One document matched: draft-faccin-mih-infoserv-01.txt

Differences from draft-faccin-mih-infoserv-00.txt




Network Working Group                                           G. Daley
Internet-Draft                                    Monash University CTIE
Expires: April 15, 2006                                        S. Faccin
                                                                   Nokia
                                                             E. Hepworth
                                             Siemens/Roke Manor Research
                                                                  Q. Xie
                                                                Motorola
                                                        October 12, 2005


          Some Requirements for a Handover Information Service
                    draft-faccin-mih-infoserv-01.txt

Status of this Memo

   By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
   applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware
   have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes
   aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 15, 2006.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

Abstract

   Handover Information Services may be used to assist handovers between
   wireless cells, based on stored network knowledge.  Information
   Services can be used to provide topology and channel information



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   which may allow a moving host to select an appropriate link-layer
   connection to make, amongst available networks, whether using the
   same technology or between heterogeneous technologies.

   This document is an effort to describe use cases and problem
   statements for information services, when they are transported and
   discovered over IP networks.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1   Information Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.2   Scope of work on information services  . . . . . . . . . .  5
   2.  Relationship to 802.21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.1   802.21 Media Independent Information Services  . . . . . .  5
   3.  Scenarios for IS Transported over IP . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.1   Information Service Scenarios  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.2   Further Scenario Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.3   Specific Use Information Services  . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   4.  Protocol Development Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     4.1   Information Service Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     4.2   Messages Exchanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     4.3   Information Service Discovery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     4.4   Transport-Layer Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     4.5   Security Association Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   5.  Requirements for Transport over IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     5.1   Summary of requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   6.  Outstanding Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     6.1   Transport Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     6.2   Discovery Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     6.3   Security Issues  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     7.1   Attacks against service entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     7.2   Attacks against information  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
   8.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
   9.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     9.1   Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     9.2   Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
       Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
   A.  802.21 Media Independent Handover Services . . . . . . . . . . 25
     A.1   802.21 Handover Service Classification . . . . . . . . . . 26
     A.2   802.21 MIHS SAP Relations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     A.3   802.21 MIIS Message Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     A.4   Information flows in 802.21  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
     A.5   802.21 MIIS Information Classes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
       Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 31





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1.  Introduction

   Handover services are a class of network services, which aim to
   assist the quality of handovers available to wireless devices.  In
   order to support more intelligent handover services it is often
   necessary to be able to exchange information between mobile and fixed
   nodes within the network.

   At this time, three broad classes of services for handover assistance
   are under consideration within the IEEE 802.21 Working Group.  They
   require passing of information within hosts, as well as between them:

   1.  Event Services (ES) provide indications from lower layers about
       changes in the connectivity state.  This is particularly relevant
       to wireless interfaces [22].

   2.  Command Services (CS) provide mechanisms for controlling
       handovers.  They provide mechanisms to establish, redirect, or
       remove state in either the network or mobile terminal, so that
       handovers occur smoothly.

   3.  Information Services (IS) are used to provide additional
       handover-related information.  This allows the network or host to
       make informed decisions of which handover operations to undertake
       either in response to an event, or when planning controlled or
       commanded handovers.

   As shown in Figure 1, one or more handover services may exist in a
   node, including services which aren't yet described.  Each service
   may require communication with peer services on other nodes, and this
   communication may be transported transport over IP, to communicate
   with peer services on other nodes.

   The diagram transfers data over a mobility service transport
   protocol.  This protocol provides transparent message delivery, as
   well as server discovery and security association configuration.  As
   such, it may encompass multiple layers of the TCP/IP protocol model.














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                     +-------------+                ^
                     |  Mobility   |                |
                     |  Service 2  |                |
        +------------|  (e.g. ES)  |                | Mobility Service
        |  Mobility  +-------------+                |    Signaling
        |  Service 1   |     +-------------+        |      Layer
        |  (e.g. IS)   |     |  Mobility   |        |
        +--------------+     |  Service 3  |        |
                             |   (other)   |        |
                             +-------------+        V
   ================================================
      +---------------------------------------+     ^ Mobility Service
      |  Mobility Service Transport Protocol  |     |    Transport
      +---------------------------------------+     V      Layer
   ================================================
      +---------------------------------------+
      |                   IP                  |
      +---------------------------------------+

                    Figure 1: Handover Services over IP

   A current focus for handover services over IP is on Information
   Services delivery and transport.  This document is primarily focused
   on this issue.

   While the IETF is primarily interested in how handover services can
   be used to assist mobility signaling protocols, and interactions
   between handover services and network/transport layers, other groups
   have been taking a more generally applicable view (see Section 2).

   This document provides a view of the authors, and doesn't represent
   the official view of either IEEE 802.21 or an IETF WG.  Assistance is
   sought to improve this document, in order to reflect consensus
   viewpoints from the appropriate groups.

1.1  Information Services

   Information Services are considered to be an important component of
   handover services, for providing local network information to
   wireless devices in a non-real-time fashion [1].

   Information services provide additional information about the
   environment a mobile device is operating in.  These services
   typically require one or more servers within a set of access
   networks, which distribute knowledge that can assist hosts performing
   handovers between cells.

   Information provided varies dependent on the purpose and operation of



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   the information service, but may consist of: wireless channel state,
   adjacent base-station channel occupation, neighboring network
   information or upper-layer mobility service information.  While each
   of these is possible, it is important to note that information
   services described in this document have a restricted scope described
   below in Section 1.2.  This scope is limited in order to achieve
   timely outcomes for document development and standardization.

1.2  Scope of work on information services

   The development of information services covered in this document
   assume a set of models compatible with IEEE 802.21's descriptions of
   a Handover Information Service,as described in Section 2.  In this
   context, a system would need to provide discovery, security
   association bootstrap and transport of information services over IP,
   in a variety of deployment scenarios.  These scenarios are described
   in Section 3.  The extent of protocol development work to be
   undertaken is elaborated on in Section 4.

