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Re: contributions for upcoming May 2004 meeting - ARID



Title:
Hi all,

I have earlier (dated 06 Mar 2003) written an Internet draft on identical approach to detect L2/L3 movement.

Please refer to the following (attached the ID) for detail.

http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/working-groups/seamoby/current/msg01629.html.

Hope to hear some comments.

Sungjin Lee wrote:
Hi Daniel, Stephen and all HO guys

In my understanding, that kind of issue (e.g. ARID into beacon) is fit to be
discussed within 802.21.
The ARID formant, recommended usage examples and scenarios also could be
discussed and then
put into the documentation released as 802.21 spec. based on agreement
between 802.21 attendees.

However, the specific way to provide that ARID information over the air
interface should be discussed within each WG.
In fact, It sould be discussed within 802.11 WG to propose the changed
Beacon frame structure including ARID and
within 802.16 to propose the changed DL-MAP or NBR-ADV message including
ARID.

Let me know if I misunderstanding something from the Stephen's comments




Regards,


Sungjin Lee
=====================================
Global Standards & Research Team
Telecommunication R&D Center
SAMSUNG Electronics

TEL : +82 31 279 5248
MOBILE : +82 16 301 6603
E-mail : steve.lee@samsung.com
======================================

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-stds-802-21@listserv.ieee.org
[mailto:owner-stds-802-21@listserv.ieee.org] On Behalf Of S. Daniel Park
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 8:38 AM
To: 'McCann, Stephen'; 'stds-802-21'
Cc: ajayrajkumar@LUCENT.COM; 'S. Daniel Park'; 'Pyungsoo Kim'
Subject: RE: contributions for upcoming May 2004 meeting - ARID

Stephen, thanks your kindly comments on this work.

I agree what you said, this solution can be applied for several wireless
environments and I really hope it will be expanded to related WG as you
stated 802.11 WIEN SG.

I am deeply considering what approach is more general as 802.21 guys
indicated and also waiting for various comments/feedbacks on this work.

  
However, the way that this information is communicated, be that over a
802.11, 802.16, other air interface will be technology specific and
should really be discussed within the WG in charge of standardising
that technology.
    

Regarding this comment, could you explain it more detail ?


Thanks

- Daniel (Soohong Daniel Park)
- Mobile Platform Laboratory, SAMSUNG Electronics.

  
-----Original Message-----
From: McCann, Stephen [mailto:stephen.mccann@roke.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 12:36 AM
To: 'S. Daniel Park'; 'stds-802-21'
Cc: ajayrajkumar@LUCENT.COM
Subject: RE: contributions for upcoming May 2004 meeting - ARID


Daniel,
      This is a very interesting issue, and I think it may be
applicable to more than one WG.

The information that you would want to make available at the APs (e.g.
the ARID) is something that would seem to fit within the scope of
802.21, where the benefits of having a generic identifier that can be
used over different technologies to support this L2/L3 handover
distinction and what format this information should take can be
discussed.

However, the way that this information is communicated, be that over a
802.11, 802.16, other air interface will be technology specific and
should really be discussed within the WG in charge of standardising
that technology.

Within 802.11 this issue would be welcome within 802.11 WIEN SG.

Kind regards

Stephen

    
-----Original Message-----
From: S. Daniel Park [mailto:soohong.park@SAMSUNG.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 11:50 AM
To: ajayrajkumar@LUCENT.COM; 'stds-802-21'
Cc: 'S. Daniel Park'
Subject: RE: contributions for upcoming May 2004 meeting - ARID


Hi all


At the previous meeting on March, I presented one issue which dealt
with unclear handover indication between L2 and L3 and this solution
defined a new ARID (Access Router ID) into the beacon to distinguish
L2 handover from L3 handover. If different ARID, it means subnet
change, then L3 handover is performed.

The subject was as below:
Awareness of the handover to be distinguished from a L2 or L3.

I remember that chair and some guys required more general solution
to solve this problem in the 802.11 and they worried about the newly
defined value into the current 802.11 beacon, however I am still
wondering how we can solve this ambiguous operation without 802.11
spec. extension like ARID or similar value.

