Subject: Schemes for the Allocation of IP Addresses for Ad Noc Nodes

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 19:24:41 -0800

Hi there,

Most of the routing schemes proposed for Ad Hoc networks seem to assume an
IP address has already been allocated to each Ad Hoc node by some
unspecified means.  I am interested in potential schemes that enable the
allocation / auto-configuration of IP addresses for Ad Hoc nodes (with a
particular interest in distributed schemes).

Currently I have found info on the following schemes :

1.  IP Address Autoconfiguration for Ad Hoc Networks, proposed by Manet
Working Group
     (draft-ietf-manet-autoconf-01.txt,  Authors: Perkins, Belding-Royer et
al)

Area(s) of interest / requiring further development :
- From Section 2.  Applicability Statement : "The mechanisms described in
this document do not guarantee uniqueness in disconnected networks.  If a
network is disconnected, the process for Duplicate Address Detection (DAD)
would need to be performed again when the partition heals.  This document
does not specify any method for detecting when the partition heals, nor any
procedure by which such detection would cause new attempts at DAD.  Any
such specification would have to ensure that network healing is not
accompanied by a broadcast storm of DAD messages."

2.  Standard DHCP

Area(s) of interest / requiring further development :
- requires development of DHCP Server / Relay election algorithm(s)
- once DHCP server(s) / relay(s) have been elected, this model is really
hierarchical as opposed to flat / fully distributed (could be advantageous
/ disadvantageous depending on the scale / topology of the network etc.)

I am interested in comments or information from anyone regarding any of the
following :

- further information related to either of the above schemes
- solutions to the "Area(s) of interest / requiring further development"
for either of the above schemes
- reasons why either of the above schemes may not be feasible / suitable
for certain types or topologies of Ad Hoc Networks
- details of (and sources of information for) other schemes that could be
used for the allocation of IP addresses for Ad Hoc nodes (i.e. specifically
for Ad Hoc networks, and preferably fully distributed)

Thanks.

- Piers.

---

From: Kilian Weniger <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 09:26:41 +0100 (CET)

Hello Piers,

This question already arose on the list about 2 weeks ago, but
unfortunately there were only a few replies on that. In my
opinion autoconfiguration in ad hoc networks is essential and should be
more in discussion on the list.

In our distributed approach, we modified the IPv6 Stateless Address
Autoconfiguration protocol to work in potentially large ad hoc networks.
Therefore, an hierarchical address space is build up. The protocol
overhead during the Duplicate Address Detection is limited and is not
directly dependend on the network size anymore (as it is in
draft-ietf-manet-autoconf-01). Subsequently, we claim to achieve an
improved scalability. Furthermore, unique addresses are also guaranteed in the
case that two independently configured networks merge.

The paper is called "IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in large
mobile ad hoc networks".
You can download the paper from our IPonAir-project homepage:

  http://www.iponair.de/publications/Weniger-EuroWireless02.pdf

Kilian Weniger

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dipl.-Ing. Kilian Weniger           phone: (+49)(0)721-608 6415
Institute of Telematics             fax:   (+49)(0)721-388097
Department of Computer Science      email: [email-masked]
University of Karlsruhe 	    homepage: http://www.tm.uka.de/~weniger/
D-76128 Karlsruhe

---

From: "Mesut Günes" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 12:36:17 +0100

Hi Piers,

we have developped a distributed address allocation scheme, which is
called 'Agent Based Addressing'. I will pesent an performance evaluation
in AdHoc 2002, Paris.

Our scheme also considers the splitting and joining of several ad-hoc
networks.

We are preparing a paper in which the scheme is described.

Regards
Mesut Günes

###-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
###Von: [email-masked] 
###[mailto:[email-masked]] Im Auftrag von [email-masked]
###Gesendet: Dienstag, 5. Februar 2002 04:25
###An: [email-masked]
###Betreff: Schemes for the Allocation of IP Addresses for Ad Noc Nodes
###
###
###Hi there,
###
###Most of the routing schemes proposed for Ad Hoc networks 
###seem to assume an IP address has already been allocated to 
###each Ad Hoc node by some unspecified means.  I am interested 
###in potential schemes that enable the allocation / 
###auto-configuration of IP addresses for Ad Hoc nodes (with a 
###particular interest in distributed schemes).
###
###Currently I have found info on the following schemes :
###
###1.  IP Address Autoconfiguration for Ad Hoc Networks, 
###proposed by Manet Working Group
###     (draft-ietf-manet-autoconf-01.txt,  Authors: Perkins, 
###Belding-Royer et
###al)
###
###Area(s) of interest / requiring further development :
###- From Section 2.  Applicability Statement : "The mechanisms 
###described in this document do not guarantee uniqueness in 
###disconnected networks.  If a network is disconnected, the 
###process for Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) would need to 
###be performed again when the partition heals.  This document 
###does not specify any method for detecting when the partition 
###heals, nor any procedure by which such detection would cause 
###new attempts at DAD.  Any such specification would have to 
###ensure that network healing is not accompanied by a 
###broadcast storm of DAD messages."
###
###
###2.  Standard DHCP
###
###Area(s) of interest / requiring further development :
###- requires development of DHCP Server / Relay election algorithm(s)
###- once DHCP server(s) / relay(s) have been elected, this 
###model is really hierarchical as opposed to flat / fully 
###distributed (could be advantageous / disadvantageous 
###depending on the scale / topology of the network etc.)
###
###
###I am interested in comments or information from anyone 
###regarding any of the following :
###
###- further information related to either of the above schemes
###- solutions to the "Area(s) of interest / requiring further 
###development" for either of the above schemes
###- reasons why either of the above schemes may not be 
###feasible / suitable for certain types or topologies of Ad 
###Hoc Networks
###- details of (and sources of information for) other schemes 
###that could be used for the allocation of IP addresses for Ad 
###Hoc nodes (i.e. specifically for Ad Hoc networks, and 
###preferably fully distributed)
###
###
###Thanks.
###
###- Piers.
###
###
###
###
###

---

From: "Fred L. Templin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 11:04:17 -0800

Hi,

This is an interesting subject; we had discussion regarding MANET
addressing some time back (see: "Challenges for the MANET addressing
model" beginning 3/26/01 in the MANET archives) but did not get into much
detail in terms of address allocation and duplicate address detection. The
two primary means for IP address assignment in the existing IPv4 Internet
are static configuration and stateful autoconfiguration (i.e., DHCP). IPv6
introduces new mechanisms for stateless address autoconfiguration, but with
a number of issues for MANETs.

Concensus from the addressing discussions last spring seemed to favor
supporting peer-to-peer operation in MANETs regardless of the underlying
mechanisms for address assignment and duplicate address detection. In
particular, at the MANET level IP addresses are treated as node IDs
regardless of any "subnet affiliation" implied. For example, two neighboring
nodes in the MANET with disparate IPv4 address prefixes (e.g. 128.21.1.6/32
and 10.0.2.1/32) should be able to form a link and exchange messages directly
w/o going through an intermediate gateway. (This is also a key enabling
feature for integration with Mobile IP.)

The main point is that nodes are free to move about; sometimes staying
within their "home" MANETs and sometimes wandering into "foreign" MANETs.
Therefore, the protocols need to support continued operation regardless
of the underlying address allocation mechanisms, and the underlying
address allocation mechanisms must provide a flexible framework to
support mobility.

Fred
[email-masked]