MARPL: A crosslayer approach for Internet of things based on neighbor variability for mobility support in RPL

Abstract

AbstractInternet of things (IoT) proposes the use of devices with low energy capacity, processing, and memory power for a range of applications such as environmental monitoring and smart health. Such devices usually have sensing and wireless communication capabilities. Low power and lossy networks on mobile devices are a common type of wireless network in IoT applications. This article proposes the mobility aware RPL (MARPL), which is an extension of the IPv6 routing protocol for low‐power and lossy network (RPL) in order to enhance its performance in networks with mobile nodes. The mobility of nodes increases packet loss in the canonical RPL protocol. The MARPL mobility mechanism adopts a crosslayer approach. The network layer uses signal strength measurements from the media access layer to calculate a node's variability neighborhood. Performance evaluation results obtained by the Cooja simulator confirm the effectiveness of MARPL regarding link disconnection prevention, packet delivery rate, low overhead, and energy consumption when compared with other protocols.