6LoWPAN Node        6LR             6LBR            6BBR
  (RPL leaf)       (router)         (root)
      |               |               |               |
      |  6LoWPAN ND   |6LoWPAN ND+RPL | Efficient ND  | IPv6 ND
      |   LLN link    |Route-Over mesh|  IPv6 link    | Backbone
      |               |               |               |
      |  NS(ARO)      |               |               |
      |-------------->|               |               |
      | 6LoWPAN ND    | DAR (then DAO)|               |
      |               |-------------->|               | 
      |               |               |  NS(ARO)      |
      |               |               |-------------->|
      |               |               |               | DAD 
      |               |               |               |------>
      |               |               |               |
      |               |               |  NA(ARO)      |
      |               |               |<--------------|
      |               | DAC           |               |
      |               |<--------------|               |               
      |  NA(ARO)      |               |               |
      |<--------------|               |               |               

Figure 4: (Re-)Registration Flow over Multi-Link Subnet

The root of the RPL topology is logically separated from the 6BBR that is used to connect the RPL topology to the backbone. The RPL root can use Efficient ND as the interface to register an LLN node in its topology to the 6BBR for whatever operation the 6BBR performs, such as ND proxy operations, or injection in a routing protocol. It results that, as illustrated in Figure 4, the periodic signaling could start at the leaf node with 6LoWPAN ND, then would be carried over RPL to the RPL root, and then with Efficient-ND to the 6BBR. Efficient ND being an adaptation of 6LoWPAN ND, it makes sense to keep those two homogeneous in the way they use the source and the target addresses in the Neighbor Solicitation (NS) messages for registration, as well as in the options that they use for that process.

As the network builds up, a node should start as a leaf to join the RPL network, and may later turn into both a RPL-capable router and a 6LR, so as to accept leaf nodes to recursively join the network.

5.1. RPL Leaf Support in 6LoWPAN ND

RPL needs a set of information in order to advertise a leaf node through a DAO message and establish reachability.

At the bare minimum the leaf device must provide a sequence number that matches the RPL specification in section 7. Section 4.1 of [I-D.chakrabarti-nordmark-6man-efficient-nd], on the Address Registration Option (ARO), already incorporates that addition with a new field in the option called the Transaction ID.

If for some reason the node is aware of RPL topologies, then providing the RPL InstanceID for the instances to which the node wishes to participate would be a welcome addition. In the absence of such information, the RPL router must infer the proper instanceID from external rules and policies.

On the backbone, the InstanceID is expected to be mapped onto a VLANID. Neither WiFi nor Efficient ND do provide a mapping to VLANIDs, and it is unclear, when a wireless node attaches to a backbone where VLANs are defined, which VLAN the wireless device attaches to. Considering that a VLAN is effectively the IP link on the backbone, adding the InstanceID to both specifications could be a welcome addition.

5.2. registration Failures Due to Movement

Registration to the 6LBR through DAR/DAC messages [RFC6775] may percolate slowly through an LLN mesh, and it might happen that in the meantime, the 6LoWPAN node moves and registers somewhere else. Both RPL and 6LoWPAN ND lack the capability to indicate that the same node is registered elsewhere, so as to invalidate states down the deprecated path.

In its current expression and functionality, 6LoWPAN ND considers that the registration is used for the purpose of DAD only as opposed to that of achieving reachability, and as long as the same node registers the IPv6 address, the protocol is functional. In order to act as a RPL leaf registration protocol and achieve reachability, the device must use the same TID for all its concurrent registrations, and registrations with a past TID should be declined. The state for an obsolete registration in the 6LR, as well as the RPL routers on the way, should be invalidated. This can only be achieved with the addition of a new Status in the DAC message, and a new error/clean-up flow in RPL.