   Further descriptions of information services are possible, for
   example it may be possible to describe information services and
   FMIPv6 interaction [21].  Having a single framework for FMIPv6
   network discovery is important for compatability, though, so it may
   be valuable for FMIPv6 development not depend on that of a
   generalized IS.

   Initial specification of use cases will focus on delivery services
   required by the existing client (802.21), in the hope that the scheme
   is general enough to be of use in the other cases [1].

2.  Relationship to 802.21

   IEEE 802.21 is currently developing Media Independent Handover
   Services (MIHS).  These services are aimed at providing a common
   framework for handover assistance regardless of the underlying
   technology.  The 802.21 framework is aimed to be deployed in a number
   of different scenarios, where additional specification will be
   required.

   This draft provides an incomplete description of the 802.21's
   progress, and people are encouraged to read the 802.21 draft
   themselves [1].

2.1  802.21 Media Independent Information Services

   IEEE is currently working on Information Services as part of 802.21
   Media Independent Handover Services (MIHS).




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   Amongst media independent handover services, information services are
   most readily deployed over IP [1].  In the 802.21 case, link-layer
   oriented information would then be distributed over IP and upper-
   layer protocols.

   For these information services, it is possible that network
   information may be either centrally stored on a server or distributed
   in each individual access network.  Presumably, an L2 or L3 based
   mechanism to identify or discover a valid information server would be
   required.  Such scenarios are described in more detail in
   Section 3.1.

   In order to accomplish this, it will be necessary to describe IS
   discovery and specify transport services over IP.  Interactions with
   IP in delivering handover services over IP therefore need
   consideration in the IETF, both for use with 802.21 and for other
   instances of handover services [21].

   This document describes a distillation of the requirements from the
   current draft for 802.21's media independent information service, in
   order describe uses for handover information services, and start
   describing requirements for alike information services transported
   over IP.

   As synergies exist between this work and existing work within the
   IETF, the authors of this document aim to exchange knowledge amongst
   participants of IEEE 802 and IETF.  This may allow specification of
   information services transport over IP, which would be suitable for
   802.21's MIIS, as well as other compatible information services.

3.  Scenarios for IS Transported over IP

   In the general case, Information Services delivery over IP may be
   applicable to more than just media independent handovers.  What is
   likely to be held in common are deployment scenarios, which detail
   particular challenges dealt with by the information service, and the
   consequent requirements from these services.

   In Section 3.1 below, these scenarios are detailed, along with the
   implications of particular topologies.  The union of these
   requirements are then described in Section 4.

3.1  Information Service Scenarios

   The models described above for information services allow deployment
   of IS Information Servers anywhere within the visited network domain.
   In this section example scenarios are described indicating where
   information services are likely to be deployed.  Descriptions of



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   particular characteristics of these deployments are made, especially
   where the deployments place requirements on any information service
   transportation deployed over IP.

   In each of the diagrams (Figure 2, Figure 3 and Figure 4) below, a
   mobile device is currently connected to a particular wireless cell,
   serviced by an Access Point.  In order to gain information about
   other wireless cells in the vicinity, it contacts an information
   server within the fixed network.

   In Figure 2, the information service has been deployed on a wireless
   Access Point.  This is considered to be a likely scenario, as
   wireless devices themselves may be aware of local channel conditions,
   and may have information about administratively adjacent devices
   (such as first-hop routers) and base stations within the same subnet.

   In this scenario, transport of information services over IP isn't
   strictly necessary, as the IS-Server is the MAC peer of the wireless
   host.  If information services over IP are deployed though, no
   changes to the link-layer protocol are required.

   Conversely, if transport of information services over IP is required,
   the host is still has to discover the server's IP address and
   presence.  This discovery requires transmission IS discovery queries
   to a known address, group, or directory service.

                                                  /--------\
    I                                            /          \
   -----          --------     --------    /----/            \----\
   |[ ]|          | ---- |--+--|      |---/                        \
   |ooo|<---------->|IS| |  |  |      |  /                          \
   |ooo|          | ---- |  |  |      |  \                          /
   -----          --------  |  --------   \                        /
   Host            Access   |   Router     \----\            /----/
                   Point    |                    \          /
                            |  --------         / \--------/
                            +--|      |        / Distribution
                               |      |-------/    Network
                               |      |
                               --------
                                Router


                    Figure 2: IS-Server on Access Point

   When an IS-Server is placed within the access network,once again it
   may be possible to run information services without using IP.  No
   advantage is gained from omitting IP, though, as server discovery



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   still needs to occur.

   If IP is used for information services transport, For example, in
   (Figure 3), the server is co-located in the router.  There the router
   has access to the upper layer information required to assist
   handovers [1][21].

   While information services delivery in this scenario is partly
   addressed by experimental information services in CARD and FMIPv6,
   the authors consider a fresh look at these issues are warranted,
   particularly to establish the applicability of security association
   establishment mechanisms in these and other environments [20][21].

                                                  /--------\
    I                                            /          \
   -----          --------     --------    /----/            \----\
   |[ ]|          |      |--+--| ---- |---/                        \
   |ooo|<----------------------->|IS| |  /                          \
   |ooo|          |      |  |  | ---- |  \                          /
   -----          --------  |  --------   \                        /
   Host            Access   |   Router     \----\            /----/
                   Point    |                    \          /
                            |  --------         / \--------/
                            +--| ---- |        / Distribution
                               | |IS| |-------/    Network
                               | ---- |
                               --------
                                Router


                   Figure 3: IS-Server on Subnet Router

   Information service servers deployed outside the mobile node's subnet
   present both advantages and challenges.  As illustrated in Figure 4,
   an IS-Server outside a subnet doesn't require explicit support from
   devices the mobile's link.  Therefore the server is able to be
   deployed in networks which are not able to be modified easily.
   Additionally, the server is in a position to serve many access
   subnets simultaneously, which reduces administrative overheads.

