Network Working Group Sam Critchley Internet Draft Worldcom, Inc August, 2002 Expires January, 2003 The Geographic Position Option for DHCP Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html Abstract This document describes a DHCP option in which the geographic position of the DHCP server is passed to the DHCP client in order to allow the client to make use of Location-Based Services. 1. Introduction Mobile telephony networks are able to make use of certain technologies which supply the geographic location of a mobile suscriber's handset to a Location-Based Services (LBS) provider. The mobile subscriber is then able to take advantage of such services as point-of-interest (POI) location, mapping, route-determination, traffic services and location-aware mobile instant messaging. There is currently no standardised mechanism in place to supply a geographic location to Internet hosts not connected to mobile telephony network, including, but not limited to, hosts connecting using IEEE 802.11x wireless protocols, and those connected to wire-based networks but configured with non-static IP addresses. Consequently, these hosts are more limited in their ability to take advantage of LBS, including having to manually enter a geographic position or street address in many cases. This document defines a DHCP option by which a DHCP server can pass Critchley [Page 1] its geographical location, in the form of a latitude, longitude and altitude position, to its clients. This document does not seek to define a method to allow a host to pass its location to a LBS server, as there are already in place several standards which propose these mechanisms, such as the Mobile Location Protocol (MLP) developed by the Location Interoperability Forum (LIF), although it does make one security recommendation in this area. Furthermore, this document does not attempt to propose a mechanism which would perform in the same manner as critical emergency location services such as the Enhanced 911 (E-911) service being implemented in US mobile telephony networks, nor does it propose a mechanism to be used for highly accurate positioning applications, such as that provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, the Geographic Position Option for DHCP does propose a mechanism which, in many cases, will provide a position to the same degree of accuracy as that provided by mobile telephony networks' geographic location mechanisms. 2. The Geographic Position Option for DHCP 2.1 DHCP Option field definitions. This option contains the following fields: a) Option Code - TBD b) Option length in bytes c) DHCP Server Geographic Position Sentence 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Code = TBD | Length | Geographic Position Sentence | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Geographic Position Sentence | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | . . . . | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | . . . . | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 2.2 DHCP Server Geographic Position Sentence The DHCP Server Geographic Position Sentence takes the form of a comma-separated ASCII string of position terms. This is in some ways similar to the format used in the National Marine Electronics Association's NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000 standards, commonly used by GPS navigation devices for passing location information to other devices. Critchley [Page 2] The sentence takes the following form: DHCPPS,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K Where the following are field definitions: - DHCPPS - DHCP Position Sentence. Indicates to the DHCP client that this is a sentence designed to provide the geographic position of the DHCP server to the DHCP client, as opposed to any other information. - A - Latitude. Expressed in decimal degrees, to a maximum of 6 decimal places. - B - Latitude N/S. Whether the latitude figure expressed is North or South of the equator, expressed simply as the letter "N" or the letter "S" in upper case. - C - Longitude. Expressed in decimal degrees, to a maximum of 6 decimal places. - D - Longitude E/W. Whether the longitude figure expressed is East or West of the Greenwhich Meridian, expressed simply as the letter "E" or the letter "W" in upper case. - E - Altitude. The altitude, expressed to a maximum of 2 decimal places, and preceded with a "+" or a "-" symbol to indicate whether the value is above mean sea level (positive) or below mean sea level (negative). - F - Altitude unit. The upper-case letter "M" to indicate that the unit is in Metres, or the upper-case letters "FT" to indicate that the unit is in feet. - G - Horizontal Accuracy. The horizontal accuracy of the latitude and longitude position obtained by the DHCP client from the DHCP server. Intended to represent the maximum horizontal distance that a DHCP client will be from its DHCP server, and useful, for example, in the case of DHCP scenarios such as IEEE 802.11b setups using bridging, and where the DHCP client can expect to be some distance from the DHCP server. Figure given to a maximum of three decimal places. - H - Horizontal Accuracy unit. The upper-case letter "M" to indicate that the unit is in metres, the upper-case letters "KM" to indicate that the unit is in kilometres, the upper-case letters "FT" to indicate that the unit is in feet, or the upper-case letters "ML" to indicate that the unit is in miles. - I - Vertical Accuracy. The vertical accuracy of the Altitude position obtained by the DHCP client from the DHCP server. Intended to represent the maximum vertical distance that a DHCP client will be located from its DHCP server, and useful, for example, in the case of network segments located in tall buildings. - J - Vertical Accuracy unit. The upper-case letter "M" to indicate that the unit is in metres, the upper-case letters "KM" to indicate that the unit is in kilometres, the upper-case letters "FT" to Critchley [Page 3] indicate that the unit is in feet, or the upper-case letters "ML" to indicate that the unit is in miles. - K - Geodesic Datum. The standard abbreviated form of the geodesic datum used to calculate position. This term has a default value of "WGS84" should no datum be specified. The DHCP Server Geographic Position Sentence would normally have a maximum length of between 49 and 64 bytes, depending on the values used. Apart from the first term of the DHCP Server Geographic Position Sentence, which always must have a value of "DHCPPS", and must be present, the presence of a value in all other fields is optional. However, all fields, whether a value is present or not, must be comma-separated. Furthermore, it is understood that a DHCPPS containing few or no values might be of little use in determining the position of the DHCP client. 2.2.1 Example of a DHCP Server Geographic Position Sentence DHCPPS,52.3742,N,4.8925,E,+3.12,M,50.9,M,5,M,WGS84 This sentence indicates that the DHCP server is located at 52.3742 degrees North, 4.8925 degrees East, at 3.12 metres above mean sea level, that the DHCP client is a maximum of 50.9 metres horizontally from the DHCP server, a maximum of 5 metres altitude above or below the DHCP server, and that the datum used to calculate this position was WGS-84. 2.3 Security Concerns Whilst this document does not seek to define a method to allow a host to pass its location to a LBS server, it does note that there are possible security concerns involved in the location of an Internet host being passed to an LBS server. In the case of mobile telephony networks, most subscriber locations are passed to an LBS server from a mobile provider's location server, not directly from the mobile handset, and the list of permitted LBS servers is strictly controlled. However, in the case of a Geographic Position option for DHCP, this security infrastructure may not be in place, and it is therefore recommended that any client application supplying a DHCP-acquired position to an LBS server should implement an adequate security mechanism to protect users from any possible wrongdoing. Such mechanisms might include implementing a list of permitted LBS servers, popup alerts when passing a host's location to an LBS server, or the ability to turn on/off the passing of location information. Critchley [Page 4] 3. Author's Address Sam Critchley Worldcom EMEA Network Service Joan Muyskenweg 22 1096 CJ Amsterdam The Netherlands Phone: +31 20 711 6082 Email: Sam.Critchley@wcom.com Critchley [Page 5] ^L