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Failure Handling in RPL Implementations: An Experimental Qualitative Study

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Mission-Oriented Sensor Networks and Systems: Art and Science

Part of the book series: Studies in Systems, Decision and Control ((SSDC,volume 163))

Abstract

The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL) is a recognized standard for routing packets in low-power wireless networks. Its two popular implementations—TinyRPL and ContikiRPL—have been used for both research and commercial purposes. However, despite their wide adoption, qualitative studies of their behavior under various types of failures are essentially lacking. Therefore, in this chapter, we aim to bridge this gap in a manner that may be of interest to both researchers and practitioners. More specifically, we evaluate the two implementations of RPL in a range of link and node failure scenarios. We show that whereas the implementations handle well some classes of failures, for others they exhibit undesirable behaviors or even fail completely. The results thus identify failure scenarios handling which may require additional attention before employing the implementations in real-world dependable embedded systems.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Center for Research and Development (NCBR) in Poland under grant no. LIDER/434/L-6/14/NCBR/2015. K. Iwanicki was additionally supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education with a scholarship for outstanding young scientists.

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Correspondence to Agnieszka Paszkowska .

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Paszkowska, A., Iwanicki, K. (2019). Failure Handling in RPL Implementations: An Experimental Qualitative Study. In: Ammari, H. (eds) Mission-Oriented Sensor Networks and Systems: Art and Science. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 163. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91146-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91146-5_3

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