So I am open to listen some comments/views on this issue.

My major question is that
[1] Do I have to propose this solution to the 802.11 WG since this
problem is originated from the 802.11 spec. ?

or

[2] Is this 802.21 WG is right place to deat with this issue ?

Regards

- Daniel (Soohong Daniel Park)
- Mobile Platform Laboratory, SAMSUNG Electronics.
      
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Cheers,
Paul Tan


Internet Draft                                              Paul Tan
    draft-paultan-seamless-ipv6-handoff-802-00.txt                   ICR
    Expires: Aug 2003                                           Feb 2003


            Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                          in IEEE 802.11 Networks


 Status of this Memo

    This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
    all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026 [1].

    Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
    Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
    other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
    Drafts.

    Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
    months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents
    at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as
    reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

    The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
         http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt
    The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
         http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

 Copyright Notice

    Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

 Abstract

    To achieve seamless layer 3 handover, mobile nodes must be able to
    perform movement detection and neighborhood candidate access routers
    discovery quickly and efficiently.

    In this document, we present a conceptual overview on how to extend
    the IEEE 802.11 Management frames to carry extensible application-
    specific Information Element, which allow access points to advertise
    the capabilities information of its associated network/provider and
    to improve movement detection. We believe that mobile nodes can thus
    dynamically discover neighboring candidate access routers or
    networks more quickly and efficiently, and also to obtain valuable
    capabilities information so as to select the 'best' target access
    router to initiate seamless handover.



 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 1]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


 1. Terminology

    The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
    "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", "OPTIONAL", and
    "silently ignore" in this document are to be interpreted as
    described in RFC 2119. This document uses the terminology defined in
    [2] and [3]. The following terminology and abbreviations are used in
    this document.

    Mobile Node (MN)
    A Mobile IPv6 host

    Access Router (AR)
    An Access Network Router residing on the edge of an Access Network
    and offers IP connectivity to mobile nodes

    New Access Router (NAR)
    The MN's anticipated default router subsequent to its handover

    Candidate AR (CAR)
    An AR to which a MN has a choice of performing IP-level handover.
    This implies that the MN has the right radio interface to connect to
    an AP that is served by this AR, as well as the coverage of this AR
    overlaps with that of the AR to which the MN is currently attached
    to.

    Target AR (TAR)
    An AR with which the procedures for the MN's IP-level handover are
    initiated. The TAR is selected after running a TAR Selection
    algorithm that takes into account the capabilities of CARs,
    preferences of the MN and any other local policies.

    New CoA (NCoA)
    The MN's Care of Address valid on NAR

    Handover
    A process of terminating existing connectivity and obtaining new IP
    connectivity.

    Router Solicitation for Proxy (RtSolPr)
    A message from the MN to the PAR requesting information for a
    potential handover

    Proxy Router Advertisement (PrRtAdv)
    A message from the PAR indicating a MN to undergo handover




 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 2]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


    Access Point (AP)
    An L2 entity that has station functionality and provides access to
    the distribution services, via the wireless medium for associated
    stations.

    Association
    The service used to establish access point/station (AP/STA) mapping
    and enable STA access to the Distribution System.

    Basic Service Set (BSS)
    A set of stations controlled by a single coordination function,
    where the coordination function may be centralized (e.g., in a
    single AP) or distributed (e.g., for an ad-hoc network).  The BSS
    can be thought of as the coverage area of a single AP.

    Distribution System (DS)
    A system used to interconnect a set of basic service sets (BSSs) and
    integrated local area networks (LANs) to create an extended service
    set(ESS).

    Extended Service Set (ESS)
    A set of one or more interconnected basic service sets (BSSs) and
    integrated local area networks (LANs) that appears as a single BSS
    to the logical link control layer at any station associated with one
    of those BSSs.  The ESS can be thought of as the coverage area
    provided by a collection of APs all interconnected by the
    Distribution System.  It may consist of one or more IP subnets.























