RPL

The Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) (RFC 6550) enables data packet routing along a Destination-Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG). However, the default route establishment mechanism relies on hop-by-hop forwarding along the DODAG, which may not always provide optimal routing efficiency. This document introduces the concept of Destination Advertisement Object (DAO) Projection, a mechanism that allows a RPL Root or an external controller to install optimized routes within the RPL domain. DAO Projections enable the creation of optimized unicast or multicast routes that do not strictly follow the DODAG structure, thereby improving routing efficiency, reliability, availability, and resource utilization in the RPL domain. This document specifies two types of Projected Routes (P-Routes) -- Storing Mode and Non-Storing Mode -- and outlines the signaling procedures necessary to establish, maintain, and remove these routes. This document updates RFCs 6550, 6553, and 8138.

Route discovery for symmetric and asymmetric Peer-to-Peer (P2P) traffic flows is a desirable feature in Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs). For that purpose, this document specifies AODV-RPL -- the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) based on Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing. AODV-RPL is a reactive P2P route discovery mechanism for both hop-by-hop routes and source routing. Paired instances are used to construct directional paths for cases where there are asymmetric links between source and target nodes.

By and large, correct operation of a network running the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) requires border routers to be up. In many applications, it is beneficial for the nodes to detect a failure of a border router as soon as possible to trigger fallback actions. This document specifies the Root Node Failure Detector (RNFD), an extension to RPL that expedites detection of border router crashes by having nodes collaboratively monitor the status of a given border router. The extension introduces an additional state at each node, a new type of RPL Control Message Option for synchronizing this state among different nodes, and the coordination algorithm itself.

This document updates the 6LoWPAN extensions to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (specified in RFCs 4861 and 8505) to enable a listener to subscribe to an IPv6 anycast or multicast address. This document also updates the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) (specified in RFCs 6550 and 6553) to add a new Non-Storing multicast mode and new support for anycast addresses in Storing and Non-Storing modes. This document extends RFC 9010 to enable a 6LoWPAN Router (6LR) to inject the anycast and multicast addresses in RPL.

Autonomic functions need a control plane to communicate, which depends on some addressing and routing. This Autonomic Control Plane should ideally be self-managing and be as independent as possible of configuration. This document defines such a plane and calls it the "Autonomic Control Plane", with the primary use as a control plane for autonomic functions. It also serves as a "virtual out-of-band channel" for Operations, Administration, and Management (OAM) communications over a network that provides automatically configured, hop-by-hop authenticated and encrypted communications via automatically configured IPv6 even when the network is not configured or is misconfigured.

This document updates RFC 8138 by defining a bit in the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) Destination-Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG) Configuration option to indicate whether compression is used within the RPL Instance and to specify the behavior of nodes compliant with RFC 8138 when the bit is set and unset.

This document looks at different data flows through Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLN) where RPL (IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks) is used to establish routing. The document enumerates the cases where RPL Packet Information (RPI) Option Type (RFC 6553), RPL Source Route Header (RFC 6554), and IPv6-in-IPv6 encapsulation are required in the data plane. This analysis provides the basis upon which to design efficient compression of these headers. This document updates RFC 6553 by adding a change to the RPI Option Type. Additionally, this document updates RFC 6550 by defining a flag in the DODAG Information Object (DIO) Configuration option to indicate this change and updates RFC 8138 as well to consider the new Option Type when the RPL Option is decompressed.

This document explains the problems associated with the use of No-Path Destination Advertisement Object (NPDAO) messaging in RFC 6550 and also discusses the requirements for an optimized route invalidation messaging scheme. Further, this document specifies a new proactive route invalidation message called the "Destination Cleanup Object" (DCO), which fulfills requirements for optimized route invalidation messaging.

This specification provides a mechanism for a host that implements a routing-agnostic interface based on IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) Neighbor Discovery to obtain reachability services across a network that leverages RFC 6550 for its routing operations. It updates RFCs 6550, 6775, and 8505.

This document updates the IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) Neighbor Discovery (ND) protocol defined in RFCs 6775 and 8505. The new extension is called Address-Protected Neighbor Discovery (AP-ND), and it protects the owner of an address against address theft and impersonation attacks in a Low-Power and Lossy Network (LLN). Nodes supporting this extension compute a cryptographic identifier (Crypto-ID), and use it with one or more of their Registered Addresses. The Crypto-ID identifies the owner of the Registered Address and can be used to provide proof of ownership of the Registered Addresses. Once an address is registered with the Crypto-ID and a proof of ownership is provided, only the owner of that address can modify the registration information, thereby enforcing Source Address Validation.

This document describes the challenges for energy-efficient protocol operation on constrained devices and the current practices used to overcome those challenges. It summarizes the main link-layer techniques used for energy-efficient networking, and it highlights the impact of such techniques on the upper-layer protocols so that they can together achieve an energy-efficient behavior. The document also provides an overview of energy-efficient mechanisms available at each layer of the IETF protocol suite specified for constrained-node networks.

This specification introduces a new IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) dispatch type for use in 6LoWPAN route-over topologies, which initially covers the needs of Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) data packet compression (RFC 6550). Using this dispatch type, this specification defines a method to compress the RPL Option (RFC 6553) information and Routing Header type 3 (RFC 6554), an efficient IP-in-IP technique, and is extensible for more applications.

This document discusses the applicability of the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) networks.

This document defines a way to configure a parameter set for MPL (Multicast Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks) via a DHCPv6 option. MPL has a set of parameters to control its behavior, and the parameter set is often configured as a network-wide parameter because the parameter set should be identical for each MPL Forwarder in an MPL Domain. Using the MPL Parameter Configuration Option defined in this document, a network can easily be configured with a single set of MPL parameters.

