| Network Working Group | J. Arkko |
| Internet-Draft | Ericsson |
| Intended status: Informational | T.J. Chown |
| Expires: March 24, 2012 | University of Southampton |
| J. Weil | |
| Time Warner Cable | |
| O. Troan | |
| Cisco Systems, Inc. | |
| September 21, 2011 |
Home Networking Architecture for IPv6
draft-chown-homenet-arch-00
This text describes the evolving networking technology within small "residential home" networks. The goal of this memo is to define the architecture for IPv6-based home networking. The text highlights the impact of IPv6 on home networking, and illustrates some topology scenarios. The architecture shows how standard IPv6 mechanisms and addressing can be employed in home networking, lists a number of principles that should apply, and outlines the need for specific protocol extensions for certain additional functionality.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on March 24, 2012.
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.
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This memo focuses on the evolving networking technology within small "residential home" networks and the associated challenges. For example, a trend in home networking is the proliferation of networking technology in an increasingly broad range of devices and media. This evolution in scale and diversity sets requirements on IETF protocols. Some of these requirements relate to the need for multiple subnets for private and guest networks, the introduction of IPv6, and the introduction of specialized networks for home automation and sensors.
While advanced home networks have been built, most operate based on IPv4, employ solutions that we would like to avoid such as network address translation (NAT), or require expert assistance to set up. The architectural constructs in this document are focused on the problems to be solved when introducing IPv6 with a eye towards a better result than what we have today with IPv4, as well as a better result than if the IETF had not given this specific guidance.
This architecture document aims to provide the basis for how standard IPv6 mechanisms and addressing [RFC2460] [RFC4291] can be employed in home networking, while coexisting with existing IPv4 mechanisms. Some general principles for the architecture are listed. At this stage it is vital that introducing IPv6 does not adversely affect IPv4 operation. Future deployments, or potentially specific subnets within an otherwise dual-stack home network, may be IPv6-only.
Currently some parts of this text are somewhat "chatty", which is intended to solicit feedback on the issues presented.
Service providers are deploying IPv6, content is becoming available on IPv6, and support for IPv6 is increasingly available in devices and software used in the home. While IPv6 resembles IPv4 in many ways, it changes address allocation principles, makes multi-addressing the norm, and allows direct IP addressability and routing to devices in the home from the Internet. The following is an overview of some of the key areas impacted by the implementation of IPv6 into the home network that are both promising and problematic:
An architecture outlines how to construct home networks involving multiple routers and subnets. In the next section this text presents a few typical home network topology models/scenarios, followed by a list of topics that may influence the architecture discussions. This is followed by a set of architectural principles that govern how the various nodes should work together. Finally, some guidelines are given for realizing the architecture with the IPv6 addressing architecture, prefix delegation, global and ULA addresses, source address selection rules and other existing components of the IPv6 architecture. The architecture also drives what protocols extensions are necessary, as will be discussed in Section 3.5.
Figure 1 shows the simplest possible home network topology, involving just one router, a local area network, and a set of hosts. Setting up such networks is in principle well understood today [RFC6204].
+-------+-------+ \
| Service | \
| Provider | | Service
| Router | | Provider
+-------+-------+ | network
| /
| Customer /
| Internet connection /
|
+------+--------+ \
| IPv6 | \
| Customer Edge | \
| Router | /
+------+--------+ /
| | End-User
Local Network | | network(s)
---+-----+-------+--- \
| | \
+----+-----+ +-----+----+ \
|IPv6 Host | |IPv6 Host | /
| | | | /
+----------+ +-----+----+ /
Figure 2 shows another network that now introduces multiple local area networks. These may be needed for reasons relating to different link layer technology or for policy reasons. Note that a common arrangement is to have different link types supported on the same router, bridged together. For the purposes of this memo and IP layer operation this arrangement is considered equivalent to the topology in Figure 1.
This topology is also relatively well understood today [RFC6204], though it certainly presents additional demands with regards suitable firewall policies and limits the operation of certain applications and discovery mechanisms (which may typically today only succeed within a single subnet).