   Conversely, network support for discovering the IS-Server becomes
   critically important.  Since a mobile device may roam within a domain
   though, it may not be necessary to discover the server each time it
   changes subnet, so long as the mobile remains in the set of networks
   covered by the server.  Discovery mechanisms are covered in more
   detail in Section 4.3.

   Additionally, the location of information services addressable



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   outside the subnet has security implications which are described in
   Section 7.

                                                  /--------\
    I                                            /          \
   -----          --------     --------    /----/  --------  \----\
   |[ ]|          |      |-----|      |---/        | ---- |        \
   |ooo|<----------------------------------------->| |IS| |         \
   |ooo|          |      |     |      |  \         | ---- |         /
   -----          --------     --------   \        --------        /
   Host            Access       Router     \----\ Information/----/
                   Point                         \ Server   /
                  --------     --------         / \--------/
                  |      |-----|      |        / Distribution
                  |      |     |      |-------/    Network
                  |      |     |      |
                  --------     --------
                   Access       Router
                   Point


                      Figure 4: Standalone IS-Server


3.2  Further Scenario Considerations

   The IS needs to be in a position to provide useful information to
   hosts about their current visited environments.  In many cases, the
   network side infrastructure is in a position to store overall network
   information, such as neighborhood cell lists and the location of
   mobile devices.  The wide variation in potential locations for
   Information Servers though, makes their discovery challenging.

   Description of information services transported over IP requires
   detailed analysis of potential Security Association building
   techniques, and identification of anchors for trust.  It also
   requires determination of IS discovery mechanisms which are
   deployable in today's networks.

   In some scenarios, link-layer devices may be modified sufficiently to
   provide discovery services for IS servers contactable over the
   internet.  In this case, the discovery operations can be abbreviated
   in all scenarios where transport over IP is provided, if the link-
   layer mechanism is sufficiently secured against advertisement
   spoofing.






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3.3  Specific Use Information Services

   As described in Appendix A.5, information services may potentially
   retrieve different types of data from different sources.  Where this
   data is also used for different purposes within the recipient host,
   it may be useful to segregate the discovery and operation of
   information services for different classes of data onto separate
   servers.

   At discovery time, the discovery operation could then respond with
   service advertisements describing which services are provided on
   which servers, potentially indicating that one information class is
   available on one server and one on another.

   While this scenario is not explicitly supported in 802.21, where
   service discovery is provided over IP networks, it is feasible to
   request/identify if an information server has a particular service.
   The scenario is illustrated below:

                                                  /--------\
    I             --------     --------          / -------- \
   -----   HLSI   |      |     |      |    /----/  | ---- |  \----\
   |[ ]|<------------------------------------------->|IS| |        \
   |ooo|          | ---- |     |      |  /         | ---- |         \
   |ooo|<---------->|IS| |-----|      |--\         |      |         /
   -----   LLI    | ---- |     |      |   \        --------        /
   Host           --------     --------    \----\  Network   /----/
                   Access       Router           \ Server   /
                   Point                        / \--------/
                  --------     --------        / Distribution
                  | ---- |     |      |       /    Network
                  | |IS| |-----|      |------/
                  | ---- |     |      |
                  --------     --------



            Figure 5: Separation of Information Content Option

   In Figure 5, separate information classes are shown on the different
   servers.  Link-layer services are serviced by access-points or other
   local devices, while topological and network information is serviced
   by a centrally located device.  Discovery of services may indicate
   that a current SA and communication channel to the IS may be reused
   (for example to the central server), while link-specific information
   services would be accessed for local information services.

   This is to be contrasted with the previous unified information



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   services deployment model from deploying the information server at
   one of the particular locations in Figure 2, Figure 3 or Figure 4.
   If information services are deployed in multiple servers, it may
   require additional operations to discover all required services.
   Also, it could lead to additional signalling and computation expenses
   in bootstrapping security associations for each communication.

   As development of information services over IP proceeds, it may be
   valuable to deploy the same discovery and security association
   bootstrap mechanisms for subsequent non-link-layer oriented services.
   In this case, the discovery mechanism would need to be flexible
   enough to accomodate additional information services, or combinations
   of services.

   At this stage, no intention to follow a multiple information-server
   design is inferred.  The scenario is illustrated to elicit feedback
   about the desirability of specific use information services over IP,
   for either use with 802.21 or further development of information
   services.

4.  Protocol Development Scope

   This section describes the areas requiring investigation or
   standardization to provide transport of information services over IP.

   At this stage, significant feedback is required from both MIPSHOP
   working group and 802.21 Task Group, to confirm the validity of the
   scenarios from Section 3, and develop the descriptions in the
   subsections below.

   Once these are more stable, a summary of requirements can be produced
   in Section 5.1.

4.1  Information Service Interfaces

   Entities involved with handover information services perform the
   roles of an Information Services client (IS client) or an Information
   Services server (IS-Server).  Relative positions of client and
   server, and the interfaces between them produce different
   requirements, depending on the type of communication.

   Illustrated in Figure 6, are a number of devices participating in
   information services exchanges.  On the left-hand side of the figure,
   a mobile IS client contacts an IS-Server in a network device.  If
   this server requires additional information, it may contact another
   IS-Server by becoming a client itself.  This new IS-Server may reside
   either within its administrative domain, or in another domain.




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      ---------         -----------         -----------
      |mobile |-------->|IS-Server|-------->|IS-Server|
      ---------         -----------         -----------
                             |
      domain A               |
      - - - - - - - - - - - -|- - - - - - - - - - - - -
      domain B               |
                             V
                        -----------         -----------
                        |IS-Server|-------->|IS-Server|
                        -----------         -----------


       Figure 6: Relationships between Information Service entities

   The mobile/IS-Server interface is the primary interface requiring
   standardization by IETF.  Initially, an information server must be
   discovered, as the mobile device will not be preconfigured with the
   server identity.  Subsequently, secured communications are
   established.  This security association may allow the mobile to be
   anonymous, but in some environments, mobile device authentication may
   be used to prevent resource exhaustion attacks.  In any case, message
   authentication needs to be provided.

