Assignment of an Ethertype for IPv6 with Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (LoWPAN) Encapsulation
RFC 7973

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) R. Droms
Request for Comments: 7973
Category: Informational P. Duffy
ISSN: 2070-1721 Cisco
 November 2016
 Assignment of an Ethertype for IPv6 with
 Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (LoWPAN) Encapsulation
Abstract
 When carried over Layer 2 technologies such as Ethernet, IPv6
 datagrams using Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (LoWPAN)
 encapsulation as defined in RFC 4944 must be identified so the
 receiver can correctly interpret the encoded IPv6 datagram. The IETF
 officially requested the assignment of an Ethertype for that purpose
 and this document reports that assignment.
Status of This Memo
 This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
 published for informational purposes.
 This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
 (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
 received public review and has been approved for publication by the
 Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
 approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
 Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.
 Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
 and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
 http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7973.
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RFC 7973 Ethertype for LoWPAN Encapsulation November 2016
Copyright Notice
 Copyright (c) 2016 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
 document authors. All rights reserved.
 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
 publication of this document. Please review these documents
 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
 described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
 2. Assignment of an Ethertype by IEEE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 3. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 5. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1. Introduction
 The IETF defined "LoWPAN encapsulation", a format for IPv6 [RFC2460]
 datagram encapsulation [RFC4944]. This document regards any IPv6
 datagram using the Dispatch octet as defined in Section 5.1 of RFC
 4944 as using LoWPAN encapsulation. LoWPAN encapsulation as defined
 in RFC 4944 has been updated by [RFC6282], and may be extended and
 modified by future IETF Standards. The intended Layer 2 technology
 for IPv6 datagrams using LoWPAN encapsulation as originally defined
 is [IEEE.802.15.4_2011], which does not provide for a protocol switch
 in its Layer 2 headers.
 The following list gives some example use cases for the Ethertype-
 based protocol dispatch for the LoWPAN-encapsulated IPv6 datagram:
 o Usage of LoWPAN encapsulation in conjunction with IEEE 802.15.9
 Multiplexed Data Service [IEEE802159], which provides the ability
 to perform upper layer protocol dispatch for IEEE 802.15.4
 networks. Wi-SUN Alliance intends to use the 15.9 Multiplexed
 Data Information Element for upper layer protocol dispatch. As
 specified in IEEE 802.15.9, dispatch of LoWPAN encapsulation
 frames will require that an Ethertype be assigned for LoWPAN
 encapsulation.
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RFC 7973 Ethertype for LoWPAN Encapsulation November 2016
 o LoWPAN encapsulation will likely be needed for Wi-Fi Alliance's
 HaLoW [HALOW] standard (low-power operation in the 900 MHz band).
 o Other Layer 2 technologies such as Ethernet and debugging tools
 such as Wireshark require a unique Protocol Type field for LoWPAN
 encapsulation to properly interpret IPv6 datagrams that use LoWPAN
 encapsulation.
 o Any existing or future Layer 2 technology, incorporating
 Ethertype-based upper layer dispatch, can use the Ethertype
 proposed in this document to dispatch LoWPAN-encapsulated IPv6
 datagrams.
2. Assignment of an Ethertype by IEEE
 The IETF formally submitted a request to IEEE for assignment of an
 Ethertype for IPv6 datagrams using LoWPAN encapsulation. IEEE has
 responded with the assignment of Ethertype 0xA0ED for this purpose.
 The assignment has been recorded by IEEE [IEEE-ETHERTYPES].
3. IANA Considerations
 The following entry has been added to the "ETHER TYPES" subregistry
 of the "IEEE 802 Numbers" registry [IANA-IEEE802]:
 Ethertype (decimal): 41197
 Ethertype (hex): A0ED
 Exp. Ethernet (decimal): -
 Exp. Ethernet (octal): -
 Description: LoWPAN encapsulation
 References: RFC 7973 (this document)
4. Security Considerations
 This document only requests assignment of an Ethertype for IPv6
 datagrams using LoWPAN encapsulation. It has no incremental
 implications for security beyond those in the relevant protocols.
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RFC 7973 Ethertype for LoWPAN Encapsulation November 2016
5. Normative References
 [HALOW] Wi-Fi Alliance, "Wi-Fi HaLow",
 <http://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-halow>.
 [IANA-IEEE802]
 IANA, "IEEE 802 Numbers",
 <http://www.iana.org/assignments/ieee-802-numbers>.
 [IEEE-ETHERTYPES]
 IEEE, "Ethertype",
 <http://standards-oui.ieee.org/ethertype/eth.txt>.
 [IEEE.802.15.4_2011]
 IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area
 networks--Part 15.4: Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area
 Networks (LR-WPANs)", IEEE 802.15.4-2011,
 DOI 10.1109/ieeestd.2011.6012487, September 2011,
 <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/servlet/
 opac?punumber=6012485>.
 [IEEE802159]
 IEEE, "IEEE Draft Recommended Practice for Transport of
 Key Management Protocol (KMP) Datagrams",
 IEEE P802.15.9/D04, May 2015,
 <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/
 articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=7272753>.
 [RFC2460] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
 (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, DOI 10.17487/RFC2460,
 December 1998, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2460>.
 [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>.
 [RFC6282] Hui, J., Ed. and P. Thubert, "Compression Format for IPv6
 Datagrams over IEEE 802.15.4-Based Networks", RFC 6282,
 DOI 10.17487/RFC6282, September 2011,
 <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6282>.
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RFC 7973 Ethertype for LoWPAN Encapsulation November 2016
Authors' Addresses
 Ralph Droms
 Email: rdroms.ietf@gmail.com
 Paul Duffy
 Cisco
 1414 Massachusetts Ave.
 Boxborough, Massachusetts 01719
 United States of America
 Phone: +1 978 204 9993
 Email: paduffy@cisco.com
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