+-------+-------+ \
| Service | \
| Provider | | Service
| Router | | Provider
+------+--------+ | network
| /
| Customer /
| Internet connection /
|
+------+--------+ \
| IPv6 | \
| Customer Edge | \
| Router | /
+----+-------+--+ /
Network A | | Network B | End-User
---+-------------+----+- --+--+-------------+--- | network(s)
| | | | \
+----+-----+ +-----+----+ +----+-----+ +-----+----+ \
|IPv6 Host | |IPv6 Host | | IPv6 Host| |IPv6 Host | /
| | | | | | | | /
+----------+ +-----+----+ +----------+ +----------+ /
Figure 3 shows a little bit more complex network with two routers and eight devices connected to one ISP. This network is similar to the one discussed in [I-D.ietf-v6ops-ipv6-cpe-router-bis]. The main complication in this topology compared to the ones described earlier is that there is no longer a single router that a priori understands the entire topology. The topology itself may also be complex. It may not be possible to assume a pure tree form, for instance. This would be a consideration if there was an assumption that home users may plug routers together to form arbitrary topologies.
+-------+-------+ \
| Service | \
| Provider | | Service
| Router | | Provider
+-------+-------+ | network
| /
| Customer /
| Internet connection
|
+------+--------+ \
| IPv6 | \
| Customer Edge | \
| Router | |
+----+-+---+----+ |
Network A | | | Network B/E |
----+-------------+----+ | +---+-------------+------+ |
| | | | | | | |
+----+-----+ +-----+----+ | +----+-----+ +-----+----+ | |
|IPv6 Host | |IPv6 Host | | | IPv6 Host| |IPv6 Host | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
+----------+ +-----+----+ | +----------+ +----------+ | |
| | | | |
| ---+------+------+-----+ |
| | Network B/E |
+------+--------+ | | End-User
| IPv6 | | | networks
| Interior +------+ |
| Router | |
+---+-------+-+-+ |
Network C | | Network D |
----+-------------+---+- --+---+-------------+--- |
| | | | |
+----+-----+ +-----+----+ +----+-----+ +-----+----+ |
|IPv6 Host | |IPv6 Host | | IPv6 Host| |IPv6 Host | |
| | | | | | | | /
+----------+ +-----+----+ +----------+ +----------+ /
+-------+-------+ +-------+-------+ \
| Service | | Service | \
| Provider A | | Provider B | | Service
| Router | | Router | | Provider
+------+--------+ +-------+-------+ | network
| | /
| Customer | /
| Internet connections | /
| |
+------+--------+ +-------+-------+ \
| IPv6 | | IPv6 | \
| Customer Edge | | Customer Edge | \
| Router 1 | | Router 2 | /
+------+--------+ +-------+-------+ /
| | /
| | | End-User
---+---------+---+---------------+--+----------+--- | network(s)
| | | | \
+----+-----+ +-----+----+ +----+-----+ +-----+----+ \
|IPv6 Host | |IPv6 Host | | IPv6 Host| |IPv6 Host | /
| | | | | | | | /
+----------+ +-----+----+ +----------+ +----------+
Figure 4 illustrates a multihomed home network model, where the customer has connectivity via CPE1 to ISP A and via CPE2 to ISP B. This example shows one shared subnet where IPv6 nodes would potentially be multihomed and received multiple IPv6 global addresses, one per ISP. This model may also be combined with that shown in Figure 3 for example to create a more complex scenario.
+-------+-------+ +-------+-------+ \
| Service | | Service | \
| Provider A | | Provider B | | Service
| Router | | Router | | Provider
+-------+-------+ +-------+-------+ | network
| | /
| Customer | /
| Internet | /
| connections | |
+---------+---------+ \
| IPv6 | \
| Customer Edge | \
| Router 1 | /
+---------+---------+ /
| | /
| | | End-User
---+---------+---+-- --+--+----------+--- | network(s)
| | | | \
+----+-----+ +-----+----+ +----+-----+ +-----+----+ \
|IPv6 Host | |IPv6 Host | | IPv6 Host| |IPv6 Host | /
| | | | | | | | /
+----------+ +-----+----+ +----------+ +----------+
Figure 5 illustrates a model where a home network may have multiple connections to multiple providers or multiple logical connections to the same provider, but the associated subnet(s) are isolated. Some deployment scenarios may require this model.
[RFC6204] defines "basic" requirements for IPv6 Customer Edge Routers, while [I-D.ietf-v6ops-ipv6-cpe-router-bis] describes "advanced" features. In general, home network equipment needs to cope with the different types of network topologies discussed above. Manual configuration is rarely, if at all, possible, given the knowledge lying with typical home users. The equipment needs to be prepared to handle at least
This section lists some considerations for home networking that may affect the architecture depending on how or if they are included. Comments are certainly required here.
