Multiple path RPL for low power lossy networks

Routing protocol for low-power and lossy networks (RPL) is the standard IPv6 based routing protocol for low power, lossy Networks (LLNs) proposed by IETF. It is proposed for networks with characteristics like small packet size, lossy links, low bandwidth, low data rate and low power resources. RPL is a single path routing protocol and the existing objective functions do not support creation of multiple routing paths between source and destination. Multipath routing can be used to achieve multifold objectives, including higher reliability, increased throughput, fault tolerance, congestion mitigation and hole avoidance. In this paper, M-RPL a multi-path extension of RPL is proposed that aims to provide temporary multipath routing during congestion over a path. Congestion is primarily detected by a forwarding node by monitoring packet delivery ratio and is mitigated by providing partially disjoint multipath routing. Detailed simulation analysis of M-RPL against RPL shows that using multi-path RPL reduces congestion and increases the overall throughput. Hence M-RPL is suitable for supporting high data rates as compared to single path RPL.