Re: [ipwave] draft-ietf-ipwave-ipv6-over-80211ocb-00 .11-OCB does use beacons

[Jérôme Härri <[e-mail]>]

Dear all,

 

I do not agree and I would be happy to have the reference in the IEEE 802.11-2016 stating otherwise.

 

In the 802.11 standard, it clearly state the following line:

 

When dot11OCBActivated is true in a STA:

" The STA may send management frames of subtype Action and, if the STA maintains a TSF Timer, subtype Timing Advertisement "

" The STA may send control frames, except those of subtype PS-Poll, CF-End, and CF-End + CFAck "

" The STA may send data frames of subtype Data, Null, QoS Data, and QoS Null. "

 

A beacon is a management frame, but not of a class Action, so it cannot be transmitted when dot11OCBActivated is true in a STA. But I agree that it is ambiguous…nevertheless, I would then replace in the draft the mention of what OCB can do or can’t do (e.g. sending beacons) with the exact 802.11-2016 statements. This would avoid misunderstanding.

 

But even if it could be possible, this does not make much sense. A beacon is transmitted on a channel you need to connect to get BSS information and also to get the right frequency. In case of OCB (outside context of a BSS), it is not required. But the real question is ‘why’ would we need beacon, assuming it could be transmitted?  

 

Best Regards,

 

Jérôme

 

-----Original Message-----
From: its [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Alexandre Petrescu
Sent: Wednesday 01 February 2017 11:51
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [ipwave] draft-ietf-ipwave-ipv6-over-80211ocb-00 .11-OCB does use beacons

 

draft-ietf-ipwave-ipv6-over-80211ocb-00 .11-OCB does use beacons

 

Hello IPWAVErs,

 

It was suggested in private that, contrary to what the draft says, the .11-OCB does use beacons.

 

As such, the following line should disappear from the draft:

 

> 4.  Aspects introduced by the OCB mode to 802.11

> 

>    In the IEEE 802.11 OCB mode, all nodes in the wireless range can

>    directly communicate with each other without authentication/

>    association procedures.  Briefly, the IEEE 802.11 OCB mode has the

>    following properties:

> 

>    o  Wildcard BSSID (i.e., all bits are set to 1) used by each node

> 

>    o  [strike through] No beacons transmitted

 

Yours,

 

Alex