There is little that the Internet standards community can do about the physical topologies or the need for some networks to be separated at the network layer for policy or link layer compatibility reasons. However, there is a lot of flexibility in using IP addressing and inter-networking mechanisms. It would be desirable to provide some guidance on how this flexibility should be used to provide the best user experience and ensure that the network can evolve with new applications in the future.
The authors believe that the following principles guide us in designing these networks in the correct manner. There is no implied priority by the order in which the principles are listed.
The necessary mechanisms are largely already part of the IPv6 protocol set and common implementations. The few known counter-examples are discussed in the following section. For automatic routing, it is expected that existing routing protocols can be used as is. However, a new mechanism may be needed in order to turn a selected protocol on by default. Support for multiple exit routers and multi-homing would also require extensions. For name resolution and service discovery, extensions to existing multicast-based name resolution protocols are needed to enable them to work across subnets, within the scope of the home network.
The hardest problems in developing solutions for home networking IPv6 architectures include discovering the right borders where the domain "home" ends and the service provider domain begins, deciding whether some of necessary discovery mechanism extensions should affect only the network infrastructure or also hosts, and the ability to turn on routing, prefix delegation and other functions in a backwards compatible manner.
| [RFC2460] | Deering, S.E. and R.M. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998. |
| [RFC4193] | Hinden, R. and B. Haberman, "Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses", RFC 4193, October 2005. |
| [RFC4291] | Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture", RFC 4291, February 2006. |
| [RFC6092] | Woodyatt, J., "Recommended Simple Security Capabilities in Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) for Providing Residential IPv6 Internet Service", RFC 6092, January 2011. |
| [RFC6204] | Singh, H., Beebee, W., Donley, C., Stark, B. and O. Troan, "Basic Requirements for IPv6 Customer Edge Routers", RFC 6204, April 2011. |
| [RFC6296] | Wasserman, M. and F. Baker, "IPv6-to-IPv6 Network Prefix Translation", RFC 6296, June 2011. |
| [I-D.baker-fun-multi-router] | Baker, F, "Exploring the multi-router SOHO network", Internet-Draft draft-baker-fun-multi-router-00, July 2011. |
| [I-D.baker-fun-routing-class] | Baker, F, "Routing a Traffic Class", Internet-Draft draft-baker-fun-routing-class-00, July 2011. |
| [I-D.herbst-v6ops-cpeenhancements] | Herbst, T and D Sturek, "CPE Considerations in IPv6 Deployments", Internet-Draft draft-herbst-v6ops-cpeenhancements-00, October 2010. |
| [I-D.vyncke-advanced-ipv6-security] | Vyncke, E, Yourtchenko, A and M Townsley, "Advanced Security for IPv6 CPE", Internet-Draft draft-vyncke-advanced-ipv6-security-03, October 2011. |
| [I-D.ietf-v6ops-ipv6-cpe-router-bis] | Singh, H, Beebee, W, Donley, C, Stark, B and O Troan, "Advanced Requirements for IPv6 Customer Edge Routers", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-v6ops-ipv6-cpe-router-bis-01, July 2011. |
| [I-D.ietf-6man-rfc3484-revise] | Matsumoto, A, Kato, J, Fujisaki, T and T Chown, "Update to RFC 3484 Default Address Selection for IPv6", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-6man-rfc3484-revise-05, October 2011. |
| [I-D.ietf-dhc-pd-exclude] | Korhonen, J, Savolainen, T, Krishnan, S and O Troan, "Prefix Exclude Option for DHCPv6-based Prefix Delegation", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-dhc-pd-exclude-03, August 2011. |
| [I-D.v6ops-multihoming-without-ipv6nat] | Troan, O, Miles, D, Matsushima, S, Okimoto, T and D Wing, "IPv6 Multihoming without Network Address Translation", Internet-Draft draft-v6ops-multihoming-without-ipv6nat-00, March 2011. |
| [Gettys11] | Gettys, J., "Bufferbloat: Dark Buffers in the Internet", March 2011. |
The authors would like to thank to Stuart Cheshire, James Woodyatt, Lars Eggert, Ray Bellis, David Harrington, Wassim Haddad, Heather Kirksey, Dave Thaler, Fred Baker, and Ralph Droms for interesting discussions in this problem space, and Mark Townsley for being an initial editor/author of this text before taking his position as homenet WG co-chair.
** Additional acknowledgements TBA.