5.3. Proxy registration

The 6BBR provides the capability to defend an address that is owned by a 6LoWPAN Node, and attract packets to that address, whether it is done by proxying ND over a MultiLink Subnet, redistributing the address in a routing protocol or advertising it through an alternate proxy registration such as the Locator/ID Separation Protocol [RFC6830] (LISP) or Mobility Support in IPv6 [RFC6275] (MIPv6). In a LLN, it makes sense to piggyback the request to proxy/defend an address with its registration.

5.4. Target Registration

In their current incarnations, both 6LoWPAN ND and Efficient ND expect that the address being registered is the source of the NS(ARO) message and thus impose that a Source Link-Layer Address (SLLA) option be present in the message. In a mesh scenario where the 6LBR is physically separated from the 6LoWPAN Node, the 6LBR does not own the address being registered. This suggests that [I-D.chakrabarti-nordmark-6man-efficient-nd] should evolve to register the Target of the NS message as opposed to the Source Address. From another perspective, it may happen, in the use case of a Star topology, that the 6LR, 6LBR and 6BBR are effectively collapsed and should support 6LoWPAN ND clients. The convergence of efficient ND and 6LoWPAN ND into a single protocol is thus highly desirable.

In any case, as long as the DAD process is not complete for the address used as source of the packet, it is against the current practice to advertise the SLLA, since this may corrupt the ND cache of the destination node, as discussed in the Optimistic DAD specification [RFC4429] with regards to the TENTATIVE state.

This may look like a chicken and an egg problem, but in fact 6LoWPAN ND acknowledges that the Link-Local Address that is based on an EUI-64 address of a LLN node may be autoconfigured without the need for DAD. It results that a node could use that Address as source, with an SSLA option in the message if required, to register any other addresses, either Global or Unique-Local Addresses, which would be indicated in the Target.

The suggested change is to register the target of the NS message, and use Target Link-Layer Address (TLLA) in the NS as opposed to the SLLA in order to install a Neighbor Cache Entry. This would apply to both Efficient ND and 6LoWPAN ND in a very same manner, with the caveat that depending on the nature of the link between the 6LBR and the 6BBR, the 6LBR may resort to classical ND or DHCPv6 to obtain the address that it uses to source the NS registration messages, whether for itself or on behalf of LLN nodes.

5.5. RPL root vs. 6LBR

6LoWPAN ND is unclear on how the 6LBR is discovered, and how the liveliness of the 6LBR is asserted over time. On the other hand, the discovery and liveliness of the RPL root are obtained through the RPL protocol.

When 6LoWPAN ND is coupled with RPL, it makes sense to collocate the 6LBR and the RPL root functionalities. The DAR/DAC exchange becomes a preamble to the DAO messages that are used from then on to reconfirm the registration, thus eliminating a duplication of functionality between DAO and DAR messages.

5.6. Securing the Registration

A typical attack against IPv6 ND is address spoofing, whereby a rogue node claims the IPv6 Address of another node in and hijacks its traffic.

SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND) [RFC3971] is designed to protect each individual ND lookup/advertisement in a peer to peer model where each lookup may be between different parties. This is not the case in a 6LoWPAN ND LLN where, as illustrated in Figure 4, the 6LBR terminates all the flows and may store security information for later validation.

Additionally SEND requires considerably enlarged ND messages to carry cryptographic material, and requires that each protected address is generated cryptographically, which implies the computation of a different key for each Cryptographically Generated Address (CGA). SEND as defined in [RFC3971] is thus largely unsuitable for application in a LLN.

Once an Address is registered, the 6LBR maintains a state for that Address and is in position to bind securely the first registration with the Node that placed it, whether the Address is CGA or not. It should thus be possible to protect the ownership of all the addresses of a 6LoWPAN Node with a single key, and there should not be a need to carry the cryptographic material more than once to the 6LBR.

The energy constraint is usually a foremost factor, and attention should be paid to minimize the burden on the CPU. Hardware-assisted support of variants of the Counter with CBC-MAC [RFC3610] (CCM) authenticated encryption block cipher mode such as CCM* are common in LowPower ship-set implementations, and 6LoWPAN ND security mechanism should be capable to reuse them when applicable.

