Internet DRAFT - draft-taylor-cdpd-viewpt
draft-taylor-cdpd-viewpt
INTERNET-DRAFT Mark S. Taylor
CDPD Consortium
April, 1994
A cellular industry view of IPng
<draft-taylor-ipng-cdpd-viewpt-00.txt>
Status of this Memo:
This document was submitted to the IETF IPng area in response to RFC 1550
Publication of this document does not imply acceptance by the IPng area of
any ideas expressed within. Comments should be submitted to the
big-internet@munnari.oz.au mailing list.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
This document is an Internet Draft. Internet Drafts are working documents
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Abstract:
This memo is a response to RFC 1550, IP: Next Generation (IPng) White Paper
Solicitation. The statements in this paper are intended as input to the
technical discussions within IETF, and do not represent any endorsement or
commitment on the part of the cellular industry, the Cellular Digital Packet
Data (CDPD) consortium of service providers or any of its constituent
companies.
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Introduction
This is a draft of the requirements for IPng as envisioned by
representatives of the Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) consortium of
service providers. As the leading service providers for this nascent
technology, which will provide the capability for mobility of native
mainstream connectionless network layer-based applications it is our
intention to support whatever form IPng takes. However, there are several
requirements which we feel IPng must meet.
Mobility
Since we will offer mobile services, our primary requirement is that IPng
not inhibit our support of mobility. IPng must not impede devices from
being able to operate anywhere anytime. Applications on these mobile
devices must look and feel the same to the user regardless of location.
NPDUs should be self-contained and not disallow the redirection inherent to
our mobility solution, i.e., IPng must be connectionless.
Further, since IPng provides an opportunity for design enhancements above
and beyond IPv4, we propose that native support for mobility be regarded as
an explicit IPng requirement. Local area and wide area wireless technology
creates new opportunities for both TCP/IP and the Internet. Although the
capability for mobility is orthogonal to the wired or wireless nature of the
data link in use, the rapid deployment wireless technology amplifies the
requirement for topological flexibility.
As a by-product of mobility, the significance of "occasionally-connected
hosts" increases. The ability to accommodate occasionally-connected hosts
in IPng is a requirement.
Scale
In terms of scale, we envision some 20 to 40 million users by the year 2007.
In this context a "user" can be anything from a vending machine to a "road
warrior". These numbers are for North America alone. Worldwide, we
anticipate that IPng should be able to support billions of "users". Of
course, the sparseness of network address assignments which is necessary for
subnetting, etc., dictates that IPng should support at least tens or
hundreds of billions of addresses.
Addressing
In terms of addressing, we would expect addresses to be hierarchical. In
addition, a node with multiple links should require only a single address
although more than one address should also be possible. The mapping of
names to addresses should be independent of location; an address should be
an address, not a route. Variable-length addressing is also required to
Mark S. Taylor [Page 2]
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ensure continued protocol (IPng) extensibility. Administration of address
assignments should be distributed and not centralized as it is now.
Security
IPng should also support security mechanisms which will grow increasingly
important on the proverbial "information highway" for commercial users.
Security services which may optionally be expected from a Layer 3 entity
such as IPng include peer entity authentication, data confidentiality,
traffic flow confidentiality, data integrity and location confidentiality.
Accounting
The ability to do accounting at Layer 3 is a requirement. The CDPD
specification can be used as a model of the type of accounting services that
we need.
Route Selection
In the voice communications arena, "equal access" and choice of an
"interexchange carrier (IXC)" are issues that must be addressed. Similar
requirements for data may also exist.
Source- and policy-based routing for inter-domain traffic can address this
requirement. IPng must allow the selection of at least the first transient
network service provider based on the source host.
Data Efficiency
The bandwidth of wide area wireless networks is a precious resource, the use
of which must be optimized. IPng must allow optimal use of the underlying
Layer 2 medium. Layer 3 Protocol Control Information (PCI) should be as
condensed as possible. The protocol should be optimized for data
efficiency.
Packet prioritization must also be supported by IPng in order to optimize
the use of low speed networks. This requirement includes both class and
grade of service definitions for flexibility.
Transition
The final requirement for IPng is that it must interoperate with IP for the
foreseeable future. Bridging mechanisms must be supported and a strategy
for the transition from IPv4 to IPng must be defined. Use of options
fields, etc., are one mechanism to support the requirement for IPng
protocols to support IP addresses and headers.
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Author's Address:
Mark S. Taylor
Director of System Development
McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc.
Wireless Data Division
10230 NE Points Drive
Kirkland, WA 98033-7869 USA
email: mark.s.taylor@airdata.com
Mark S. Taylor [Page 4]
Expire: October 1994
