Session Date/Time: 24 Jul 2022 22:00

Hot RFC Lightning Talks

Summary

This session featured a series of lightning talks on a diverse range of current and emerging technical topics relevant to the IETF community. Speakers presented on green networking and sustainability, post-quantum cryptography challenges, the Internet of Secure Elements, attestation in TLS, LEO satellite networking, secure WebRTC, operations and control networks, enterprise security implications of ECH, data-driven network optimization, Multicast QUIC, and network latency. Each presentation highlighted technical problems, proposed solutions, existing work, and called for community engagement and collaboration.

Key Discussion Points

What Has the IETF Ever Done for Energy? (Torsten)
- Presented a document surveying IETF's contributions to energy saving, both incidental (e.g., efficiency from digitized solutions, internet scale) and specific (e.g., low-power networks, smart grids, E-MAN working group).
- Aimed to educate the community, foster interest in new work, and broaden technology adoption.
- Invited community feedback and contributions to the document.
Challenges and Opportunities in Green Networking (Alexander)
- Built on the previous talk, emphasizing sustainability as a grand challenge and the network's role.
- Identified opportunities and challenges at four levels:
  - Device/Equipment: Need for proper instrumentation and visibility into energy metrics.
  - Protocol: Traffic adaptation, energy-friendly traffic characteristics, fast discovery for dynamic resource management, efficient network addressing.
  - Network: Energy-aware routing, control protocol extensions for sustainable path configuration.
  - Architecture: Energy-conscious placement of content and computation.
- Introduced two drafts: a problem statement and a specific draft on metrics and instrumentation.
Challenges and Opportunities of Post-Quantum Cryptography (Sophia)
- Highlighted NIST's selection of post-quantum algorithms for key exchange and digital signatures, marking a critical milestone.
- Noted that PQ algorithms often have larger parameter sizes and/or higher computational times, impacting network latency and protocols.
- Discussed the lack of traditional Diffie-Hellman properties in many PQ algorithms and the challenges for protocols like TLS, WireGuard, and Signal.
- Mentioned the IETF PPQM (Post-Quantum Messaging) group and the need for generic designs and potential protocol changes.
Internet of Security Elements (IoSE) (Pascal)
- Focused on connecting secure elements (e.g., smart cards, SIMs, e-passports) to the internet as online cryptographic resources identifiable by URIs.
- Identified challenges including the lack of a TCP/IP stack in secure elements, requiring additional processors.
- Outlined the need for defined protocols to access secure element resources, naming conventions, and attestation procedures.
- Presented three IETF drafts: ROX (Global Platform over TLS), TLS-SC (TLS PSK in secure element), and IoSE (attestation procedures).
- Mentioned open-source software implementations available for these concepts.
Attestation within TLS (Hannes)
- Addressed the need for device attestation (e.g., genuineness, configuration, running software) in IoT device enrollment with cloud services, as explored by the RATS (Remote ATtestation procedures) working group.
- Proposed integrating attestation with TLS by augmenting the TLS exchange with attestation information and providing proof of possession.
- Described a software solution combining embedTLS (TLS 1.3), a platform-agnostic security hardware library (BASIC), and a cloud verification service (Veriza).
LEO Satellite Networking: Flying Infrastructure for Future Internet (Lynn Hahn)
- Emphasized LEO satellites as key components of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) due to low latency, high bandwidth, and global coverage.
- Detailed unique challenges: high-speed satellite movement causing interleaved mesh networks, rapid link flipping with ground stations, and dynamic inter-satellite distances.
- Argued for IP networking in LEO for scalability, internet interworking, and alignment with 3GPP expectations, despite existing non-IP solutions.
- Highlighted current IP technology limitations in addressing, routing, traffic engineering, multipath, and mobility for LEO.
Secure Open Standards for WebRTC (Phil)
- Critiqued the current state of WebRTC where open standards are often hidden behind proprietary "walled gardens."
- Advocated for user control over communication (provider choice, address portability, not using phone numbers for messaging).
- Stressed the need for security beyond basic end-to-end packet encryption, addressing vulnerabilities in contacts directories and single-vendor applications that can be exploited by hostile entities.
- Proposed completing the messaging stack by integrating a Threshold Key Infrastructure (TKI) with WebRTC, allowing users to control contacts and choose application providers.
Challenges and Opportunities in Operations and Control Networks (OCN) (Lee Jindong)
- Presented the rising need for sophisticated, flexible, and interoperable controllers in automated factories and remote driving scenarios, often involving cloud-based virtualization.
- Defined OCN as the interconnection of devices and controllers for data exchange, monitoring, and causing changes to end equipment, requiring guaranteed end-to-end latency and urgent packet prioritization.
- Identified key issues: using IP for controller-to-field device interconnection, high-precision communication, granular QoS, media diversity (5G, Ethernet), field bus protocol conversion, addressing (auto-configuration, header compression), message types, and security.
ECH for Enterprises: Operational Security Concerns (Arnaud)
- Discussed the impact of Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) on enterprise operational security, particularly the removal of SNI access, which pushes security to the endpoint.
- Raised concerns about the trustworthiness of client devices and browsers for security controls (e.g., data loss prevention, attack detection), as they cannot be both "judge and party."
- Questioned whether ECH shifts the security model to cloud-facing servers, potentially reintroducing a "middlebox" problem.
- Called for clarification on client-facing server protocols and methods for integrating third-party security components.
Data-Driven Approach to Tackle Network Diversity with Heterogeneous Protocol Configurations (Gusama)
- Highlighted that Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) typically use homogeneous protocol configurations (e.g., TCP, HTTP) for all users, despite significant user and network diversity.
- Presented measurements showing up to 70% improvement in page load times by using optimal, connection-specific configurations.
- Proposed a system with two components: a data path (modified networking stack at the server for flexible, per-connection reconfiguration) and a global control path (using algorithms and machine learning to predict optimal configurations).
- Advocated for investing in flexible networking stack architectures that dynamically adapt to user conditions.
Multicast QUIC (Jake)
- Addressed the problem of unicast for certain applications and proposed using IP multicast with QUIC.
- Described the basic idea: a single unicast connection, server tells client to join multicast channels, client sends ACKs, and multicast is server-to-client only, aligning with SECDISPATCH 112 security considerations.
- Seeking to develop a prototype and gather feedback on the draft.
Network Latency: Why it Matters, How to Measure it, What to Do About it (Stuart)
- Argued that latency, not just throughput, is crucial for most user experiences (e.g., apps, gaming, video seeking).
- Introduced new measurement tools: Apple's in-app diagnostics showing "round trips per minute," Waveform's bufferbloat test, and Ookla Speedtest's new "working latency" metric (how the network performs under load, not just idle).
- Proposed L4S (Low Latency Low Loss Scalable Throughput) as a solution, a congestion control method that keeps queues short at bottleneck links using ECN marks to reduce round-trip delay.
- Referenced hackathon work and resources like the IETF BITAG report on latency.