Finally, the code footprint in the device being also an issue, the capability to reuse not only hardware-assist mechanisms but also software across layers has to be considered. For instance, if code has to be present for upper-layer operations, e.g AES-CCM Cipher Suites for Transport Layer Security (TLS) [RFC6655], then the capability to reuse that code should be considered.

6. Communication Paradigms and Interaction Models

[I-D.ietf-6tisch-terminology] defines the terms of Communication Paradigms and Interaction Models, which can be placed in parallel to the Information Models and Data Models that are defined in [RFC3444].

A Communication Paradigms would be an abstract view of a protocol exchange, and would come with an Information Model for the information that is being exchanged. In contrast, an Interaction Models would be more refined and could point on standard operation such as a Representational state transfer (REST) "GET" operation and would match a Data Model for the data that is provided over the protocol exchange.

section 2.1.3 of [I-D.ietf-roll-rpl-industrial-applicability] and next sections discuss application-layer paradigms, such as Source-sink (SS) that is a Multipeer to Multipeer (MP2MP) model primarily used for alarms and alerts, Publish-subscribe (PS, or pub/sub) that is typically used for sensor data, as well as Peer-to-peer (P2P) and Peer-to-multipeer (P2MP) communications. Additional considerations on Duocast and its N-cast generalization are also provided. Those paradigms are frequently used in industrial automation, which is a major use case for IEEE802.15.4e TSCH wireless networks with [ISA100.11a] and [WirelessHART], that provides a wireless access to [HART] applications and devices.

This specification focuses on Communication Paradigms and Interaction Models for packet forwarding and TSCH resources (cells) management. Management mechanisms for the TSCH schedule at Link-layer (one-hop), Network-layer (multithop along a track), and Application-layer (remote control) are discussed in Section 8. Link-layer frame forwarding interactions are discussed in Section 9, and Network-layer Packet routing is addressed in Section 10.

7. TSCH and 6top

7.1. 6top

6top is a logical link control sitting between the IP layer and the TSCH MAC layer, which provides the link abstraction that is required for IP operations. The 6top operations are specified in [I-D.wang-6tisch-6top-sublayer]. In particular, 6top provides a management interface that enables an external management entity to schedule cells and slotFrames, and allows the addition of complementary functionality, for instance to support a dynamic schedule management based on observed resource usage as discussed in Section 8.2.

The 6top data model and management interfaces are further discussed in Section 8.3.

If the scheduling entity explicitly specifies the slotOffset/channelOffset of the cells to be added/deleted, those cells are marked as "hard". 6top cannot move hard cells in the TSCH schedule. Hard cells are for example used by a central PCE.

6top contains a monitoring process which monitors the performance of cells, and can move a cell in the TSCH schedule when it performs bad. This is only applicable to cells which are marked as "soft". To reserve a soft cell, the higher layer does not indicate the exact slotOffset/channelOffset of the cell to add, but rather the resulting bandwidth and QoS requirements. When the monitoring process triggers a cell reallocation, the two neighbor motes communicating over this cell negotiate its new position in the TSCH schedule.

7.2. 6top and RPL Objective Function operations

An implementation of a RPL [RFC6550] Objective Function (OF), such as the RPL Objective Function Zero (OF0) [RFC6552] that is used in the Minimal 6TiSCH Configuration [I-D.ietf-6tisch-minimal] to support RPL over a static schedule, may leverage, for its internal computation, the information maintained by 6top.

In particular, 6top creates and maintains an abstract neighbor table. A neighbor table entry contains a set of statistics with respect to that specific neighbor including the time when the last packet has been received from that neighbor, a set of cell quality metrics (RSSI, LQI), the number of packets sent to the neighbor or the number of packets received from it. This information can be obtained through 6top management APIs as detailed in the 6top sublayer specification [I-D.wang-6tisch-6top-sublayer] and used to compute a Rank Increment that will determine the selection of the preferred parent.

