RFC 8137
IEEE 802.15.4 Information Element for the IETF
Hiii bestie 💖 RFC 8137 is all about getting a dedicated slot in the IEEE 802.15.4 frame for IETF stuff 🦋
Title: IEEE 802.15.4 Information Element for the IETF Authors: T. Kivinen (INSIDE Secure) and P. Kinney (Kinney Consulting LLC) 👑 Category: Informational (not a Standards Track spec, just published for info) 🌸 Date: May 2017 ISSN: 2070-1721 Obsoletes / Updates: the title block doesn't list either one 🙈
Abstract ✨
okay so IEEE Std 802.15.4 has these things called Information Elements (IEs) that let you extend 802.15.4 in a way every device can understand 🫶 The IEEE 802.15 Assigned Numbers Authority (ANA) keeps the registry of them. This doc asks the ANA to hand the IETF a number from that registry, and it explains how the IE is formatted so it can hold subtypes 💅
Status of This Memo 📝
this doc is not an Internet Standards Track spec. it's published for informational purposes, so no pressure 🧚
it's still an IETF product and it reflects the consensus of the IETF community. it got public review and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). not every IESG-approved doc is a candidate for any level of Internet Standard, so check Section 2 of RFC 7841 if you want the details 🔥
for the current status, errata, and how to send feedback, go to 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 doc is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) as in effect on the date of publication. please read those carefully, bestie, because they spell out your rights and restrictions for this doc 🙏 Code Components pulled from this doc must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they come with no warranty, as described in the Simplified BSD License 💅
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71. Introduction 🌈
IEEE Std 802.15.4 [IEEE802.15.4] is a standard that RFC 4944 [RFC4944] and other docs point to, and it enables super low-cost, low-power communication 🔋 It defines lots of optional Physical Layers (PHYs) that run in many different frequency bands, plus a simple and effective Medium Access Control (MAC) 🦋
IEEE Std 802.15.4 defines Information Elements (IEs) that extend 802.15.4 in an interoperable way 💖 An IE is a flexible, extensible, easy-to-implement way to package information. Per Section 7.4 of IEEE Std 802.15.4-2015 [IEEE802.15.4], the general IE format has an identification (ID) field, a length field, and a content field. You can concatenate several IEs together, and if you hit an unknown ID in a list of IEs you can just skip it, since its length is known 🙌 IEs are basically a container that lets future versions of the standard add new IE definitions in a backwards-compatible manner ✨
There are two IE types: Header IE and Payload IE 💅 A Header IE lives in the MAC header. It's never encrypted, but it may be authenticated. Most Header IE processing is handled by the MAC, and IETF protocols should not have any direct effect on that processing 🙈 A Payload IE lives in the MAC payload and may be encrypted and authenticated 💜
IETF protocols will need to put information into 802.15.4 frames, and the standard lets them do that by including one or more Payload IEs in the frame that carry the info 🧚 So the IETF is requesting a dedicated Payload IE from the IEEE 802.15 Assigned Numbers Authority (ANA) [IEEE802.15-ANA]. The current 802.15 ANA database lives at [IEEE802.15-ANA-DB] 🍓
The 802.15.4 operations manual [IEEE802.15-OPS] explains how a Standards Development Organization (SDO) can ask for an IE allocation. To make the request, the SDO has to provide (i) the reason for it, (ii) a description of the protocol format showing an appropriate subtype capability, and (iii) an agreement that only one IE number will be allocated for use by that SDO 🎀
this doc gives all the info needed for that request 🫶
2. Terminology 📖
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here. 💅
3. Working Groups Benefiting from the IETF 802.15.4 IE 🌸
there are several IETF working groups, like 6TiSCH, 6lo, and CoRE, that could benefit from the IETF IE 🦋 The 6TiSCH Working Group has already said it needs the IE, and this allocation is expected to cover that need ✨
4. IETF IE Subtype Format 💜
The Payload IE content can be at most 2047 octets, and the 802.15.4 frame holds a list of Payload IEs. One frame can have multiple Payload IEs, ended by the Payload IE terminator, which can then be followed by the payload 🧚