Decisions and Action Items

Torsten (Energy document): Feedback requested, contact authors for contributions.
Alexander (Green Networking): Feedback requested on drafts, seeking collaborators. Informal side meeting planned for Tuesday from 1 PM to 2 PM in Salon 9.
Sophia (Post-Quantum Cryptography): Participation invited for a workshop collocated with NIST in November. Join the IETF SPQC (Secure Protocol for Quantum Cryptography) group for continued discussion.
Pascal (IoSE): Call for research and collaboration on IoSE drafts and implementations.
Hannes (Attestation in TLS): Seeking collaborators for those with similar attestation systems.
Lynn Hahn (LEO Satellite Networking): Contact Lynn for interest in contributing or presenting at a planned side meeting at the next IETF.
Phil (Secure WebRTC): Seeking help on choosing the best path through WebRTC and identifying best-of-breed components for a prototype. Contact Phil for interest.
Lee Jindong (OCN): Participation requested for an OCN side meeting on Tuesday lunchtime at the rooftop level.
Arnaud (ECH for Enterprises): Join an informal side meeting on Tuesday at 12:30 PM (noon 30) if interested in finding a way forward for enterprise security with ECH.
Gusama (Data-Driven Networking): Seeking interest and collaboration on flexible networking stack architectures. Gusama will be available in Philadelphia for discussions.
Jake (Multicast QUIC): Feedback requested on the draft, seeking reviewers. Contributions to the W3C Multicast Community Group implementation are welcome. Discussion in the QUIC WG on Thursday.
Stuart (Network Latency): Attend L4S side meeting on Monday and a measurement discussion on Friday.

Next Steps

Green Networking: Informal side meeting on Tuesday (1-2 PM, Salon 9) to discuss challenges, opportunities, and drafts.
Post-Quantum Cryptography: Workshop in November (collocated with NIST) and ongoing discussions within the IETF SPQC group.
LEO Satellite Networking: Side meeting planned for the next IETF to discuss challenges and potential IP solutions.
Operations and Control Networks: Side meeting on Tuesday lunchtime (rooftop level) to explore issues and opportunities in OCN.
ECH for Enterprises: Informal side meeting on Tuesday (12:30 PM) to discuss forward paths for operational security.
Multicast QUIC: Further discussion planned in the QUIC working group on Thursday; continued work on prototype implementation with the W3C Multicast Community Group.
Network Latency (L4S): L4S side meeting on Monday; measurement discussion on Friday.