6top provides statistics about the underlying layer so the OF can be tuned to the nature of the TSCH MAC layer. 6top also enables the RPL OF to influence the MAC behaviour, for instance by configuring the periodicity of IEEE802.15.4e Extended Beacons (EB's). By augmenting the EB periodicity, it is possible to change the network dynamics so as to improve the support of devices that may change their point of attachment in the 6TiSCH network.

Some RPL control messages, such as the DODAG Information Object (DIO) are ICMPv6 messages that are broadcast to all neighbor nodes. With 6TiSCH, the broadcast channel requirement is addressed by 6top by configuring TSCH to provide a broadcast channel, as opposed to, for instance, piggybacking the DIO messages in Enhance Beacons.

In the TSCH schedule, each cell has the IEEE802.15.4e LinkType attribute. Setting the LinkType to ADVERTISING indicates that the cell MAY be used to send an Enhanced Beacon. When a node forms its Enhanced Beacon, the cell, with LinkType=ADVERTISING, SHOULD be included in the FrameAndLinkIE, and its LinkOption field SHOULD be set to the combination of "Receive" and "Timekeeping". The receiver of the Enhanced Beacon MAY be listening at the cell to get the Enhanced Beacon ([IEEE802154e]). 6top takes this way to establish broadcast channel, which not only allows TSCH to broadcast Enhanced Beacons, but also allows an upper layer like RPL.

To broadcast ICMPv6 control messages used by RPL such as DIO or DAO, 6top uses the payload of a Data frames. The message is inserted into the queue associated with the cells which LinkType is set to ADVERTISING. Then, taking advantage of the broadcast cell feature established with FrameAndLinkIE (as described above), the RPL control message can be received by neighbors, which enables the maintenance of RPL DODAGs.

A LinkOption combining "Receive" and "Timekeeping" bits indicates to the receivers of the Enhanced Beacon that the cell MUST be used as a broadcast cell. The frequency of sending Enhanced Beacons or other broadcast messages by the upper layer is determined by the timers associated with the messages. For example, the transmission of Enhance Beacons is triggered by a timer in 6top; transmission of a DIO message is triggered by the trickle timer of RPL.

7.3. Network Synchronization

Nodes in a TSCH network must be time synchronized. A node keeps synchronized to its time source neighbor through a combination of frame-based and acknowledgement-based synchronization. In order to maximize battery life and network throughput, it is advisable that RPL ICMP discovery and maintenance traffic (governed by the trickle timer) be somehow coordinated with the transmission of time synchronization packets (especially with enhanced beacons). This could be achieved through an interaction of the 6top sublayer and the RPL objective Function, or could be controlled by a management entity.

Time distribution requires a loop-less structure. Nodes taken in a synchronization loop will rapidly desynchronize from the network and become isolated. It is expected that a RPL DAG with a dedicated global Instance is deployed for the purpose of time synchronization. That Instance is referred to as the Time Synchronization Global Instance (TSGI). The TSGI can be operated in either of the 3 modes that are detailed in section 3.1.3 of RPL [RFC6550], "Instances, DODAGs, and DODAG Versions". Multiple uncoordinated DODAGs with independent roots may be used if all the roots share a common time source such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). In the absence of a common time source, the TSGI should form a single DODAG with a virtual root. A backbone network is then used to synchronize and coordinate RPL operations between the backbone routers that act as sinks for the LLN.

A node that has not joined the TSGI advertises a MAC level Join Priority of 0xFF to notify its neighbors that is is not capable of serving as time parent. A node that has joined the TSGI advertises a MAC level Join Priority set to its DAGRank() in that Instance, where DAGRank() is the operation specified in section 3.5.1 of [RFC6550], "Rank Comparison".

A root is configured or obtains by some external means the knowledge of the RPLInstanceID for the TSGI. The root advertises its DagRank in the TSGI, that MUST be less than 0xFF, as its Join Priority (JP) in its IEEE802.15.4e Extended Beacons (EB). We'll note that the JP is now specified between 0 and 0x3F leaving 2 bits in the octet unused in the IEEE802.15.4e specification. After consultation with IEEE authors, it was asserted that 6TiSCH can make a full use of the octet to carry an integer value up to 0xFF.

