for publication as BCP
Jan 2011 First working group draft of the 'DHCPv6 operation over MANET'
Jan 2011 First working group draft of the 'Analysis of Problem Space'

Done milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Done Submit 'MANET architecture' document to IESG for publication as an informational RFC
Done Submit an initial 'terminology and problem statement' WG document
Done Submit an initial 'MANET architecture' WG document