Sink-to-Sink Coordination Framework Using RPL: Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks

RPL (Routing Protocol for low power and Lossy networks) is recommended by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for IPv6-based LLNs (Low Power and Lossy Networks). RPL uses a proactive routing approach and each node always maintains an active path to the sink node. Sink-to-sink coordination defines syntax and semantics for the exchange of any network defined parameters among sink nodes like network size, traffic load, mobility of a sink, and so forth. The coordination allows sink to learn about the network condition of neighboring sinks. As a result, sinks can make coordinated decision to increase/decrease their network size for optimizing over all network performance in terms of load sharing, increasing network lifetime, and lowering end-to-end latency of communication. Currently, RPL does not provide any coordination framework that can define message exchange between different sink nodes for enhancing the network performance. In this paper, a sink-to-sink coordination framework is proposed which utilizes the periodic route maintenance messages issued by RPL to exchange network status observed at a sink with its neighboring sinks. The proposed framework distributes network load among sink nodes for achieving higher throughputs and longer network’s life time.