A node that reads a Join Priority of less than 0xFF should join the neighbor with the lesser Join Priority and use it as time parent. If the node is configured to serve as time parent, then the node should join the TSGI, obtain a Rank in that Instance and start advertising its own DagRank in the TSGI as its Join Priority in its EBs.

7.4. SlotFrames and Priorities

6TiSCH enables in essence the capability to use IPv6 over a MAC layer that enables to schedule some of the transmissions. In order to ensure that the medium is free of contending packets when time arrives for a scheduled transmission, a window of time is defined around the scheduled transmission time where the medium must be free of contending energy.

One simple way to obtain such a window is to format time and frequencies in cells of transmission of equal duration. This is the method that is adopted in IEEE802.15.4e TSCH as well as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) of cellular networks.

In order to describe that formatting of time and frequencies, the 6TiSCH architecture defines a global concept that is called a Channel Distribution and Usage (CDU) matrix; a CDU matrix is a matrix of cells with an height equal to the number of available channels (indexed by ChannelOffsets), a timeSlot duration (10-15 milliseconds are typical in 802.15.4e TSCH) and a width (in timeSlots) that is the period of the network scheduling operation (indexed by slotOffsets) for that CDU matrix.

A CDU matrix iterates over and over with a pseudo-random rotation from an epoch time. In a given network, there might be multiple CDU matrices that operate with different width, so they have different durations and represent different periodic operations. It is recommended that all CDU matrices in a 6TiSCH domain operate with the same cell duration and are aligned, so as to reduce the chances of interferences from slotted-aloha operations. The knowledge of the CDU matrices is shared between all the nodes and used in particular to define slotFrames.

A slotFrame is a MAC-level abstraction that is common to all nodes and contains a series of timeSlots of equal length and precedence. It is characterized by a slotFrame_ID, and a slotFrame_size. A slotFrame aligns to a CDU matrix for its parameters, such as number and duration of timeSlots.

Multiple slotFrames can coexist in a node schedule, i.e., a node can have multiple activities scheduled in different slotFrames, based on the precedence of the 6TiSCH topologies. The slotFrames may be aligned to different CDU matrices and thus have different width. There is typically one slotFrame for scheduled traffic that has the highest precedence and one or more slotFrame(s) for RPL traffic. The timeSlots in the slotFrame are indexed by the SlotOffset; the first cell is at SlotOffset 0.

A 6TISCH Instance is associated to one slotFrame. A slotFrame may be shared by multiple Instances of equal relative precedence. Within an Instance, 6top uses priority queues to manage concurrent data flows of different priorities within an Instance and between Instances of a same precedence, associated to a given IPv6 link and a given bundle of TX-cells. When a packet is received from an higher layer for transmission, 6top inserts that packet in the outgoing queue which matches the packet best (DSCP can therefore be used). At each scheduled transmit slot, 6top looks for the frame in all the outgoing queues that best matches the cells. If a frame is found, it is given to the TSCH MAC for transmission.

7.5. Distributing the reservation of cells

6TiSCH expects a high degree of scalability together with a distributed routing functionality based on RPL. To achieve this goal, the spectrum must be allocated in a way that allows for spatial reuse between zones that will not interfere with one another. In a large and spatially distributed network, a 6TiSCH node is often in a good position to determine usage of spectrum in its vicinity.

Use cases for distributed routing are often associated with a statistical distribution of best-effort traffic with variable needs for bandwidth on each individual link. With 6TiSCH, the link abstraction is implemented as a bundle of cells; the size of a bundle is optimal when both the energy wasted idle listening and the packet drops due to congestion loss are minimized. This can be maintained if the number of cells in a bundle is adapted dynamically, and with enough reactivity, to match the variations of best-effort traffic. In turn, the agility to fulfill the needs for additional cells improves when the number of interactions with other devices and the protocol latencies are minimized.