   To ensure the validity of data, the IS-Server itself needs to
   authenticate itself to the mobile.  This proves that it is the origin
   of the messages, and prevents man-in-the-middle attacks.

   After security association establishment, information requests and
   responses are exchanged.

   The IS-Server/IS-Server interface is required if information servers
   need to retrieve additional information from each other.  For this
   interface, message formats are the same as the mobile/IS-Server
   interface.  The lifetime of the security association may change
   though, especially in environments where servers each act as a
   requester and a responder.  If this is the case, mutual
   authentication is required between the servers.  Discovery is
   considered to be out-of-scope, as in many networks, this will be
   under the control of other network management systems.

4.2  Messages Exchanges

   On the mobile/IS-Server interface a series of steps are required
   before information is able to be delivered back to the mobile node.
   In Figure 7, the steps are illustrated.  The mobile device is
   involved in all exchanges, although dependent on the discovery scheme
   developed for Information Services, it may contact a separate



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   directory service in order to locate the IS-Server's address.


                    /                           \  -----------
                    |  1) IS-Server Discovery   |  |Directory|
                    |  ---------------------->   \ |   or    |
                    |  2) IS-Server Address      / |  Group  |
                    |  <----------------------  |  -----------
    --------------  |                           /
    |  Mobile    |  |
    |Information | /
    |  Service   | \   3) IS-Server Contact            \
    |   Client   |  |   ---------------------------->  |
    --------------  |  4) Build Security Associations  |  -------------
                    |  <============================>   \ |Information|
                    |  5) Information Request           / |  Service  |
                    |  ----------------------------->  |  |   Server  |
                    |  6) Information Response         |  -------------
                    \  <-----------------------------  /


       Figure 7: Message exchanges required for Information Service
                                 Operation

   1.  IS-Server Discovery - A message from the mobile to either a
       multicast/anycast group, or a directory service which can be used
       to find an IS-Server.

   2.  IS-Server Address - The response from either a member of a
       multicast/anycast group or the directory server, indicating the
       address of the IS-Server.

   3.  IS-Server Contact - The initial contact operation where the
       mobile tests if the IS-Server is reachable.  This may occur
       within the first message used for Security Association (SA)
       bootstrap.

   4.  Build Security Associations - Messages exchanged to bootstrap SAs
       with which to protect the data exchange.

   5.  Information Request - The data query packets typically sent from
       the mobile to the IS-Server, protected by the SAs.

   6.  Information Response - A responding set of response packets sent
       from the IS-Server to the requester.  This message is protected
       by the SAs already negotiated.  Where the direct requester was an
       IS-Server, the response goes back to the requester rather than a
       mobile.



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   Discovery exchanges (1 and 2) rely upon the underlying discovery
   protocol, as described in Section 4.3.

   Subsequently, secure communications are established (steps 3/4).
   This should make use of an existing applicable, dependent on the
   transport required for information request and responses (steps 5 and
   6).

   Transport layer requirements for information exchanges are described
   in Section 4.4, and additional considerations for security
   association negotiation are provided in Section 4.5.

4.3  Information Service Discovery

   Discovery by the mobile device of the IS-Server either requires
   Information Server participation in a discovery protocol, network
   entity discovery support or use of a directory service.  The
   directory service can then refer mobiles to an appropriate server for
   their location.

   Discovery mechanisms need to provide IP layer contact information for
   the IS-Server.  Such a discovery system should provide protection
   against spoofing, to prevent attackers substituting bogus information
   servers.

   In IP networks, numerous directory and configuration services already
   exist.  Use of these services either requires support from locally
   discoverable resources within the same IP hop [4][15][18], or rely on
   prior configuration of the unicast address of the directory service
   [12][13][17].  Prior configuration itself may be performed
   dynamically, along with other host services [4][15].

   Network entity discovery, such as Router Discovery [9] could allow
   discovery of an IS server during routing configuration operations.
   If server discovery can be achieved through existing configuration
   discovery procedures, no additional packet exchanges would be
   required to perform discovery.  Strict procedures for modifying
   packet formats with these primitive discovery mechanisms may limit
   the applicability of these techniques though.

   Other non-directory discovery methods require participation by the
   IS-Server in multicast or anycast communication [12].  In this case,
   the access network needs to support this form of routing, although it
   is not aware of the content.  Multicast routing itself requires
   additional routing protocols.  These protocols, while simple to
   operate in constrained domains such as this, are not yet deployed on
   all access routers.  Where the IS server is not on the first IP, this
   prevents discovery protocol operation.



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4.4  Transport-Layer Issues

   The existing ready use of IETF developed transport layer protocols is
   a compelling reason to develop information services transported over
   IP.  Particularly, it is valuable to determine if IS requirements
   match existing transport models and protocols.

   While information services are non-real time, in some scenarios (IS-
   Server within a subnet), the lifetimes of communications with a
   particular server are short.  As such, the sequenced delivery of
   packets using TCP may be too complicated for this application heavy
   handed [2].  TCP fast recovery relies upon delivery of additional
   packets to stimulate additional transmissions of acknowledgements
   from a receiver back to a transmitter.  Where packet exchanges are
   short and sporadic, loss of a packet may not be detected except using
   long retransmission timeouts [3][10][11][14].

   Where existing transport protocols do not incorporate their own
   congestion control and rate limitation, basic mechanisms for network
   protection and congestion recovery may need to be added to IS
   application protocols.

   Alternatively, the rich development of security mechanisms which work
   with TCP and other stream oriented communications, encourage its use
   [5].  Recent developments allowing similar session oriented security
   services for datagrams may allow either stream oriented services or
   datagram oriented services to be used, dependent on the handover
   service required (for example, both ES and CS may be datagram
   oriented) or the mobile node's preference [25].