Since 802.15.4 already defines a list of Payload IEs and their structures, this doc doesn't need to specify the internal nesting structure of the IETF IE 🙌 The 802.15.4 Payload IE format includes the Length field, and the length of the subtype content can be worked out from that Payload IE Length field of the IETF IE 💖
here's the IETF IE format, bestie 👑
1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Subtype ID | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ |
~ subtype content ~
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Figure 1: IETF IE Subtype Format- Subtype ID is the IANA-allocated number that says which subtype the IETF IE is. The value 0 is reserved for future extensibility, in case a longer subtype ID field is ever needed 🔮
- Subtype content is the actual content of the Information Element. Its length can be calculated from the Length field of the IETF IE 🌈
One IEEE 802.15.4 frame MAY contain multiple IETF IEs, with the same or different subtypes 🫶
5. Request to Allocate an IETF IE 🎀
Per the IETF's request, the IEEE 802.15 Working Group has allocated an ID (5) for a Payload IE for IETF use. The IETF understands that this is the only ID it will be issued 🥰
6. Security Considerations 🔐
⚠️ this section is serious, so read it carefully 🙈
This doc creates an IANA registry for IETF IE subtype IDs (see Section 7). The security of the protocols using the IEs MUST be described in the documents requesting allocations from this registry 🚨
IEEE Std 802.15.4 [IEEE802.15.4] has methods for enforcing security on an IE when a frame is received, but that only works per IE type 😭 That means all IETF IEs end up with the same security-level requirements, no matter which subtype ID they use. This can cause problems if different security processing is needed and any of those IEs would have to be processed at the MAC level. Since all IETF protocols should operate at a higher level than the MAC, the higher-layer processing for these IEs SHOULD perform separate security policy checking based on the IETF IE subtype ID, in addition to the checks the MAC does 💀
7. IANA Considerations 📋
The "IEEE Std 802.15.4 IETF IE Subtype IDs" registry has been created as follows:
Value Subtype ID
0 Reserved
1-200 Unassigned
201-255 Experimental UseAny change or addition to this registry requires Expert Review [RFC5226] 🧐
there are already vendor-specific IEs defined in IEEE 802.15.4 (see Appendix A), so there's no need to reserve any subtype IDs for vendor-specific uses 💅
8. References 📚
8.1. Normative References 💖
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.8.2. Informative References 🔎
[IEEE802.15.4]
IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Low-Rate Wireless Networks",
IEEE Standard 802.15.4,
<https://standards.ieee.org/about/get/802/802.15.html>.
[IEEE802.15-ANA]
IEEE 802.15, "IEEE 802.15 Assigned Numbers Authority",
<http://www.ieee802.org/15/ANA.html>.
[IEEE802.15-ANA-DB]
IEEE, "IEEE 802.15 ANA database",
<https://mentor.ieee.org/802.15/
documents?is_dcn=257&is_group=0000>.
[IEEE802.15-OPS]
IEEE, "IEEE 802.15 Operations Manual",
<https://mentor.ieee.org/802.15/
documents?is_dcn=235&is_group=0000>.
[RFC4944] Montenegro, G., Kushalnagar, N., Hui, J., and D. Culler,
"Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4
Networks", RFC 4944, DOI 10.17487/RFC4944, September 2007,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4944>.
[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5226, May 2008,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5226>.Appendix A. Vendor Specific IE in IEEE 802.15.4 🌟
IEEE 802.15.4 already has several numbers for different Vendor Specific IE types 🙌 One is for the Vendor Specific Header IE for Header IEs. There's one incorrectly named "Vendor Specific Nested IE" for Payload IEs, and another with exactly the same name under the MLME Nested IE long format 🤪 All of the Vendor Specific IEs start with a 3-octet vendor OUI that identifies the organization 🫶
Authors' Addresses 💌
Tero Kivinen
INSIDE Secure
Lonnrotinkatu 11
Helsinki FI-00120
Finland
Email: kivinen@iki.fi
Pat Kinney
Kinney Consulting LLC
Email: pat.kinney@kinneyconsultingllc.comthat's the whole RFC, bestie 🌈✨ you're officially an 802.15.4 IE expert now 👑💖
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- ietf: rfc8137 2017-05
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