GSOC20256LoWPAN

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Project Overview

• Project Name: 6LoWPAN Neighbor Discovery Protocol
• Student: Boh Jie Qi
• Mentors: Tommaso Pecorella and Adnan Rashid
• Google page: link
• Proposal: link
• Project Goals: The 6LoWPAN-ND (RFCs 4944, 6775, and 8505) is a replacement for IPv6 DAD and NDP for 6LoWPAN networks, and it is important to ensure address uniqueness across a network that can potentially use different MAC/PHY layers. There is a model for 6LoWPAN-ND, but it is still not merged in the main ns-3 branch. The goal is to clean up the implementation, remove an actual limitation due to a questionable assumption, and to add the support for multi-hop operations (EDAR and EDAC messages).
• Repository: repo
• About Me: I am a pre-final undergraduate student at the National University of Singapore, and am super excited to be able to work with everyone at ns-3!

Milestones

Phase 1: Code Cleanup + Implementation with 6LBR and 6LN
Pull Request

• Code Refactoring
  • Helper methods to parse and validate packets: Extract helper methods for parsing and validating ND packets to improve modularity and readability.
    
  • General code cleanup: Restructure code in sixlowpan-nd-protocol.h/cc and remove unnecessary comments
    

• Bug Fixes
  • Disabling DAD: Disable DAD when necessary to comply with 6LoWPAN ND scenarios that bypass traditional IPv6 DAD
    
  • Address Registration Fixes: Analyse address registration flow, identify and fix bugs to ensure working address bootstrapping between singular 6LN and 6LBR
    

• Documentation
  • Create detailed flowcharts to visualize key functions and message handling paths in the 6LoWPAN ND protocol logic
  • Create report documenting design choices
  • Add Sphinx documentation detailing 6LoWPAN

• Features
  • Add working ROVR generation and validation

• Tests
  • Unit tests for packet parsing and packet validation
  • Tests for address registration of 1-10 6LNs with 1 6LBR

Phase 2: Implementation of EDAR/EDAC messages for multi-hop DAD

• Bug Fixes

• Documentation
  • Update Sphynx documentation to reflect newly supported topologies and features as part of the second phase

• Features
  • Add 6LR
  • Add working Transaction ID validation (RFC8505 5.2)
  • Add 6CIO Option in RS / RA packets

• Tests
  • Simulate multi-hop topology using Ipv6StaticRouting to emulate RPL behavior in its absence

Extra

• Add the all fields in the EARO used in Send-NS(EARO) and Receive-NA(EARO) message as defined in the following document
• Add support for RFC8505 EARO fields in packet dissection in Wireshark
• Document tweaks made to address registration delays

Weekly Updates

• Community Bonding Period (May 8 - May 31)

• Week 1 (June 1 - June 7)

• Week 2 (June 8 - June 14)

• Week 3 (June 15 - June 21)

• Week 4 (June 22 - 28)

• Week 5 (June 29 - July 5)

• Week 6 (July 6 - July 12)

• Week 7 (July 12 - July 19)

Readings

RFC4861 Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)
RFC6775 Neighbor Discovery Optimization for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs)
RFC8505 Registration Extensions for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) Neighbor Discovery
RFC5175 IPv6 Router Advertisement Flags Option
Is 6LoWPAN-ND necessary? (Spoiler alert: Yes)