4.5  Security Association Negotiation

   Security is important in IP networks, since there is a danger that
   attacking devices can attempt to adopt roles as information service
   devices.  Such bogus devices could cause service degradation through
   spurious message exchanges, or by providing false information to
   mobile devices.

   IS-Servers need both to protect themselves from attack, and to
   provide mobile clients provable trust, in order that they can make
   handover decisions without fear of malicious inaccuracies or
   mischief.

   Therefore, before exchanging information requests with a new
   information server, a set of Security Associations (SAs) are
   established.  Each SA must to provide message authentication, and
   should provide encryption, for the purposes of mobile device
   anonymity from eavesdroppers.



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   The exact SA negotiation mechanism described depends on the transport
   layer used, and security services required.  For example, TLS may be
   applicable if upper layer protocols use TCP, while ESP using IPSec/
   IKE will work in most situations, regardless of the upper layer
   protocol, so long as the IS protocol identifiers are handled by IKE
   [5][6][7].

   While a mobile device moves within an area serviced by the same IS-
   Server, it can continue to use the same security association, so long
   as the clients IP address doesn't change.  Where the IS-Server is not
   on the same LAN as the mobile, the mobile may move between IP
   networks covered by the same server.  In this case, the IP address of
   the mobile changes.

   If the mobile's address changes, it may be possible to reuse an
   existing SA by updating the addresses to use for communication
   endpoint addresses using Mobile IPv6 Route Optimization, or IKEv2
   session mobility [19][23].  If address update services are not
   available, then it will be necessary to reestablish the security
   association each time the mobile device's address changes.

5.  Requirements for Transport over IP

   At this stage feedback is sought on the preceding sections before
   development of a complete recommendation summary.  The summary below
   is to be considered as a starting point for discussion.

5.1  Summary of requirements

   o  Provide an information service transport mechanism which works
      with both IPv6 and IPv4.

   o  Allow multiple packet responses to queries.

   o  Allow fragmented message responses to queries.

   o  Provide robust query and response delivery over wireless networks.

   o  Distinguish between the packet source and query source (allow
      proxies).

   o  Provide transport of information services through NAT for IPv4.

   o  Optionally allow for multiple queries per transport session

   o  Optionally ensure compatability between the information services
      transport, and those required for Event and Command Services.




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   o  Describe an information service discovery mechansism for IPv6
      hosts

   o  Describe an information service discovery mechansism for IPv4
      hosts

   o  Provide a common discovery method regardless of whether the IS-
      Server is the adjacent AP, on the same subnet, or deep within the
      network.

   o  Information services discovery should be protected from discovery
      service impersonation and exchange modification attacks.

   o  Optionally ensure compatability between the information services
      discovery mechansisms, and those required for Event and Command
      Services over IP.

   o  Allow for distinct classes Information Servers to be discovered.

   o  Allow for more than one Information Server to be discovered at a
      time.

   o  Allow for context sensitive IS server discovery (per AP, per
      visited Subnet, per Mobile).

   o  Optionally allow discovery messages being transported through NAT.
      In this case, support for requester specific knowledge needs to
      use both the NAT source address and the query original address.

   o  Provide a common SA negotiation method regardless of whether the
      IS-Server is the adjacent AP, on the same subnet, or deep within
      the network.

   o  Protect against IS-Server impersonation.

   o  Provide confidentiality of query and response contents.

   o  Protect the identity of a querier against eavesdroppers.

   o  Protect IS-Server and discovery resources against denial of
      service.

   o  Minimize computational and transmission resources for mobile
      clients.

   o  Provide compatability with Address or Security Association
      Mobility management, to allow use of an IS server after host
      movements without renegotiating an SA.



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6.  Outstanding Issues

   At this stage, there are a wide range of possible scenarios for
   information services.  Below are a set of questions which may limit
   the range of potential deployed ISs, to an achievable subnet.

   The following subsections describe issues to resolve which may allow
   development of information services with applicability to 802.21.
   Each is outlined by an issue task which needs to be resolved in order
   to develop an IS protocol.  Therefore it is felt that this process
   may to assist shaping the requirements for IETF standardization
   processes.

   As design choices are made, they will be cataloged here, and this
   section may eventually move to an appendix.

6.1  Transport Issues

   The following design issues impact on the choice of transport
   mechanisms for Information systems.

   o  Response timing constraints

   o  Stream or datagram oriented service

   o  Reliability in transport layer or above

   Task: Determine what delivery and timing constraints exist (in
   absolute time or proportional to maximum wireless medium RTT)

   If IS applications have inbuilt timing constraints, it is necessary
   to determine what these are.  This is because existing transfer
   mechanisms may delay new transfers of data for multiple seconds in
   packet loss situations (for example TCP [3]).  As such, protocols
   which don't meet these constraints may be ruled out-of-scope for
   development.

   Task: Determine if Stream or Datagram oriented services are required
   for IS.

   It's necessary to determine which of stream and datagram oriented
   services are required.  This is because choices of services impact on
   the security and packet delivery services are needed (or available)
   at the transport layer.  Additionally, it may be useful to make use
   of a generalized transport model, not only for IS, but also for event
   or command services.  In that case, the union of the requirements
   would need to be supported.




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   Task: Determine if reliability is required at transport layer.

   Even if TCP isn't being used, an IS may still require reliable packet
   transfer [2].  If the messages exchanged for the information service
   are assumed to be processed in-order for particular exchanges,
   reordering of packets over the Internet may cause problems for IS
   function.  In that case, transport-layer reliability services may be
   required.

   Alternatively, where message sequence numbers are incorporated into
   the Information Service messages, ordering of packets may be possible
   using application-layer information.  In this case, it may also be
   possible to provide message reliability, on top of a datagram
   oriented transport service.

