6LowApp: Problem Statement for 6LoWPAN and LLN Application Protocols
The 6LoWPAN and ROLL WGs are laying the groundwork to make the Wireless Embedded Internet a reality, but what application protocols will we use? Request-response protocols like HTTP are a poor fit to a communication model with battery-operated, mostly sleeping nodes. In addition, the usual data formats (both headers and body) are perceived to be too chatty for the 50-60 byte payloads possible in LoWPANs and to require too much code for the 8-bit and 16-bit processors dominating the Internet of Things. Still, it would be a mistake to start a new silo of application protocols that do not benefit from existing application area Internet experience. This document provides a problem statement for possible work on of application protocols in 6LoWPAN networks or, more generally, in low- power, lossy networks, as well as some considerations for required related work.