Performance Evaluation of IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks Based on Objective Functions for Media Technology

Abstract

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has proposed the use of the IPv6 Routing Protocol for the Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL). RPL has been seen to be a major routing protocol related to the Internet of Things (IoT) that could be used for wireless networks with lower power consumption and liable to a higher packet loss. The RPL construct-related network topology uses the Objective Functions (OF) for choosing the route from the source to a destination node, which has been based on constraints and metrics. The IETF designed two OFs for the RPL protocol, i.e., Objective Function Zero (OF0) and Minimum Rank with Hysteresis Objective Function (MRHOF). In this study, the researchers have investigated the RPL performance with the help of the OFs in a medium density. This performance has been judged using different network parameters like Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and Power Consumption (PC). Furthermore, in this study, the number of nodes has been maintained as 40 and 50. The RX ratio has varied between 20, 60, and 100%, in the grid, and random topologies. The results of the study have also indicated that the OF0 protocol has showed a better performance concerning the power consumption compared to the MRHOF, while both the OFs have showed a similar PDR performance.