ETSI GR IP6 008 V1.1.1 (2017-06)

ETSI GR IP6 008 V1.1.1 (2017-06)
GROUP REPORT
IPv6-based Internet of Things
Deployment of IPv6-based Internet of Things
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Intellectual Property Rights ................................................................................................................................ 4

Foreword ............................................................................................................................................................. 4

Modal verbs terminology .................................................................................................................................... 4

Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................ 4

1 Scope ........................................................................................................................................................ 5

2 References ................................................................................................................................................ 5

2.1 Normative references ......................................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Informative references ........................................................................................................................................ 5

3 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................... 7

4 User defined clause(s) from here onwards ............................................................................................... 9

4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 9

4.1.1 The IoT in 2020: 50 Billion of connected devices ........................................................................................ 9

4.1.2 IoT connectivity: Wired and Wireless ........................................................................................................ 10

4.1.3 Constraint devices and constraint networks ................................................................................................ 11

4.1.3.1 The Unique Requirements of Constrained Networks ............................................................................ 11

4.1.3.2 Energy consumption in the IoT ............................................................................................................. 11

4.2 The IoT landscape ............................................................................................................................................ 11

4.2.1 The Convergence of IT and OT .................................................................................................................. 11

4.2.2 The market segmentation ............................................................................................................................ 12

4.3 Motivation for IPv6 in the IoT ......................................................................................................................... 12

4.3.1 Technical Motivation .................................................................................................................................. 12

4.3.1.1 Main driver ............................................................................................................................................ 12

4.3.1.2 Addressability ....................................................................................................................................... 12

4.3.1.3 Security Mechanism .............................................................................................................................. 13

4.3.1.4 IP up to the end device/end to end principle ......................................................................................... 13

4.3.1.5 Flow identification ................................................................................................................................ 13

4.3.2 Standardization ........................................................................................................................................... 14

4.3.2.1 IETF standardization effort (IPv6 for the IoT) ...................................................................................... 14

4.3.2.2 IEC and other SDOs .............................................................................................................................. 14

4.4 Impact of the IoT on the IPv6 technology and protocols ................................................................................. 14

4.4.1 Routing Protocols: Roll .............................................................................................................................. 14

4.4.2 Transport protocols: CoRE ......................................................................................................................... 16

4.4.3 IPv6 Neighbour Discovery ......................................................................................................................... 17

4.4.4 Adaptation Layers: 6Lo .............................................................................................................................. 17

4.4.5 LPWAN ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

4.5 Specific market deployment considerations ..................................................................................................... 20

4.5.1 Industrial Internet: Deterministic Networking DetNet/6T iSCH .................................................................. 20

4.6 Lesson learned: IPv6 for the Smart Grid .......................................................................................................... 21

4.6.1 Power Automation use case ........................................................................................................................ 21

4.6.2 Field Area Network use case for Electric Distribution Network and smart metering ................................. 21

4.6.2.1 A Standardized and Flexible IPv6 Architecture for Field Area Networks: Smart-Grid Last-Mile

Infrastructure ......................................................................................................................................... 21

4.6.2.2 The Key Advantages of Internet Protocol ............................................................................................. 22

4.6.2.3 An IPv6 Distribution Network Architecture ......................................................................................... 23

4.6.2.4 The Technical Components of IPv6 Smart-Grid Last-Mile Infrastructure ............................................ 24

4.6.2.5 Network Management for Smart Meters ............................................................................................... 26

4.7 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................................... 27

Annex A: Authors & contributors ........................................................................................................ 28

Annex B: Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 29

History .............................................................................................................................................................. 30

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This Group Report (GR) has been produced by ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) IPv6 Integration (IP6).

In the present document "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and "cannot" are to be

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The present document summarizes the advantages and benefits of IPv6 in the deployment of IoT solutions.

It first analyses the IoT landscape, its evolution and its principal characteristics. It then focuses on the principal

motivations for IPv6 in this environment both from a technical standpoint as well as from a standardization effort.

The next step is to underline the impact of the IoT toward the IPv6 specifications and its necessary evolutions.

The present document also describes an existing very large deployment of IPv6 in the Smart Grid area (multi-millions

The present document outlines the motivation for IPv6 in IoT, the technical challenges to address IoT on constrained

devices and networks, the impact on the IPv6 technology and protocols, the technology guidelines, the step by step

process, the benefits, the risks, as applicable to IoT domains including: M2M, Energy, Industrial, Mining, Oil and gas,

IPv6-based IoT in this context refers to the connectivity network layers needed to support the communication between

things. It is understood that a complete IoT system may use of an IoT architecture including but not necessarily an

abstraction layer part of an IoT platform. The description of such IoT platform is out of the scope of the present

References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or

non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the

NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee

The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the

[i.2] IEEE 1901.2a™-2015: "IEEE Standard for Low-Frequency (less than 500 kHz) Narrowband

NOTE: Available at https://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/1901.2a-2015.html.

[i.8] IETF RFC 7390: "Group Communication for the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)".

[i.9] IETF RFC 7641: "Observing Resources in the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)".

[i.12] IETF RFC 4944: "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4 Networks".

