Hardware Platform Management

The Hardware Platform Management (HPM) subcommittee started work in January 2015 with a focus on enabling the PICMG HPM layer for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). See the article “Adding IoT friendliness to AdvancedTCA and related specifications” in the Winter 2015 issue of PICMG Systems and Technology for background on the history and importance of IPv6 versus traditional IPv4. Prior to the work of this subcommittee, the PICMG HPM layer covered only IPv4.

The first step the subcommittee undertook was to add IPv6 coverage for PICMG 3.0 R3.0, the ATCA Base specification; and PICMG 3.7 R1.0, the ATCA Base Extensions specification. Extensions to both of these were accomplished via Engineering Change Notices (ECNs). ECNs go through all the formal PICMG specification review and adoption processes; once adopted, the target specification is formally amended. IPv6 ECNs for both of the above specifications were adopted by PICMG in 2015. This subcommittee recommends that its sister subcommittee – which is adding 40G Ethernet support in MicroTCA – also make the corresponding IPv6 additions there.

The next step was a modest revision to HPM.2, the LAN-attached IPM Controller specification. That revision, R1.1, was also adopted in 2015. The subcommittee recently completed R2.0 of HPM.3, the DHCP-assigned Platform Management Parameters specification. This substantial revision adds support for version 6 of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv6), which complements IPv6.

As the number of Internet-connected entities in the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow exponentially and the workarounds that have allowed continued use of IPv4 are increasingly strained, new applications of ATCA and MicroTCA will increasingly need IPv6 support in the HPM layer.

Mark Overgaard, system management architect at Pentair Electronics Protection and committee chair, said, “as the number of Internet-connected entities in the IoT continues to grow exponentially and the workarounds that have allowed continued use of IPv4 are increasingly strained, new applications of ATCA and MicroTCA will increasingly need IPv6 support in the HPM layer. The recent adoption of HPM.3 R2.0 completes the work of the HPM subcommittee to add IPv6 support for ATCA and the HPM.x architectures. The ATCA extension can be easily incorporated into the revision of MicroTCA.0 that is already under way and the HPM.x extensions already cover MicroTCA.”

For more information, visit: https://www.picmg.org/openstandards/hardware-platform-management/ and https://www.picmg.org/openstandards/development/.