 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 3]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


 2. Introduction

    In Mobile IPv6 [1], a mobile node can effectively maintain its
    connectivity to the Internet when it changes its point-of-attachment
    to the Internet. During the handover, the mobile node is unable to
    send/receive IPv6 packets both due to its L2/L3 handover operations.
    This handover latency is unacceptable to real-time or delay
    sensitive traffic/applications.

 2.1 Movement Detection based on Router Advertisements
    Whenever a mobile node moves, it is required to perform movement
    detection by discovering (sending Router Solicitation) its current
    environment.

    In Mobile IPv6 [1], the movement detection algorithm relies on the
    periodic Router Advertisements to enable the mobile node to
    determine their current location. To achieve optimum detection
    performance, Router Advertisements can be broadcast at a faster
    rate, which eventually results in poor link utilization. The
    algorithm can be triggered through the indication from the
    underlying L2 driver. However, we noted that not all L2 mobility
    indication from the L2 driver indicates movement of the mobile node
    to a new subnet (i.e. L3 movement).

    Movement detection, which is achieved through the use of Neighbour
    Discovery [4] requires routers to send unsolicited Router
    Advertisement at a minimum interval of 3 seconds [section 6.2.4 of
    [4]]. Upon receipt of a Router Solicitation message, the router MUST
    delay its response (i.e. Router Advertisement) by a random time.
    Lastly, the protocol also requires the mobile node to delay its
    transmission of the initial solicitation for a random amount of
    time. Such delay is simply not desirable in achieving seamless
    handover. However, mobile IPv6 [1] relaxes such limit to allow
    mobile nodes to quickly detect their movement by listening to Router
    Advertisements, which are sent at a much faster rate.

 2.2 Fast-Handoff Protocol
    The fast handover protocol [2] is designed to achieve seamless
    handoff of mobile nodes between the access routers.

    In a mobile-initiated anticipated fast-handover described in [2],
    the mobile node first sends a Router Solicitation for Proxy(RtSolPr)
    to the current access router containing the link-layer address of
    the new access point. The current access router replies with
    RtrAdvPr, which contains the [AP-ID, AR-MAC, AR-IP] tuple. These
    message exchanges allows a mobile node to obtain the new access



 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 4]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


    router's MAC address, which is needed to send packets once the
    mobile node attaches to the new access router, and also to perform
    'anticipative' configuration of the new IP address on the new subnet
    using the New Router Prefix Information option carried in the
    RtrAdvPr message.

    However, the above protocol assumes that the L2 protocol is capable
    of delivering the L2 identifier of the new access point to the
    mobile node. More important, to initiate seamless handover, the
    current AR must be capable of mapping this new L2 identifier into
    the IP address of the new AR [6]. Lastly, it assumes that the mobile
    node or the current access router have a priori knowledge (e.g.
    capabilities) of the target of the handover (i.e. target access
    router).

 3. Proposal Overview
    One of the challenges in achieving seamless L3 handover is the
    ability of MN to perform movement detection and to discover and
    select its new neighboring candidate access router quickly and
    efficiently that matches closely to the mobile node preferences or
    requirements.

    In this document, we present an overview on how to extend the IEEE
    802.11 Management frames to carry extensible application-specific
    Information Element, which allow access points to advertise the
    capabilities information of its associated network/provider. The
    recommendation also improves in the movement detection mechanism by
    avoiding unnecessary L3 messaging over the wireless link. More
    importantly, we believe that mobile nodes can dynamically discover
    neighboring candidate access routers or networks more quickly and
    efficiently, and also to obtain valuable capabilities information so
    as to select the 'best' target access router to initiate seamless
    handover. The recommendation also allows new/removed access routers
    and access points to be discovered without much human interventions.

 3.1 Instantaneous/Faster Movement Detection
    In this section, we describe how to configure the Extended Service
    Set Identifier (ESSID) of an infrastructure 802.11 network such that
    it includes the L3 identifier/Information of its associated AR or
    network.