[i.13] IETF RFC 6282: "Compression Format for IPv6 Datagrams over IEEE 802.15.4-Based

[i.14] IETF RFC 6775: "Neighbor Discovery Optimization for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal

[i.18] IETF draft-ietf-roll-applicability-ami-15: "Applicability Statement for the Routing Protocol for

NOTE: Available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-roll-applicability-ami-15.

[i.19] IEEE 802.11™: "IEEE Standard for Information technology--Telecommunications and

information exchange between systems Local and metropolitan area networks--Specific

requirements Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY)

[i.20] IEEE 802.15.4g™: "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks--Part 15.4: Low-

Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs) Amendment 3: Physical Layer (PHY)

[i.21] IETF RFC 3027: "Protocol Complications with the IP Network Address Translator".

[i.22] IEEE 802.15.4e™: "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks--Part 15.4: Low-

[i.23] IEC 62357-200:2015: "Power systems management and associated information exchange -

Part 200: Guidelines for migration from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to Internet Protocol

[i.25] Recommendation ITU-T G.9959: "Short range narrow-band digital radiocommunication

[i.26] IEEE 802.11ah™: "IEEE Standard for Information technology--Telecommunications and

information exchange between systems - Local and metropolitan area networks--Specific

requirements - Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer

[i.27] Recommendation ITU-T G.9903: "Narrowband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing power

[i.29] draft-ietf-6lo-nfc: "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Near Field Communication".

[i.30] draft-ietf-6tisch-architecture: "An Architecture for IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE 802.15.4".

[i.33] IEEE 802.16™: "IEEE Standard for Air Interface for Broadband Wireless Access Systems".

[i.34] IEC 61968: "Application integration at electric utilities - System interfaces for distribution

[i.35] IEC 61850: "Communication networks and systems for power utility automation".

[i.37] ANSI C12.22: "Protocol Specification For Interfacing to Data Communication Networks".

[i.38] IEEE 802.1X™: "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks--Port-Based Network

[i.39] IEEE 802.11i™: "IEEE Standard for information technology-Telecommunications and

information exchange between systems-Local and metropolitan area networks-Specific

requirements-Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY)

[i.41] draft-ietf-6lo-dect-ule: "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over DECT Ultra Low Energy".

The number of Internet Connected devices will cross the incredible total of 50 billion by 2020.

The connectivity fabric of IP is used to enable more and more efficient context exchange with a broader range of

Projected to increase device counts by orders of magnitude over the next few decades, IoT's impact cannot be

overstated. Already enabling a rich set of new capabilities in Smart Cities, Smart Grid, Smart Buildings, and Smart

Manufacturing, IoT stands to transform virtually every part of modern life that automation or visibility may improve.

No matter the precise forecast, the sheer tsunami of devices coming online in the next months, years, and decades

Wireless with its adaptability and ease will inevitably dominate the IoT landscape. Exactly which wireless technology

or technologies will be used remains relatively unclear, as many new technologies are still emerging, while others are

The challenges IPv6 poses to high bandwidth wireless networks are well-known. However, low bandwidth links, like

LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network), do require optimization and broadly adapt and adopt techniques like IPv6

Clause 4.4 is describing the IETF technologies to adapt IPv6 to different constraint media. This problem is not specific

The following list summarizes the main different wireless technologies used for IOT:

• IEEE 802.15.4 [i.1] WPAN: The IEEE 802.15 TG4 was chartered to investigate a low data rate solution with

multi-month to multi-year battery life and very low complexity. It is operating in an unlicensed, international

frequency band. Potential applications are sensors, interactive toys, smart badges, remote controls, and home

New PLC (Power Line Communications) technologies are also emerging like IEEE 1901.2a [i.2]. These technologies

offer the capability to use the same wire for power supply and communication media.

Devices deployed in the context of Neighbour Area Networks (NANs) are often constrained in terms of resources and

often named IP smart objects. Smart-object networks are also referred to as low-power and lossy networks (LLNs)

As a contrast with typical IP networks, in which powerful routers are interconnected by highly stable and fast links,

LLNs are usually interconnected by low-power, low-bandwidth links (wireless and wired) operating between a few

kbps and a few hundred kbps and forming a meshed network for helping to ensure proper operations. In addition to

providing limited bandwidth, it is not unusual to see on such links the packet delivery ratio (PDR) oscillating between

60 % and 90 %, with large bursts of unpredictable errors and even loss of connectivity at intervals. Those behaviours

can be observed on both wireless (such as IEEE 802.15.4g [i.20]) and Power Line Communications (PLC) (such as

IEEE 1901.2a [i.2]) links, where packet delivery variation may happen during the course of one day.

Some estimates of IoT have placed the number as high as 50 %, the devices that will be constrained by battery power

and also require long-range, wide-area connectivity. Managing these volumes of batteries is no small task, especially

given requirements from end-users in utilities and manufacturing asking for 10 to 20 years of battery life.

The sheer size of IoT market and associated communications infrastructure intensifies the importance of energy

efficiency awareness. Without significant thought and effort, it is easy to reach very high levels of aggregate power

consumption with these technologies. Normalizing the interface fabrics to IPv6 architectures and eliminating needless

protocol translation functions is an enormous step towards overall efficiency and prudence.

Operational Technology (OT) often refers to industrial networks, which focus on highly reliable, secure and