The Host Identity Protocol (HIP) provides a method of separating the end-point identifier and locator roles of IP addresses. It introduces a new Host Identity (HI) name space, based on public keys. The public keys are typically, but not necessarily, self generated. The specifications for the architecture and protocol details for these mechanisms consist of: HIP Architecture (RFC 4423) Host Identity Protocol (RFC 5201) There are several publicly known interoperating implementations, some of which are open source. Currently, the HIP base protocol works well with any pair of co-operating end-hosts. However, to be more useful and more widely deployable, HIP needs some support from the existing infrastructure, including the DNS, and a new piece of infrastructure, called the HIP rendezvous server. +-------------------------------------------------------+ | The purpose of this Working Group is to define the | | minimal infrastructure elements that are needed for | | HIP experimentation on a wide scale. | +-------------------------------------------------------+ At this point, the missing elements for running such wide-scale experiments are a NAT traversal solution, a description on the interactions between legacy (i.e., HIP unaware) applications and HIP, and a native API for HIP. Additionally, the working group will specify, also in Experimental RFCs, how to build HIP-based overlays. HIP-based overlays have received a lot of attention in different fora and are seen as a key area for HIP experimentation where the benefits HIP brings may be most relevant. Note that even though the specifications are chartered for Experimental, it is understood that their quality and security properties should match the standards track requirements. The main purpose for producing Experimental documents instead of standards track ones are the unknown effects that the mechanisms may have on applications and on the Internet at large. In parallel to this working group, there is an IRTF Research Group with a broader scope that includes efforts both on developing the more forward looking aspects of the HIP architecture and on exploring the effects that HIP may have on the applications and the Internet. The following are charter items for the working group: o Specify how legacy (i.e., HIP unaware) applications can be made to work with HIP. o Specify a solution for HIP to traverse legacy (i.e., HIP unaware) NATs. This solution will be based on existing NAT traversal mechanisms such as ICE (Interactive Connectivity Establishment). o Specify a native HIP socket API. o Specify a framework to build HIP-based overlays. This framework will describe how HIP can perform some of the tasks needed to build an overlay and how technologies developed somewhere else (e.g., a peer protocol developed in the P2PSIP WG) can complement HIP by performing the tasks HIP was not designed to perform. o Specify how to carry certificates in the base exchange. This was removed from the base HIP spec so that the mechanism is specified in a stand-alone spec. o Specify how to carry upper-layer data over specified HIP packets. These include some of the existing HIP packets and possibly new HIP packets (e.g., a HIP packet that occurs outside a HIP base exchange). o Specify a mechanism to implement multi-hop routing in HIP.