    With this embedded identifier (e.g. IP address or prefix
    information), MN can quickly detect movement to a new L3 subnet,
    thus avoiding transmitting unnecessary L3 messages (i.e. Router
    Solicitation/Advertisement) and delays.




 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 5]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


    To perform instantaneous movement detection, we recommend that APs
    to include the subnet prefix information for their associated AR
    (Subnet-Router-Anycast-Address) into the ESSID. This recommendation
    allows MN to discover new network when it established a L2
    connection with the new AP in an instantaneous manner.

                                                +---...--+
                                                |        |
                 +-----+                     +-----+  +-----+
                 | AR1 |                     | AR1 |  | AR2 |
                 +-----+                     +-----+  +-----+
                    |                           |        |
                +---+---+                       |        |
                |       |                       |        |
             +-----+ +-----+                 +-----+  +-----+
             | AP1 | | AP2 |                 | AP1 |  | AP2 |
             +-----+ +-----+                 +-----+  +-----+
                /\      /\                      /\      /\
               /  \    /  \                    /  \    /  \
              /    \  /    \                  /    \  /    \
             /      \/      \                /      \/      \
            /       /\       \              /       /\       \
           /       /  \       \            /       /  \       \
                 re-assoc
                (mn) ----->
          |-----  essid_1 -----|          |----  essid_1  ----|

       Figure 1: Typical/Possible 802.11 Network Deployment

    However, to improve the inter-cell (802.11) handoff performance,
    several APs belonging to different administrative domains (different
    subnets) may choose to share similar ESSID. Therefore, as MN moves
    across these cells, it only needs to initiate re-association instead
    of the plain association process, which can take significantly
    longer. In this case, instead of embedding network prefix
    information into the ESSID, which is specific to each subnet, AP can
    include Network-Prefix-Information (section 5.1.1) object using the
    Application-Specific Information Element (section 5.1) into the
    beacon frames.











 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 6]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


    The table below shows an example of a list of beacon information
    advertised by the neighboring APs received by the MN on a specific
    wireless interface with an identifier, mniid.

    +-------------+---------------+--------+------+-----------------+------+
    |Subnet-prefix|     ESSID     | AP-MAC | RSSI | Care-of-Address |Status|
    +-------------+---------------+--------+------+-----------------+------+
    |  prefix1    |     essid1    |  MAC1  |x dbm |  prefix1:mniid  |  -   |
    +-------------+---------------+--------+------+-----------------+------+
    |  prefix2    |     essid1    |  MAC2  |x dbm |  prefix2:mniid  |active|
    +-------------+---------------+--------+------+-----------------+------+
    |  prefix3    |     essid2    |  MAC3  |x dbm |  prefix3:mniid  |  -   |
    +-------------+---------------+--------+------+-----------------+------+
    |  prefix4    |     essid3    |  MAC4  |x dbm |  prefix4:mniid  |  -   |
    +-------------+---------------+--------+------+-----------------+------+
                       Table 1: Beacon Lists

    When MN moves, the underlying driver can indicate such movement
    using triggers (e.g. onL2Up during the 802.11 Assoc/Re-Assoc events)
    to the mobile IP stack. Based on the earlier cached configuration of
    the new subnet, MN can immediately perform mobile IP operations
    without performing movement detection using Router Solicitation and
    Advertisement.

 4. Dynamic Candidate Access Router Discovery
    MN constantly listens for any beacons frame advertised by the
    neighboring APs. When MN discovers a new AP/Advertisement, it stores
    the advertised capabilities information, which is encapsulated
    inside the Network-Capabilities-Information Object (section 5.1)
    into its Neighborhood CAR list.

