A Study of the RPL Repair Process Using ContikiRPL

The IETF developed the RPL routing protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks (LLNs). RPL allows for automated setup and maintenance of the routing tree for a meshed network using a common objective, such as energy preservation or most stable routes. To handle failing nodes and other communication disturbances, RPL includes a number of error correction functions for such situations. These error handling mechanisms, while maintaining a functioning routing tree, introduce an additional complexity to the routing process. Being a relatively new protocol, the effect of the error handling mechanisms within RPL needs to be analyzed. This paper presents an experimental analysis of RPL’s error correction mechanisms by using the Contiki RPL implementation along with an SNMP agent to monitor the performance of RPL.