6TiSCH limits that interaction to RPL parents that will only negotiate with other RPL parents, and performs that negotiation by groups of cells as opposed to individual cells. The 6TiSCH architecture allows RPL parents to adjust dynamically, and independently from the PCE, the amount of bandwidth that is used to communicate between themselves and their children, in both directions; to that effect, an allocation mechanism enables a RPL parent to obtain the exclusive use of a portion of a CDU matrix within its interference domain. Note that a PCE is expected to have precedence in the allocation, so that a RPL parent would only be able to obtain portions that are not in-use by the PCE.

The 6TiSCH architecture introduces the concept of chunks [I-D.ietf-6tisch-terminology]) to operate such spectrum distribution for a whole group of cells at a time. The CDU matrix is formatted into a set of chunks, each of them identified uniquely by a chunk-ID. The knowledge of this formatting is shared between all the nodes in a 6TiSCH network. 6TiSCH also defines the process of chunk ownership appropriation whereby a RPL parent discovers a chunk that is not used in its interference domain (e.g lack of energy detected in reference cells in that chunk); then claims the chunk, and then defends it in case another RPL parent would attempt to appropriate it while it is in use. The chunk is the basic unit of ownership that is used in that process.

             +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+     +-----+
chan.Off. 0  |chnkA|chnkP|chnk7|chnkO|chnk2|chnkK|chnk1| ... |chnkZ|
             +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+     +-----+
chan.Off. 1  |chnkB|chnkQ|chnkA|chnkP|chnk3|chnkL|chnk2| ... |chnk1|
             +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+     +-----+
               ...
             +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+     +-----+
chan.Off. 15 |chnkO|chnk6|chnkN|chnk1|chnkJ|chnkZ|chnkI| ... |chnkG|
             +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+     +-----+
                0     1     2     3     4     5     6          M

                       |                                    ^
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |     IPv6     |    |                                    |
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |  6LoWPAN HC  |    |                                    |
   +--------------+  ingress                              egress
   |     6top     |   sets     +----+          +----+     restores
   +--------------+  dmac to   |    |          |    |     dmac to
   |   TSCH MAC   |   brdcst   |    |          |    |      self
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |   LLN PHY    |    +-------+    +--...-----+    +-------+
   +--------------+

   +--------------+
   |     IPv6     |
   +--------------+
   |  6LoWPAN HC  |
   +--------------+             set            restore
   |     6top     |            +dmac+          +dmac+
   +--------------+            |    |          |    |
   |   TSCH MAC   |            |    |          |    |
   +--------------+            |    |          |    |
   |   LLN PHY    |    +-------+    +--...-----+    +-------+
   +--------------+    |   ingress                 egress   |
                       |                                    |
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |   LLN PHY    |    |                                    |
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |   TSCH MAC   |    |                                    |
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |ISA100/WiHART |    |                                    v
   +--------------+

                       |                                    ^
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |     IPv6     |    |       +----+          +----+       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |  6LoWPAN HC  |    |       learn           learn        |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |     6top     |    |       |    |          |    |       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |   TSCH MAC   |    |       |    |          |    |       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |   LLN PHY    |    +-------+    +--...-----+    +-------+
   +--------------+

                       |                                    ^
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |     IPv6     |    |                                    |
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |  6LoWPAN HC  |    |       replay          replay       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |     6top     |    |       |    |          |    |       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |   TSCH MAC   |    |       |    |          |    |       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |   LLN PHY    |    +-------+    +--...-----+    +-------+
   +--------------+

                       |                                    ^
   +--------------+    |                                    |
   |     IPv6     |    |       +-QoS+          +-QoS+       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |  6LoWPAN HC  |    |       |    |          |    |       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |     6top     |    |       |    |          |    |       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |   TSCH MAC   |    |       |    |          |    |       |
   +--------------+    |       |    |          |    |       |
   |   LLN PHY    |    +-------+    +--...-----+    +-------+
   +--------------+