Hi,

Nice to see Geoff woke up the list, and that someone is really on 
vacation (no jealousy ;-).

I have to agree with Jonathan here. A set of attributes is the most 
appropriate in this case, and this makes it much easier to use 6lowpan 
over other link layers or minimal 802.15.4 implementations. For example 
I would definitely avoid explicit use of association/disassociation in 
beacon-enabled mode. Most deployments in our experience will use 
beaconless mode where those primitives are not available. ICMP can be 
used instead of MAC primitives for many purposes. I would prefer to 
leave the link-layer topology construction details to the 
implementation, some kind of network management entity separate from 
6lowpan and IETF standardization. For example with WiFi + IP 
implementations, the IETF does not take a stand on whether or how you 
configure your interface (ad-hoc mode, infrastructure mode, ap mode) nor 
manage it.

- Zach

Jonathan Hui wrote:
> I'm not convinced that this WG (or the IETF in general) is the 
> appropriate place to specify MAC protocols. Requiring the use of 
> specific MAC protocols is tantamount to specifying the protocol. W.r.t 
> commissioning/bootstrapping, the way I see it is that the link-layer/MAC 
> simply has a set of attributes, some of which 6LoWPAN utilizes (e.g. 
> short-addrs, EUI-64, etc.).  These attributes must be configured 
> somehow, but the specific way they get set is out of scope of this WG.
> 
> --
> Jonathan Hui
> 
> 
> Geoff Mulligan wrote:
>> We have not had any lively discussion on this list for quite some time
>> (actually we have not had ANY discussion on this list for quite some
>> time)!  Vacation is over!
>>
>> Topic:  What 15.4 MAC functions / features should be used or relied upon
>> or required by 6lowpan.
>>
>> Carsten reminded me that this was a topic of discussion at the last
>> IETF.  
>>
>> There were some suggestions that we should utilize some of the 15.4 MAC
>> primitives for 6lowpan commissioning / bootstrapping.  Others insisted
>> that we not require any of the 15.4 primitives.
>>
>> Let try to resolve this question.
>>
>> [ Carsten and I are reviewing the discussion on the charter text to see
>> where we are and if the text should be changed - next weeks topic!! ]
>>
>>         geoff
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Zach Shelby | CTO | +358 40 7796297
Sensinode Ltd.   www.sensinode.com
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