V-RPL: An effective routing algorithm for low power and lossy networks using multi-criteria decision-making techniques

Abstract

The rapid advancement of technology and the advent of IoT technology which can connect everything around us is one of the most exciting breakthroughs all around the world. The need to handle thousands of fixed and mobile nodes in this network in addition to meeting several strict constraints have made the researchers start addressing the different challenges of this technology. One of the most significant challenges in this regard is providing an efficient and optimized routing protocol which on one side is able to manage the mobility of nodes and dynamic topology of this network and on the other side it can take the different aspects of the network performance into account. The aspects such as energy constraint for the battery-powered nodes, traffic congestion and end-to-end delay. One of the well-known routing protocols which has been proposed and standardized during recent years for IoT networks is RPL. Although this method works well and can support different types of IoT networks, it still suffers from various drawbacks particularly for mobile networks which cause the algorithm not to work effectively and efficiently. In this research, we present a new routing algorithm called V-RPL, which can outperform many of the proposed routing algorithms in terms of packet delivery ratio (PDR), end-to-end delay and energy consumption. The proposed algorithm is based on RPL and takes multiple parameters into account, simultaneously and utilizes AHP and VIKOR techniques for multi-criteria decision making to find the best possible route for each node in a mobile network. The performance of V-RPL has been evaluated in different situations using Contiki simulator and obtained results signify a remarkable improvement in different aspects compared to other proposed algorithms.