    +---------------+---------------+---------+---------+-----+--------+
    | Subnet-prefix |     ESSID     |  Cost   | Fast-HO | QoS |Security|
    +---------------+---------------+---------+---------+-----+--------+
    |    prefix1    |    essid1     | 0 units |    n    |  n  |   n    |
    +------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |    prefix2    |    essid1     | 1 units |    n    |  n  |   y    |
    +------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |    prefix3    |    essid2     | 2 units |    n    |  y  |   n    |
    +------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |    prefix4    |    essid3     | 3 units |    y    |  y  |   y    |
    +------------------------------------------------------------------+
                  Table 2: Neighborhood CAR list






 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 7]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


    MN can store these discovered information ordered by either the
    signal strength or other parameters (e.g. Pricing). To
    achieve/assist fast handoff operation, information such as L2/L3
    address mapping of the AR can be obtained from the Access-Router-
    Information Object (section 5.1.3).

    Therefore, the ability to dynamically discover neighboring CAR's
    capabilities allows the MN to perform the selection of TAR based on
    the mobile node's preference or requirements [6].

 4.1 Operations
    In this section, we will briefly describe the operation on the MN.

                MN              AP1            AP2          AP3 AR3
     -           | advertisement |              |            |   |
     |           | <------------ |              |            |   |
     |           | advertisement |              |            |   |
                 | <--------------------------- |            |   |
    NDP          |               |              |            |   |
                 .               .              .            .   .
     |           .               .              .            .   .
                 .                advertisement              .   .
     -           | <---------------------------------------- |   |
                 |               |              |            |   |
     -           |                assoc/re-assoc             |   |
     |           | ----------------------------------------> |   |
    PP           |                   L3 HO                   |   |
     |           | --------------------------------------------> |
     -           |               |              |            |   |

    - Neighborhood Discovery Phase (NDP)
      - MN discovers neighboring APs or networks and creates a list of
        CARs with their advertised information (Table 2)
      - Optionally, during the neighborhood discovery phase, MN can
        configure in advance new CoA for each discovered APs on various
        different subnets.
    - 'Panic' Phase (PP)
       - If the current associated AP's signal strength drops or if the
         MN discovers a new AP, which offers 'better' service/pricing,
         MN can immediately perform a handover to this new AP/AR.
       - MN decides to perform association/re-association with a new AP
         (e.g. AP3) based on MN's preference/requirements
       - We assumed here that AP3 is associated with a different subnet;
         MN will know that it has moved to a new network using the
         cached information.
       - Assuming MN is still attached to AP1, it quickly initiates
         fast-handoff using the cached information of AP3(AR3-L2-ID,


 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 8]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


         AR3-L3-ID).
       - Or if the MN has already obtain a valid CoA for which the new
         AR has reserved/defended, it can quickly initiate a
         'lightweight-FHO' (a trigger to indicate movement confirmation)

 5. Extensible Application-Specific Information Elements
    We proposed to extend the current IEEE 802.11 Management frames to
    carry extensible application-specific information elements. For
    example, the IEEE 802.11 Beacon frame with the newly proposed IE is
    shown in the figure 2.

    The Extensible Application-specific IE allows future
    applications/protocols to encapsulate their information into the
    IEEE 802.11 frame easily, hopefully without much software
    modification. With the new IE, we believe that valuable information
    can then be easily included in the IEEE 802.11 Management frames and
    discovered by roaming MN.

     0                       1                 2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |        Frame Control          |            Duration           |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                      Destination Address                      |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                               |         Source Address        |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                        Source Address                         |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                     Basic Service Set ID                      |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                               |         Sequence Control      |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |    Capability Information     |       Beacon Interval         |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |         Timestamp             |     SSID (2-34 octets)        |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                   Supported Rates (3-7 octets)                |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    .                                                               .
    |                Extensible-Application-Specific IE             |
    .                                                               .
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                       Frame Check Sequence                    |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

    Figure 2. 802.11 Beacon Frame with new Ext-Application-Specific IE


 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003                [Page 9]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003



    The above application-specific IE consists of the following fields:
    Element ID, Length, and Extensible-Application-Specific Information.

     0                   1                   2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |    Element ID |     Length    |           ..                  |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                               +
    |                                                               |
    +                  Application-Specific Object                  +
    |                                                               |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

    Figure 3. Extensible-Application-Specific Information Element

    As defined in [3], the element ID field is 1 octet long and
    specifies the type of IE. The length field is 1 octet long and
    specifies the length (number of octets) of the application-specific
    Information field. Lastly, the application-specific object field
    carries the specific application object using the following
    structure.

