> On a related topic....
> 6lowpan network have the particularity that you cannot use on-link prefix
> due to the non-transitivity of the wireless links. This means we need to
> tell routers how to reach neighboring IPv6 hosts. So essentially 6lowpan-ND
> is using a registration mechanism to establish a "route" between the router
> and the host.  
> It is not clear to me whether this is the role of ND

The role of ND here is doing the host-router neighbor discovery.

> or of the routing
> protocol.

The role of RPL here is to disseminate the host route on towards other routers.

> I think it could actually be both.

Hosts should not need to speak routing protocols.

> Hence the questions: 
> - Are IPv6 hosts possible in a 6lowpan network where the RPL protocol is
> used?

I would consider it a major failure if RPL didn't support networks with hosts.
(Networks without hosts, i.e., all-router networks, are certainly possible, but 
in a constrained node/network we are talking about a relatively high lower 
bound on the complexity of nodes or a *very* simple routing protocol.
Of course, the routing protocol could distinguish three instead of two 
complexity classes of nodes, supporting something like a "stub router" [a 
router that cannot forward].  Still, that class would need to implement some 
parts of the routing protocol, imposing constraints either way or both.)

> - Should IPv6 hosts be part of a RPL topology (as leaf node) or should IPv6
> hosts use the 6lowpan-ND host-router spec?

As I said, hosts shouldn't need to speak RPL.

Gruesse, Carsten

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