6.2  Discovery Issues

   The following design issues impact on the choice of discovery of IS-
   Servers.

   o  Single or multiple methods of discovery

   o  Information Server participation in discovery

   o  IS-Servers' use of discovery

   o  Only one Server or allow one Server per class

   Task: Determine how many discovery methods are required.

   Having multiple discovery mechanisms allows for deployment
   flexibility, but requires hosts to test all possible mechanisms for
   IS-Server discovery, when hosts are not constrained to use only one
   discovery mechanism.

   It is necessary to determine whether any discovery systems will be
   mandatory-to-deploy, which may allow optimization of discovery
   processes.

   Task: Determine if Information Server itself needs to participate in
   discovery

   If the information service is able to be discovered using an existing
   directory service, then it may not be necessary for the IS-Server
   itself to participate in discovery.

   If there's no directory service preconfigured in the mobile host, it
   is necessary for the server to understand discovery messages and



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   respond on its own behalf.

   Task: Determine if IS-Servers are required to discover further IS-
   Servers.

   If IS-Servers can be assumed to be preconfigured with information
   about which IS-Servers hold relevant information to service queries,
   they can avoid performing discovery processes to find the servers.

   Task: Identify if separate servers for different information services
   should be supported

   Servers for multiple classes allow additional flexibility, but
   potentially incur additional signalling costs.  This issue is
   described in Section 3.3.

6.3  Security Issues

   The following issues impact on the design of security mechanisms for
   communications between IS entities.

   o  Mutual authentication requirements

   o  Do IS-Server to IS-Server communications require mutual
      authentication?

   o  Rate limitation of queries and responses

   o  Session or host based SAs

   Task: Determine if mutual (strong or shared key) authentication is
   required for the SAs.

   If mutual authentication is required, then the mobile needs to have
   credentials verifiable in the network (using an AAA server, or PKI
   for example).  If the Mobile is allowed to be anonymous, additional
   requirements for protection of resources may be required.

   Task: Determine if the Server-to-Server interface requires mutual
   authentication.

   If the mobile devices don't require mutual authentication, servers
   may still do so, due to differences in the trust accorded servers.
   In that case additional requirements on infrastructure are needed, as
   described above.

   Task: Determine rate limitation requirements for information requests
   and responses.



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   Rate limitation of queries on clients allow a server to delay or
   ignore queries from clients which exceed valid query rates,
   Similarly, rate limitation of server responses can help protect
   wireless media, but can also be used to deny service.

   Task: Determine if session based or host based SAs are required.

   Typically, layer 3 security such as IPsec is host based, where all
   users of a device are given the same authentication.  Alternatively,
   a session based authentication (often tied to a user's own
   privileges) is used for transport and upper-layer security.

   Different assumptions about numbers of users may apply on the mobile
   and the information server.  Since servers may be shared by many
   users, session based mobility may prevent abuse of security
   mechanisms by attackers co-located at the server.

7.  Security Considerations

   Exchange of Link-layer and handover related information over upper-
   layer protocols such as IP has the potential effect of widening the
   scope of attacks against both the information service's interfaces
   with the network, and the information itself.

7.1  Attacks against service entities

   Attacks upon information services may prevent one or more devices
   being able to receive handover related information.  As such this may
   cause degradation in handover performance.

   New attacks against information services become possible where link-
   layer information which would otherwise be limited to only one medium
   or bridge span, is subsequently available through an arbitrarily
   large IP subnet.

   Additionally, where information service packets may be requested or
   supplied from beyond the boundaries of a single routed hop, the
   potential scope for attack upon either of the (client or server) IS
   entities is Internet-wide.

   Discovery of the information server is implied as a requirement in
   providing information services transported over IP.  Where the server
   is indicated through link-layer signaling, the robustness of the
   discovery mechanism is largely based on the security of the existing
   link-layer signaling mechanisms.  Where the server discovery is
   performed over IP, special care needs to be taken to ensure that
   discovery may not be hijacked, especially since the underlying
   wireless medium may in some cases be considered vulnerable to such



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   attack.

   Link-local scope signaling for either discovery, or both discovery
   and client-server communications reduce the origin of attacks to
   those who are on-link [8].  This may provide a mechanism which
   mitigates the effect of external attacks, but will require service
   entities to exist on every subnet.

7.2  Attacks against information

   Attacks against the information exchanged between the information
   server and the information client may potentially modify the behavior
   and trust of the client protocol stack.

   Where the integrity and origin of the information delivered to the
   client is not verifiable, the value of the information is degraded,
   as hosts are less able to rely upon the data received.

   Where the client's request is spoofed or modified, additional
   information may be sent to the IS client.  As the mobile node is
   typically upon a lower bandwidth medium than the server, there exists
   potential to deny service to devices on that medium.  Additionally,
   spoofed responses may be acted upon instead of legitimate
   information.  This may lead to handover toward undesirable networks,
   or erratic connectivity.

   Systems which ensure data origin authentication and message integrity
   may be able to remove or mitigate some of these effects, by ensuring
   that data arrives as intended back to the client.  It may be
   difficult, though, to bootstrap some types of security association
   considering a potential lack of keying material, computation and
   network bandwidth resources from mobile devices.  Any specified
   integrity protection mechanism therefore needs to be deployable on
   low-powered battery-operated devices which are commonly deployed in
   wireless environments.

8.  Acknowledgements

   Many thanks to James Kempf for an informed and thorough review of
   this document.

9.  References

9.1  Normative References

   [1]  "Draft IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks:
        Media  Independent Handover Services", IEEE LAN/MAN Draft  IEEE
        P802.21/D00.01, July 2005.



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9.2  Informative References

   [2]   Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7, RFC 793,
         September 1981.

   [3]   Stevens, W., "TCP Slow Start, Congestion Avoidance, Fast
         Retransmit, and Fast Recovery Algorithms", RFC 2001,
         January 1997.

   [4]   Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC 2131,
         March 1997.

   [5]   Dierks, T. and C. Allen, "The TLS Protocol Version 1.0",
         RFC 2246, January 1999.