     0                   1                   2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |     App ID    |     Length    |           ..                  |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                               +
    |                                                               |
    +                Application-Specific Information               +
    |                                                               |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

    Figure 4. Generic Application-Specific Object Structure

 5.1 Application-Specific Information Objects
    In this conceptual document, we have proposed several application-
    specific objects to achieve our intended objective. We believed that
    future application objects could be easily defined and carried
    through the Extensible-Application Information Element without
    defining new IEEE 802.11 information elements.








 Paul Tan                Expires - August 2003               [Page 10]

             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


 5.1.1 Network-Prefix-Information Object
    The format of the Network-Prefix-Information object is:

     0                   1                   2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    | App_NwPrfInfo |     Length    |  Prefix-Length  |             |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+             |
    |                           Prefix Value                        |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

    App-ID          App_NwPrfInfo (1)
    Length          1 + Length of the prefix value in octets
    Prefix-Value    An IPv6 address or its prefix. The Prefix Length
                    field contains the number of valid leading bits in
                    the prefix.

 5.1.2 Network-Capabilities-Information Object
    The format of the Network-Capabilities-Information object is:

     0                   1                   2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    | App_NwCapInfo |     Length    |           ..                  |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                               |
    |                         Capabilities-Info                     |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

    App-ID      App_NwCapInfo (2)
    Length      1
    Capabilities-Info TBD

 5.1.3 Access-Router-Information Object
    The format of the Access-Router-Information object is:

     0                   1                   2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |   App_ARInfo  |     Length    |           ..                  |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                               +
    |                           MAC Address                         |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    .                                                               .
    |                          IPv6 Address                         |
    .                                                               .
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+



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             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                           in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003


    App-ID          App_ARInfo (3)
    Length          22
    MAC Address     A MAC address for the access router
    IPv6 Address    An IPv6 address for the access router

 6. Requirements

    MN should be capable of receiving and passing the new Extensible
    Application information up from the 802.11 driver to IP layer.

    The IEEE 802.11 AP should be configurable such that new Application-
    specific information can be carried in the 802.11 frames without
    much hassle. The AP should also be able to include this new IE into
    the beacon or even the association/re-association frames.


    References

    [1]  D.Johnson, C.Perkins and J.Arkko, Mobility Support in Ipv6,
         draft-ietf-mobileip-ipv6-18.txt, May 2002
    [2]  Dommety, G., et. al., Fast Handovers for Mobile Ipv6, draft-
         ietf-mobileip-fast-mipv6-05.txt
    [3]  IEEE, "Part II: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and
         Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications, 1999
    [4]  T.Narten, E. Nordmark and W.Simpson, Neighbor Discovery for IP
         Version 6 (IPv6), RFC 2461, December 1998
    [5]  Alper E. Yegin, Daichi Funato, Karim El Malki, Youngjune Gwon,
         James Kempf, Mattias Pettersson, Phil Roberts, Hesham Soliman,
         Atushi Takeshita, Supporting Optimisation Handover for IP
         Mobility - Requirement for Underlying Systems, draft-
         manyfolks-l2-mobilereq-02.txt
    [6]  Trossen, D., Krisharmurthi, G. Chaskar, H., Kempf, J, Issues
         in Candidate Access Router Discovery for seamless IP-level
         handoffs, draft-ietf-seamoby-cardiscovery-issues-04.txt, work
         in progress, October 2002














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             Recommendations for Achieving Seamless IPv6 Handover
                         in IEEE 802.11 Networks         February 2003



  Acknowledgments

   The author would like to thank James Kempf and Parijat (I2R) for
   their review and suggestions.


   Author's Addresses

   Paul Tan
   Institute of Communications Research (ICR)
   20, TeleTech Park,
   #02-34/37, Singapore Science Park II,
   Singapore 117674
   Phone: +65 68709324
   Email: tanpaul@i2r.a-star.edu.sg