[6lowapp] New I-D: Initial Configuration of Resource-Constrained Devices (aka: Bootstrapping / Commissioning)

["Oflynn, Colin" <[e-mail]>]

Hello,

Cross-posted to both 6lowpan and 6lowapp, as of interest to both. However please try and keep discussion on 6lowapp mailing list to avoid further cross-posting / splintering of discussion.

This I-D is a first-pass at identifying some of the problems and proposing some solutions. It overlaps some existing protocols a little, but I expect this I-D to undergo some pretty radical changes. It's a huge problem with a lot of different aspects, and not all of those are yet captured in this document.

Regards,
  
  -Colin O'Flynn

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A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.

	Title           : Initial Configuration of Resource-Constrained Devices
	Author(s)       : C. O'Flynn
	Filename        : draft-oflynn-6lowapp-bootstrapping-00.txt
	Pages           : 27
	Date            : 2010-01-27

he Internet of Things is marching it's way towards completition.
Nodes can use standards from the 6LoWPAN and ROLL WG to achieve IP
connectivity.  IEEE Standards ensure connectivity at lower layers for
resource-constrained devices.  Yet a central problem remains at a
more basic layer without a suitable answer: how to initially
configure the network.  Without configuration the network never
advances beyond a large box of nodes.  Current solutions tend to be
specific to a certain vendor, node type, or application.

This document outlines exactly what problems are faced in solving
this problem.  General problems faced in any low-power wireless
network are outlined first; followed by how these apply to
bootstrapping.  A selection of currently proposed techniques is
presented.  From these a more generic approach is presented, which
can solve the problem for a wide range of situations.

An emphasis is on performing this bootstrapping in a secure manner.
This document does not cover operationg of the network securely.
This document does provide the basis for allowing the network to
operate securely however, by providing standard methods for key
exchanges and authentication.

A URL for this Internet-Draft is:
http://www.ietf.org/id/draft-oflynn-6lowapp-bootstrapping-00.txt

Internet-Drafts are also available by anonymous FTP at:
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/

Below is the data which will enable a MIME compliant mail reader
implementation to automatically retrieve the ASCII version of the
Internet-Draft.

<ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-oflynn-6lowapp-bootstrapping-00.txt>