   [6]   Kent, S. and R. Atkinson, "IP Encapsulating Security Payload
         (ESP)", RFC 2406, November 1998.

   [7]   Harkins, D. and D. Carrel, "The Internet Key Exchange (IKE)",
         RFC 2409, November 1998.

   [8]   Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6)
         Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998.

   [9]   Narten, T., Nordmark, E., and W. Simpson, "Neighbor Discovery
         for IP Version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 2461, December 1998.

   [10]  Allman, M., Paxson, V., and W. Stevens, "TCP Congestion
         Control", RFC 2581, April 1999.

   [11]  Floyd, S. and T. Henderson, "The NewReno Modification to TCP's
         Fast Recovery Algorithm", RFC 2582, April 1999.

   [12]  Guttman, E., Perkins, C., Veizades, J., and M. Day, "Service
         Location Protocol, Version 2", RFC 2608, June 1999.

   [13]  Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for
         specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2782,
         February 2000.

   [14]  Floyd, S., Mahdavi, J., Mathis, M., and M. Podolsky, "An
         Extension to the Selective Acknowledgement (SACK) Option for
         TCP", RFC 2883, July 2000.

   [15]  Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C., and M.
         Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6
         (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.




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   [16]  Perkins, C., "IP Mobility Support for IPv4", RFC 3344,
         August 2002.

   [17]  Hodges, J. and R. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access
         Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", RFC 3377,
         September 2002.

   [18]  Droms, R., "Stateless Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
         (DHCP) Service for IPv6", RFC 3736, April 2004.

   [19]  Johnson, D., Perkins, C., and J. Arkko, "Mobility Support in
         IPv6", RFC 3775, June 2004.

   [20]  Liebsch, M., Singh, A., Chaskar, H., Funato, D., and E. Shim,
         "Candidate Access Router Discovery (CARD)", RFC 4066,
         July 2005.

   [21]  Koodli, R., "Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6", RFC 4068,
         July 2005.

   [22]  Yegin, A., "Link-layer Event Notifications for Detecting
         Network Attachments", draft-ietf-dna-link-information-02 (work
         in progress), July 2005.

   [23]  Kivinen, T. and H. Tschofenig, "Design of the MOBIKE protocol",
         draft-ietf-mobike-design-01 (work in progress), January 2005.

   [24]  Williams, M., "Directions in Media Independent Handover", IEICE
         Transactions on Fundamentals Special Section on Multi-
         dimensional Mobile Information Networks, July 2005.

   [25]  Rescorla, E., "Datagram Transport Layer Security",
         draft-rescorla-dtls-02 (work in progress), December 2004.

   [26]  Brickley, D. and R. Guha, "RDF Vocabulary Description Language
         1.0: RDF Schema", W3C
         Recommendation http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema, February 2004.

   [27]  Prudhommeaux, E. and A. Seaborne, "SPARQL Query Language for
         RDF", W3C Working
         Draft http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-rdf-sparql-query-20041012,
         October 2004.









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Authors' Addresses

   Greg Daley
   Centre for Telecommunications and Information Engineering
   Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
   Monash University
   Clayton, Victoria  3800
   Australia

   Phone: +61 3 9905 4655
   Email: greg.daley@eng.monash.edu.au


   Stefano Faccin
   Nokia
   6000 Connection Dr
   Irving, TX  75229
   USA

   Phone: +1 973 894 5000
   Email: stefano.faccin@nokia.com


   Eleanor Hepworth
   Siemens/Roke Manor Research
   Roke Manor
   Romsey  SO51 0ZN
   UK

   Phone:
   Email: eleanor.hepworth@roke.co.uk


   Qiaobing Xie
   Motorola, Inc.
   1501 W. Shure Drive, 2-F9
   Arlington Heights, IL  60004
   US

   Phone: +1-847-632-3028
   Email: qiaobing.xie@motorola.com

Appendix A.  802.21 Media Independent Handover Services

   The union of the Media Independent Information Service, the Media
   Independent Event Serviced and the Media Independent Command Service
   compose a Media Independent Handover Service.




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   Certain characteristics are shared amongst all three services.  Of
   particular note to IETF are the common SAPs, and information flows.

Appendix A.1  802.21 Handover Service Classification

   Information exchanges in 802.21  classified as either Event, Command
   or Information services.

   The Media Independent Event Service (MIES) provides timely
   communications of wireless environment information, through an event
   delivery service.  Both events generated from local link-layer
   devices, and remote events from by a peer Media Independent Handoff
   Function (MIHF) on the other end of the link-layer, are supported.
   An example event would indicate that it is now possible to send
   generic upper-layer frames.

   The Media Independent Command Service (MICS) provides instructions
   which change state of the wireless link, or a host's point-of-
   attachment.  Commands can be sent to entities within the local host,
   or to a device on the other end of the link-layer medium.  Such
   command mechanisms may cause further event generation, either from
   the local MIHF, or on the peer.  As an example, a command may be able
   to instruct a station to handover to another network.

   The Media Independent Information Service (MIIS) distinguishes itself
   from the other mechanisms in that the messages are typically larger
   and do not have the same time critical delivery requirements.  It
   provides several classes of handover service related information to
   hosts including Link-Layer and Network-Layer status information.

   These service classifications have been adopted throughout this
   document, It provides several classes of handover service related
   information to hosts including Link-Layer and Network-Layer status
   information. as the basis for ES, CS and IS descriptions.

   Of importance to 802.21 is the fact that the endpoint for remote
   communication may be a directly adjacent link-layer peer or another
   device.  As described in the 802.21 draft, in this case, it is
   believed an upper-layer protocol could be used to deliver
   information.  In the current context, this means delivery over IP,
   and related transport services.

Appendix A.2  802.21 MIHS SAP Relations

   The 802.21 Media Independent Handover Function (MIHF) provides a
   unified SAP for its component services to upper layers such as IPv6,
   or mobility management applications, like MIPv6 [8][9][19].  These
   applications are saved the difficulty of dealing with individual



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   Link-layer modules for handover control and monitoring.

