Programmable IP Format in IOT Network

There will be more and more IOT devices deployed in the future. IOT networks are deployed widely in the residential scenarios and in the smart city scenarios. However, the IOT devices belonging to different vendors are hard to communicate. Normally, they need to connect to the servers in the cloud, and then perhaps they can make some cooperation. It is to say that they can not communicate freely in the local network. We suggest that what we need here is a new layer 3 narrow waist for different IOT networks. IOT devices have many different requirements, so that we need a programmable IP format for a specific IOT network. For example, some IOT networks may need an IP format that has simplified format; meanwhile, some IOT networks may need an IP format that contains more security considerations. In this document, we introduce a mechanism to signal the selected format for an IOT network. Our final goal is to support a programmable IP format for various IOT networks.

In the current Internet, we have designed a uniform IP format . It can benefit the communication among all the devices in the Internet. However, the IOT networks are quite different from the traditional IP network, and we need a programmable layer 3 for them to enable a better local communication. As we have not assumed a unified format in the layer 3, we need to determinate the encapsulation format of the layer 3. For example, we can make a bitmap to communicate between the gateway of the IOT network and a new IOT device that needs to communicate with the IOT network. In other words, they can negotiation the format of the layer 3. We suggest using some communications in the layer 2 to determinate the encapsulation format of the layer 3. The new IOT device may send a L2 frame to the gateway of the IOT network. The gateway may response another L2 frame that contains the information about the format in this IOT network. By using the information in the frame from the gateway, the new IOT device can connect to the IOT network and communicate with the IOT devices in the IOT network. The encapsulation information can be an index of some pre-configured format, or it can be a bitmap that describes the encapsulation format in the IOT network. In the later case, the bitmap may indicate whether a specific item is encoded in the format, for example, the SA, the TTL, or the next header. Each bit in the bitmap should be pre-configured and can be understood without ambiguity. Following the bitmap, some offsets should be given, so that we can determine the length of each item that is contained in the format. Hence, we can make a flexible platform for the encapsulation of the layer 3 in the IOT network, while the different format requirements of the IOT networks can be fulfilled.