IEEE Std 802.21d-2015 pdf download – IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks- Part 21: Media Independent Handover Services Amendment 4: Multicast Group Management.
5. General architecture 5.1 Introduction Insert new subclause 5.1. 12 as follows: 5.1.12 Group communications There are scenarios where a set of nodes moves like a group between network points of attachment. Examples of these scenarios are: networks of sensors/actuators that move between production and management networks, a set of nodes in a mesh network that moves as a group from one gateway node to another, a group of nodes that travels together in a transportation medium while changing the network point of attachment. To manage the handover operation of these nodes in a bandwidth efficient manner when the network is performing failover, failback, configuration and other management operations, multicast-based group communication is required.
This standard allows network nodes (e.g., PoS with Group Manager) to communicate handover commands to a group of MNs and PoSes via a multicast transport in a secure way. The standard defines primitives and corresponding messages for managing the multicast group membership (e.g., join, leave and update the group membership) and provides mechanisms for managing the multicast group keys. Figure 2 shows the logical view of the functional entities that are involved in a multicast-based group communication. The group manager, as an MIH User in a PoS, is responsible for issuing the group manipulation commands in addition to generating and updating the master group keys and managing the group. PoSes (including the PoS with the group manager) and MNs send group addressed messages (see 8.3.1 and 9.6 for detailed rules on sending group addressed messages) via a multicast transport that is made available by the underlying network. This standard does not specify any transport protocol and the choice of transport protocol is left to the implementers.
6.2.7 MIH group configuration and manipulation The MIH group configuration and manipulation mechanisms enable a PoS to manage groups of MNs and/or PoSes in a secure way. These MNs are reachable through a multicast transport. The primitives used to manage the membership to the groups and their security properties are called group manipulation commands throughout this specification. The group manipulation commands include the functionalities required to manage the group membership (join, leave, update operations) and to install the appropriate credentials to MNs and PoSes belonging to a particular group. Details on which MIHF commands can be used for multicast group communication are described in 8.3.1.