Programmable IP Format in IOT
Network
China Mobile
No.32 XuanWuMen West Street
Beijing
100053
China
duzongpeng@foxmail.com
Internet Area
Network Working Group
IP, IOT, programmable
This document describes a programmable IP format communication
mechanism for the IOT network .
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
There will be more and more IOT devices deployed in the future. IOT
networks are deployed widely in the residential scenarios and in the
smart city scenarios. However, the IOT devices belonging to different
vendors are hard to communicate.
Normally, they need to connect to the servers in the cloud, and then
perhaps they can make some cooperation. It is to say that they can not
communicate freely in the local network. We suggest that what we need
here is a new layer 3 narrow waist for different IOT networks.
IOT devices have many different requirements, so that we need a
programmable IP format for a specific IOT network. For example, some IOT
networks may need an IP format that has simplified format; meanwhile,
some IOT networks may need an IP format that contains more security
considerations.
In this document, we introduce a mechanism to signal the selected
format for an IOT network. Our final goal is to support a programmable
IP format for various IOT networks.
In the current Internet, we have designed a uniform IP format . It can benefit the communication among all the
devices in the Internet. However, the IOT networks are quite different
from the traditional IP network, and we need a programmable layer 3 for
them to enable a better local communication.
As we have not assumed a unified format in the layer 3, we need to
determinate the encapsulation format of the layer 3. For example, we can
make a bitmap to communicate between the gateway of the IOT network and
a new IOT device that needs to communicate with the IOT network. In
other words, they can negotiation the format of the layer 3.
We suggest using some communications in the layer 2 to determinate
the encapsulation format of the layer 3. The new IOT device may send a
L2 frame to the gateway of the IOT network. The gateway may response
another L2 frame that contains the information about the format in this
IOT network.
By using the information in the frame from the gateway, the new IOT
device can connect to the IOT network and communicate with the IOT
devices in the IOT network.
The encapsulation information can be an index of some pre-configured
format, or it can be a bitmap that describes the encapsulation format in
the IOT network. In the later case, the bitmap may indicate whether a
specific item is encoded in the format, for example, the SA, the TTL, or
the next header. Each bit in the bitmap should be pre-configured and can
be understood without ambiguity. Following the bitmap, some offsets
should be given, so that we can determine the length of each item that
is contained in the format. Hence, we can make a flexible platform for
the encapsulation of the layer 3 in the IOT network, while the different
format requirements of the IOT networks can be fulfilled.