One document matched: draft-wu-convergence-internet-wsn-00.txt


Independent Submission                                          Wu,Xu
Internet Draft                                                  CEDRI
Intended status: Informational                           July 31, 2010
Expires: January 2011



                 Convergence framework of Internet and WSN
                 draft-wu-convergence-internet-wsn-00.txt


Abstract

   This Internet Draft provides a detailed description of the
   convergence framework of Internet and WSN so far, including 4 main
   solutions and 2 additional technologies. The main aim of this
   document is to serve as a general reference for the convergence
   solution space, to take advantage of the two networks the advantages
   of diversity and meet the needs of network users. Furthermore, each
   solution is analyzed based on a number of evaluation considerations.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 31, 2009.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors. All rights reserved.




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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully,
   as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this
   document.

Table of Contents


   1. Introduction ................................................ 2
   2. Conventions used in this document............................ 2
      2.1. WSN .................................................... 2
      2.2. DTN .................................................... 3
   3. Proxy ....................................................... 3
   4. Protocol Overlay ............................................ 4
   5. Delay Tolerant Network....................................... 5
   6. Full IP ..................................................... 6
   7. Other technologies .......................................... 8
   8. Security Considerations...................................... 8
   9. IANA Considerations ......................................... 8
   10. References ................................................. 8
      10.1. Normative References................................... 8
      10.2. Informative References................................. 9
   11. Acknowledgments ............................................ 9

1. Introduction

   With large-scale, integrated, flat Internet and small-scale, diverse,
   mobile wireless sensor network, a converged network is coming into
   existence, which is efficient, flexible and secure [1]. Network
   adopting the integration of mutual collaboration and effective
   management of resources and rational allocation can effectively
   improve network throughput ,reduce the energy consumption of wireless
   devices , reduce the information transmission delay, and provide
   technical support for rapid decision-making; we can take advantage of
   the two networks the advantages of diversity and meet the needs of
   network users better, effectively improve network security, provide a
   basis for the reliable platform for access to information and expand
   the network coverage, so the network is more scalable.

2. Conventions used in this document

2.1. WSN

   A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of spatially distributed
   autonomous sensors to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental


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   conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion
   or pollutants [2].

2.2. DTN

   A disruption-tolerant network (DTN) is a network designed so that
   temporary or intermittent communications problems, limitations and
   anomalies have the least possible adverse impact.

3. Proxy

   Proxy nodes between heterogeneous networks are mounted in this mode,
   which can simultaneously implement WSN protocols and TCP / IP, and
   translate protocols at the different levels. Communications between
   Internet and WSN need the proxy. So a WSN can use different protocols
   with respect to the requirements and environment. This is the
   simplest mode of network convergence, as shown in Figure 1.

          +--------+       +-------+     +-----+
          |Internet|-------| Proxy |-----| WSN |
          +--------+       +-------+     +-----+

                           Figure 1  Proxy mode

   Proxy mode includes two different operating sub-modes: relay agent
   and front-end.

   Relay agent simply forwards the packets between the WSN and Internet,
   equivalent to a special router at application and network levels.

   Agents can also act as the front-end of WSN. Sensor nodes push data
   to the proxy, periodically or event-driven based. The proxy stored
   the information into a database, with capacity of large database and
   powerful processing. Internet users can query all kinds of
   information in various ways, through SQL or Web-based interface.
   Without the required information, an agent can start the collection
   of information. As the front-end, an agent can integrate the
   processing and storage of data, and can return data to the user as
   quickly as possible, with key management, user authentication, data
   encryption and other security measures at the same time.

   A proxy node can be integrated by user agent, application agent,
   register agent and resource manager, acting as the bridge between
   Internet and WSN, with resource storage and access control functions,
   and provides a quick query of WSN information services. WSN can
   access Internet through a proxy node, and Internet users can easily
   visit the WSN.


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   In contrast, proxy mode has an obvious disadvantage of single point
   failure. Most functions are concentrated in the proxy node, such as
   network protocol conversion, information processing and storage. Once
   the agent fails, the Internet can not communicate with the WSN. In
   addition, an agent is application-oriented, usually dedicated to
   specific tasks and agreement. Applications need special agent design.
   Without proper routing mechanism, Internet and WSN can not converged;
   result in lack of flexibility and scalability.

4. Protocol Overlay

   Instead of protocol conversion, heterogeneous networks with different
   protocol stacks use protocol overlay for the protocol interconnection.
   There are two modes of WSN and Internet overlay: WSN over TCP / IP
   and TCP / IP over WSN.

