Low-power IPv6 for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things allows physical objects, sensors, and actuators to be connected to each other as well as cloud services. Over the past few years, advances in wireless protocols, software systems, and standardization for IPv6 points to a future where every physical object that can benefit from an Internet connection will be connected to the Internet. This paper presents the IPv6 networking support in the Contiki operating system, the system that first introduced the concept of IP networking for low-power wireless systems. We discuss the design and implementation of IPv6 in Contiki as well as the methods used to develop and evaluate low-power mechanisms.