1. IEEE 802.21 MEDIA INDEPENDENT HANDOVER DCN:21-06-0608-00-0000
Title: Link Identifier
Date Submitted: April 30, 2006
Presented at IEEE session in Denver
Authors or Source(s):
Yoshihiro Ohba
Abstract: This document proposes link identifier for identifying a link of any technology in a common way.

2. IEEE 802.21 presentation release statements
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The contributor is familiar with IEEE patent policy, as outlined in Section 6.3 of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual < and in Understanding Patent Issues During IEEE Standards Development

3. Problem Description
The following attributes are used in many primitives:
MacMobileNode
Mac{Old,New}PoA
Linkidentifier
Link Type
All those attributes are related to “link”
It would be better to have an integrated “Link ID” that contains those attributes

4. Link Identifier Proposal
Link ID consists of the following attributes
Link Type
Link-Layer Address of MN
Link-Layer Address of PoA (optional)
PoA in some link-layer technology may not have link-layer address (e.g., an Ethernet hub)
Link Type is 4-octet RADIUS NAS-Port-Type value
Link-Layer Address of MN and PoA is Address type of Diameter protocol (RFC 3588)
AddressType is encoded in the first 2-octet
This format is already used for TYPE_IE_POA_ADDRESS

5. Suggested Changes (Section 7.3.*.1)
Replace the following attributes
MacMobileNode, LinkIdentifier and MacNewPoA in Section (Link_Up)
MacMobileNode and MacoldPoA in Section (Link_Down)
MacMobileNode and MACNewPoA in Section (Link_Going_Down)
MacMobileNode, Link Type and MACNewPoA in Section (Link_Detected)
MacMobileNode in Sections , , (Link_Event_Rollback, Link_Parameters_Change, Link_SDU_Transmit_Status)
MacMobileNode and MACNewPoA in Sections and (Link_Handover_Imminent and Link_Handover_Complete)
With the following single attribute
Link Identifier (Type=Link ID, Valid Range N/A, Description: Identifier of the link associated with the event)

6. Suggested Changes (Section 7.4.4.1.1)
Replace MacMobileNode and LinkIdentifier with
Link Identifier (Type=Link ID, Valid Range N/A, Description: Identifier of the link)

7. Suggested Changes (Section 7.4.4.2.1)
Replace OldMacMobileNode and OldLinkIdentifier with the following single attribute
Old Link Identifier (Type=Link ID, Valid Range N/A, Description: Identifier of the old link)
Replace NewMacMobileNode, MacNewPoA and NewLinkIdentifier with the following single attribute
Old Link Identifier (Type=Link ID, Valid Range N/A, Description: Identifier of the new link)

8. Suggested Changes (Section 7.4.5.2.4)
Replace NETWORK ID with LINK_ID (Type=Link ID, Range=N/A, Description=“Return the ID of the link currently configured to communicate with.”)
Remove NETWORK_TYPE

9. Suggested Changes (Section 7.4.7.1.4)
Replace NETWORK ID with LINK_ID (Type=Link ID, Range=N/A, Description=“Change to the specified link.”)
Remove NETWORK_TYPES_IN_USE

10. Suggested Changes (Sections 7.4.9.1.2 and 7.4.9.2.2)
Add LINK_ID (Type=Link ID, Range=N/A, Description=“Identifier of the specified link to scan. The Link-Layer Address of PoA attribute in LINK_ID must be null”)

11. Suggested Changes (Section 7.4.10.1.2)
Remove SuggestedNewPoAIdentifier

12. Suggested Changes (Section 7.4.10.2.2)
Remove PreferredPoAIdentifier

13. Suggested Changes (Section 7.4.12.1.2)
Remove MACNewPoA

14. Suggested Changes (Sections 7.4.14.1.2 and 7.4.14.2.2)
Remove MACMobileNode

15. Suggested Changes (Section 8.4.1)
Add a new entry Current Link Identifier (244) and New Link Identifier (243) in Table 20
Add a new Section:
Link Identifier
The following TLVs specify the identifier of a link.
Type
Length
Value
244
Variable
An identifier of the current link. The value field consists of the following TLVs
- Link Type
- Mobile Node MAC Address
- PoA MAC Address (optional)
243
An identifier of a new link. The value field consists of the following TLVs

16. Suggested Changes (Sections 8.5.2.5 and 8.5.2.6, 8.5.2.7, 8.5.2.8 and 8.5.1.12)
Replace MACMobileNode and MACNewPoA with New Link Identifier

17. Suggested Changes (Sections 8.5.2.9 and 8.5.2.10)
Replace MACMobileNode with Current Link Identifier

18. Suggested Changes (Section 8.5.2.11)
Replace OldMacMobileNode and OldLinkIdentifier with the following single attribute
Current Link Identifier
Replace NewMacMobileNode, MacNewPoA and NewLinkIdentifier with the following single attribute
New Link Identifier