   WSN over TCP / IP mode is similar to the private network implemented
   on the Internet via VPN (virtual private network). In this mode,
   Internet computers communicating with the WSN are called virtual WSN
   nodes (virtual node), so are the gateway nodes connecting
   heterogeneous networks. A network composite of virtual nodes is
   called WSN virtual network, which is an extension of WSN over the
   Internet. Each WSN node has its own private protocols dedicated to
   the characteristics of WSN, and communication between nodes is based
   on the private protocols. In the virtual part of the networks, WSN
   traffic is carried over TCP / UDP / IP as protocol payload. TCP / UDP
   / IP transfer data in a tunnel between the virtual nodes. WSN over
   TCP / IP protocol stack is shown in Figure 2.

          Internet      Overlay gateway       WSN
         +--------+  +-----------------+  +--------+
         | APP-S  |  |      APP-S      |  | APP-S  |
         +--------+  +-----------------+  +--------+
         |Trans-S |  |    Trans-S      |  |Trans-S |
         +--------+  +-----------------+  +--------+
         |  NET-S |  |     NET-S       |  |  NET-S |
         +--------+  +--------+--------+  +--------+
         |TCP/UDP |  |TCP/UDP |  LLC-S |  |  LLC-S |
         +--------+  +--------+--------+  +--------+
         |   IP   |  |   IP   |  MAC-S |  |  MAC-S |
         +--------+  +--------+--------+  +--------+
              ^          ^         ^           ^
              |          |         |           |
              +----------+         +-----------+

                        Figure 2  WSN over TCP / IP



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   Internet users may need to access and control some special nodes in
   the WSN, like nodes with the execution (actuator) or performing
   certain important functions as cluster head nodes. These special
   nodes support TCP / IP protocol. Because of communication capacity
   constraints, these nodes and gateway nodes can not reach each other
   in one hop. For data transfer between them, a tunnel over WSN is
   introduced, that is TCP/IP over WSN. The private protocols are used
   by the majority of WSN, and IP is only extended to the special nodes.
   So it is not proposed that all WSN nodes support TCP / IP protocol.
   Protocol stacks and data flows of this mode are shown in Figure 3.

     Internet                                WSN
       host                                      TCP/IP node
    +--------+                                   +--------+
    |   APP  |                                   |   APP  |
    +--------+                         Common    +--------+
    |TCP/UDP |        Tunnel            node     |TCP/UDP |
    +--------+  +--------+--------+  +--------+  +--------+
    |   IP   |  |        IP       |  |  APP-S |  |  APP-S |
    +--------+  +--------+--------+  +--------+  +--------+
        ^           ^    |Trans-S |  |Trans-S |  |Trans-S |
        |           |    +--------+  +--------+  +--------+
        +-----------+        ^         ^    ^         ^
                             |         |    |         |
                             +---------+----+---------+

                        Figure 3  TCP / IP over WSN

5. Delay Tolerant Network

   Internet protocols are inefficient in the environment of long
   communication path, variable delay, frequent network structure, high
   error rate and asynchronous transfer. Delay tolerant network (DTN) is
   proposed for this kind of network environment, as shown in figure 4.

          +--------+       +-------+     +-----+
          |Internet|       |  DTN  |     | WSN |
          |  host  |<----->|Gateway|<--->| node|
          +--------+       +-------+     +-----+

                           Figure 4  DTN gateway

   A bundle layer is introduced at the top layer of DTN, to achieve
   interoperability for heterogeneous network domains. DTN is suitable
   for WSN, and every node has storage function. Due to node sleep or
   failure, WSN will frequently change its division structures, breaking
   all end to end paths through the network. Packet loss rate is very


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   high in WSN, and the data routes are asymmetric too. DTN system is
   more powerful than the simple agent-based approach. When a DTN
   gateway is in a WSN, the WSN is mapped to multiple DTN regions. In a
   WSN with frequent network division change and less end to end
   communications, this network design is more appropriate to ensure the
   communication reliability in the DTN layer.

   There are one or more DTN gateways in each DTN region, which are
   responsible for message forwarding between the regions, and message
   transfer from other regions to the local area, without single point
   failure like in the proxy system. With one or more DTN gateways
   connecting to Internet, the WSN can easily be extended to the
   Internet via DTN.

   More cost is needed to deploy Bundle in the existing network protocol
   stack, which is the disadvantage of the DTN mode.

6. Full IP

   Adoption of TCP / IP protocols for all WSN nodes is a direct approach
   for seamless convergence of WSN and Internet, result in the same
   network layer protocol for heterogeneous networks, and protocol
   conversion or overlay through special nodes is not needed. With one
   or more WSN nodes connecting to the Internet, two networks can
   exchange information by any node, through direct physical connection
   (Ethernet cable) or wireless link (GPRS). In the network we can use
   the network link to communicate through the and so on. This kind of
   convergence is more flexible. WSN nodes can access the Internet nodes
   closely, relaying real-time data to the end user with minimal delay,
   and the Internet users can visit any WSN node.


















