Subject: zerouter bof

From: Aidan Williams <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 12:30:04 +1000

Hi all,

I have requested a bof on zeroconf routers in Atlanta.
You can find a draft charter attached to this email.

Please use the zerouter email list if you would like to
participate in the discussion:

   [email-masked]
   http://internet.motlabs.com/mailman/listinfo/zerouter

-- 

regards
	aidan
____
:wq!

Sydney Network Research Lab             [email-masked]
Motorola Australian Research Centre          phone: +61 2 9666 0649
Locked Bag 5028, Botany NSW 1455              phax: +61 2 9666 0501
Australia                            http://marc.labs.mot.com/snrl/

Draft Zeroconf Router WG Charter
================================

Mailing List:
  [email-masked]
  http://internet.motlabs.com/mailman/listinfo/zerouter

IP networks are in widespread use in environments like the home where
there is no network administrator.  With IPv6 deployment delegating
/48 prefixes and the increasing complexity and variety of home
networks, automatic configuration of routers in the home is desirable.
Host auto-configuration mechanisms exist for IPv6 and IPv4 however no
protocols have been standardised that support autoconfiguration of a
mesh of routers.

The objective of this working group is to define protocol mechanisms
that will allow consistent IP subnet prefixes to be automatically
assigned in a mesh of routers.  Such networks are expected to connect
to IP infrastructure and will need to receive configuration parameters
in order to operate (e.g. delegated IPv6 prefix).

IP router auto-configuration is complementary to Layer-2 bridging.
Many commodity home networking products today use Layer-2 bridging and
work satisfactorily for simple networks.  Achieving a robust L2
bridged network requires 802.1d spanning tree (often not implemented).
Efficient multicast forwarding requires IGMP/MLD snooping, GARP/GMRP
or a similar mechanism.  Sometimes L2 bridging is not possible, for
example between IEEE1394 and ethernet, or between FDDI and ethernet.
A Layer-3 approach allows existing unicast and multicast routing
protocols to be used to create a robust and efficient auto-configured
home network.

Work areas:

  1. Parameter propagation

     Specify mechanisms to:
     - Propogate a delegated address range through a mesh of routers.
     - Propagate configuration parameters to hosts, through the mesh
       of routers (e.g. default DNS domain suffix, DNS server).

  2. Automatic assignment of subnet identifiers to links.

     - Specify protocols that will automatically generate consistent
       subnet numbers in a mesh of routers.

  3. Specify how automatic address assignment interacts with specific
     unicast and multicast routing protocols.

Scope statements:

  - Zerouter protocols are intended to be used in leaf networks.
    Auto-configuration of transit networks is out of scope.

  - Whilst there are some similarities to MANET routing protocols,
    zerouter protocols will be used in a different environment.
    Differences are no/low mobility, and a strong emphasis on address
    configuration.

  - Auto-configuration of L2 media parameters is out of scope
    (e.g. virtual circuit IDs and the like).

Existing drafts:

  draft-haberman-ipngwg-auto-prefix-02.txt
  draft-troan-dhcpv6-opt-prefix-delegation-00.txt
  draft-lutchann-ipv6-delegate-option-00.txt
  draft-white-zeroconf-uiap-00.txt
  draft-white-zeroconf-subnet-alloc-00.txt
  draft-chelius-router-autoconf-00.txt