   Within the MIHS, each of the entities is able to interface to media
   dependent operations in order to gain information from or provide
   control over the physical medium and MAC.

   In the diagram below, the MIIS is shown as being able to interface to
   upper layer protocols, in order to provide information service data
   transport.

               +-----------+--------------------+------------+
   Upper Layer |  Other    |                    |            |
   Services    |Upper Layer|        IPv4        |    IPv6    |
               |     ^     |          ^         |      ^     |
               |     |     |          |         |      |     |
               |     \----------------+----------------+--------\
               |           |                    |            |   \
               |   /-------+--------------------+--------\   |   |
               +--+              MIH SAP                  +--+   |
               |   \-------------------------------------/   |   |
               |                                             |   |
               |     Media Independent Handover Function     |   |
               |                                             |   |
               |  +----------+  +-----------+  +----------+  |   |
               |  |          |  |           |  |          |  |   /
               |  |   MIES   |  |   MICS    |  |   MIIS  ?------/
               |  |          |  |           |  |          |  |
               |  +----------+  +-----------+  +----------+  |
               |                                             |
               +---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
   Media       |         |           |           |           |
   Depend      | 802.16  |   802.11  |  802.11   |   UMTS    |
   Handover    |         |           |           |           |
   Services    |         |           |           |           |
               +---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

     Figure 8: Abstraction using the MIH SAP, showing delivery of MIIS
                             services over IP

   Communications are primarily up/down the stack, although transport of
   information services over IP, breaks this model by relying in turn
   upon existing configuration of IP connectivity in order to receive
   MIIS messages.

Appendix A.3  802.21 MIIS Message Processing

   The Information Service is primarily a request/response based system.
   The information server processes queries containing a set of filter



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   constraints on the response, as specified by the requester.  It then
   composes a response and sends it back to the requester.  Given the
   size and non-real time nature of the response, more than one packet
   of data may be required to transport all the information required.

   Upon reception at the MIHF of the querier, information may be
   filtered for content, and then passed through MIH SAPs to interested
   upper-layer protocols.

   While content of IS messages is considered out of scope in
   development of generic IS transport over IP, the message formats and
   SAP contents are further described in [1].

Appendix A.4  Information flows in 802.21

   As mentioned earlier, there are different incarnations of the
   Information Service depending on whether information is being passed
   between two link-layer peers, or is stored on a server accessible
   over an upper-layer protocol.

   While this document is concerned solely with IS transport over IP
   networks, the information flow for both of 802.21's L2 and L3 based
   exchanges are presented for comparison:

               STA (Client)                       AP/BS

            MIH SAP      MAC                  MAC        MIH SAP
              |          |                    |            |
   Request    |MIH_Info. |                    |MIH_Info.   |
   info from  |   request|                    |  indication|
   peer       |--------->|------------------->|----------->|
              |          |Information REQUEST |            |
              |          |                    |            |
              |          |                    |            |Neighbor Map
              |          |                    |            |Report Gen
              |MIH_Info. |                    |MIH_Info.   |
              |   confirm|                    |    response|
   Neighbor   |<---------|<-------------------|<-----------|
   Map Report |          |Information RESPONSE|            |
              |          |                    |            |


           Figure 9: L2-based MIIS information flow from 802.21

   Note that the primary logical differences between the information
   flows at the link-layer and upper layers are the endpoints for
   message transport.  The use of a particular mechanism should be
   transparent to systems interfacing to the MIH Service Access Point.



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               STA (Client)                      AR/Server

           MIH SAP     T'sport/IP           T'sport/IP     MIH SAP
              |          |                    |            |
   Request    |MIH_Info. |                    |MIH_Info.   |
   info from  |   request|                    |  indication|
   peer       |--------->|------------------->|----------->|
              |          |Information REQUEST |            |
              |          |                    |            |
              |          |                    |            |Neighbor Map
              |          |                    |            |Report Gen
              |MIH_Info. |                    |MIH_Info.   |
              |   confirm|                    |    response|
   Neighbor   |<---------|<-------------------|<-----------|
   Map Report |          |Information RESPONSE|            |
              |          |                    |            |


             Figure 10: Example L3-based MIIS information flow

   In information services deployment over IP, the topological location
   of the IS-Server doesn't modify the message exchange.  In fact,
   802.21 allows the server to be present either within the access
   network or core network of a service provider. [1].

   Implications for a generic handover services delivery mechanism are
   that a variety of topologies are required to be supported for IS
   transport over IP, while message containers are likely to remain
   unmodified, so long as the channel used for communications is
   secured.

Appendix A.5  802.21 MIIS Information Classes

   The media independent information service provides three classes of
   data to mobile hosts.  These classes of data are related to different
   origins and use of data:

   1.  General Network Information (GNI): A general overview of the
       network and its nearby Points of Attachment.

   2.  Link Layer Information (LLI): Link-layer specific information
       useful to identify capabilities of a specific network.

   3.  Higher Layer Information (HLI): Information about upper layer
       protocols like IPv4 and IPv6, configuration systems such as DHCP
       and mobility management applications like MIPv4 [4][16].

   Information from each of these classes may be queried from an



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   information server, with different filters applied for each data set.
   As such, it may be possible to configure different aspects of
   information service queries, for example, an 802.11 handover
   management subsystem may only be interested in Link-Layer
   Information.

   It is notable that Link-Layer information is likely to be gathered
   most readily at the edge of the network where devices are directly
   involved in wireless communications, whereas Higher-Layer information
   will be available to devices which have IP layer configuration.

   As such it is not entirely implausible to use different information
   servers for local link-layer oriented information, and for wider-
   region topological information.  This issue is described in
   Section 3.3 This may imply a useful role for interaction between IS-
   Servers in order to configure or update held information.



































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