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                           +-----+
                           | WSN |TCP/IP
                           | node|
                           +-----+
                              |
                              | TCP/IP
            +--------+     +-----+      +-----+
            |Internet|<--->| WSN |------| WSN |TCP/IP
            |        |     | node|      | node|
            +--------+     +-----+      +-----+
                 ^            |            |
                 |            |            |
                 v            |            |
              +-----+      +-----+      +-----+
              | WSN |------| WSN |------| WSN |
              | node|      | node|      | node|
              +-----+      +-----+      +-----+
               TCP/IP       TCP/IP       TCP/IP

                          Figure 5  Full IP mode

   The data transmitted between WSN nodes is small-sized, usually a few
   dozen bytes or even a few bytes. The header of TCP / IP protocol is
   at least 40 bytes, 20 bytes for TCP protocol and 20 bytes for IP
   protocol, which seriously affect the data transmission efficiency and
   waste node's energy. To use WSN TCP / IP protocol efficiently, a
   protocol header compression algorithm must be used. In addition, TCP
   / IP protocol is also too complicated for WSN nodes with limited
   resource. Many enhanced algorithms have been proposed, such as
   protocol mapping, homeostasis, and probability searching methods, but
   these methods cost great time and space complexity.

   IP address auto-configuration for WSN nodes is also an important
   research area, which is useful for WSN with dispersion and the static
   structure, but there are still some obstacles for the dense nodes and
   mobile nodes.

   With the introduction of protocol header compression, the new model
   of two nodes and two stacks is presented for WSN nodes TCP / IP
   protocol, containing a small amount of additional super nodes in
   addition to ordinary nodes. The ordinary nodes use compressed TCP /
   IP protocol. The super nodes achieve conversion between the
   compressed and standard TCP / IP protocol, and interact with the
   external Internet seamlessly and efficiently. However, without
   efficient routing mechanism, the super node does not have universal
   applicability. IPv6 protocol is brought to WSN after efficient
   simplification, which is basis of WSN routing protocol. The algorithm


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   of protocol stack has a good scalability, but not a best routing
   algorithm to solve energy problems and slow convergence. The network
   has primary nodes with large storage capacity and powerful processing
   capabality, and other nodes cluster around the primary node. The
   primary node is assigned with fixed IP address, and has a mapping
   table of member ID and IP address. This approach is only suitable for
   heterogeneous WSN, and the scalability is not good.

7. Other technologies

   There are other modes for the convergence of Internet and WSN, such
   as virtual IP and mobile agent technologies [3].

   Virtual IP is an IP address mapping technology. For computer network
   users, only the gateway is assigned with a virtual IP address, and
   the sensor node does not have one. This technology can realize the
   address mapping between sensor node ID / location and gateway IP
   address.

   Mobile agent is encapsulated in the WSN node, capable of interacting
   with Internet. When running out of energy, the agent disconnects from
   the Internet, and travels to the appropriate neighbor with useful
   information, which is then an access node. Internet user can pack the
   required data for long-term interaction in the mobile agent. The
   agent moves to WSN with the information, and interacts with the
   gateway or access node. Connection failure between the Internet and
   WSN will not affect the mobile agent. After the connection's resuming,
   the proxy will return the results to Internet user.

8. Security Considerations

   Due to the open wireless environment of WSN, the convergence
   framework mechanisms are susceptible to a number of information
   attacks.

9. IANA Considerations

   This document includes no IANA actions.

10. References

10.1. Normative References

   [1]  S. Corson, J. Macker, " Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET):
         Routing Protocol Performance Issues and Evaluation
         Considerations ", RFC 2501, January 1999.



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10.2. Informative References

   [2]  Kay; Friedemann Mattern, "The Design Space of Wireless Sensor
         Networks", IEEE Wireless Communications 11 (6): 54-61,
         doi:10.1109/MWC.2004.1368897.

   [3]  Thomas Haenselmann. Sensor networks. GFDL Wireless Sensor
         Network textbook. Retrieved 2006-08-29.

11. Acknowledgments

   The author wishes to acknowledge the following for their review and
   constructive criticism of this document: Zhiwei Cai.

   This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot.

































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Authors' Addresses

   Zuoshun Wu
   China Electronic Device Research Insititue(CEDRI)
   No.13 Road Dacheng, District Fengtai, Beijing, China

   Phone: +86 010 68693712
   Email: wuzuoshun@163.com


   Qijian Xu
   China Electronic Device Research Insititue(CEDRI)
   No.13 Road Dacheng, District Fengtai, Beijing, China

   Phone: +86 010 68693730
   Email: xuqijian@sina.com
































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