This document specifies the Multicast Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (MPL), which provides IPv6 multicast forwarding in constrained networks. MPL avoids the need to construct or maintain any multicast forwarding topology, disseminating messages to all MPL Forwarders in an MPL Domain.

MPL has two modes of operation. One mode uses the Trickle algorithm to manage control-plane and data-plane message transmissions and is applicable for deployments with few multicast sources. The other mode uses classic flooding. By providing both modes and parameterization of the Trickle algorithm, an MPL implementation can be used in a variety of multicast deployments and can trade between dissemination latency and transmission efficiency.

The purpose of this document is to specify an automated policy for the routing of Multicast Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (MPL) multicast messages with Admin-Local scope in a border router.

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance in the selection and use of protocols from the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) protocol suite to implement the features required for control in building and home environments.

This document presents a security threat analysis for the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPLs). The development builds upon previous work on routing security and adapts the assessments to the issues and constraints specific to low-power and lossy networks. A systematic approach is used in defining and evaluating the security threats. Applicable countermeasures are application specific and are addressed in relevant applicability statements.

This document provides a glossary of terminology used in routing requirements and solutions for networks referred to as Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs). An LLN is typically composed of many embedded devices with limited power, memory, and processing resources interconnected by a variety of links. There is a wide scope of application areas for LLNs, including industrial monitoring, building automation (e.g., heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, access control, fire), connected home, health care, environmental monitoring, urban sensor networks, energy management, assets tracking, and refrigeration.

This document specifies a point-to-point route discovery mechanism, complementary to the Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL) core functionality. This mechanism allows an IPv6 router to discover "on demand" routes to one or more IPv6 routers in a Low-power and Lossy Network (LLN) such that the discovered routes meet specified metrics constraints.

This document specifies a mechanism that enables a Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL) router to measure the aggregated values of given routing metrics along an existing route towards another RPL router, thereby allowing the router to decide if it wants to initiate the discovery of a better route.

This document presents a performance evaluation of the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) for a small outdoor deployment of sensor nodes and for a large-scale smart meter network. Detailed simulations are carried out to produce several routing performance metrics using these real-life deployment scenarios. Please refer to the PDF version of this document, which includes several plots for the performance metrics not shown in the plain-text version. This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.

The Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) constructs routes by using Objective Functions that optimize or constrain the routes it selects and uses. This specification describes the Minimum Rank with Hysteresis Objective Function (MRHOF), an Objective Function that selects routes that minimize a metric, while using hysteresis to reduce churn in response to small metric changes. MRHOF works with additive metrics along a route, and the metrics it uses are determined by the metrics that the RPL Destination Information Object (DIO) messages advertise. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) are a class of network in which both the routers and their interconnect are constrained. LLN routers typically operate with constraints on processing power, memory, and energy (battery power). Their interconnects are characterized by high loss rates, low data rates, and instability. LLNs are comprised of anything from a few dozen to thousands of routers. Supported traffic flows include point-to-point (between devices inside the LLN), point-to-multipoint (from a central control point to a subset of devices inside the LLN), and multipoint-to-point (from devices inside the LLN towards a central control point). This document specifies the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL), which provides a mechanism whereby multipoint-to-point traffic from devices inside the LLN towards a central control point as well as point-to-multipoint traffic from the central control point to the devices inside the LLN are supported. Support for point-to-point traffic is also available. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) have unique characteristics compared with traditional wired and ad hoc networks that require the specification of new routing metrics and constraints. By contrast, with typical Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) routing metrics using hop counts or link metrics, this document specifies a set of link and node routing metrics and constraints suitable to LLNs to be used by the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL). [STANDARDS-TRACK]

The Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) specification defines a generic Distance Vector protocol that is adapted to a variety of network types by the application of specific Objective Functions (OFs). An OF states the outcome of the process used by a RPL node to select and optimize routes within a RPL Instance based on the Information Objects available; an OF is not an algorithm.

This document specifies a basic Objective Function that relies only on the objects that are defined in the RPL and does not use any protocol extensions. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

The Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) includes routing information in data-plane datagrams to quickly identify inconsistencies in the routing topology. This document describes the RPL Option for use among RPL routers to include such routing information. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

In Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs), memory constraints on routers may limit them to maintaining, at most, a few routes. In some configurations, it is necessary to use these memory-constrained routers to deliver datagrams to nodes within the LLN. The Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) can be used in some deployments to store most, if not all, routes on one (e.g., the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) root) or a few routers and forward the IPv6 datagram using a source routing technique to avoid large routing tables on memory-constrained routers. This document specifies a new IPv6 Routing header type for delivering datagrams within a RPL routing domain. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

The Trickle algorithm allows nodes in a lossy shared medium (e.g., low-power and lossy networks) to exchange information in a highly robust, energy efficient, simple, and scalable manner. Dynamically adjusting transmission windows allows Trickle to spread new information on the scale of link-layer transmission times while sending only a few messages per hour when information does not change. A simple suppression mechanism and transmission point selection allow Trickle's communication rate to scale logarithmically with density. This document describes the Trickle algorithm and considerations in its use. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

The Routing Over Low-Power and Lossy (ROLL) networks Working Group has been chartered to work on routing solutions for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) in various markets: industrial, commercial (building), home, and urban networks. Pursuant to this effort, this document defines the IPv6 routing requirements for building automation. This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.

This document presents requirements specific to home control and automation applications for Routing Over Low power and Lossy (ROLL) networks. In the near future, many homes will contain high numbers of wireless devices for a wide set of purposes. Examples include actuators (relay, light dimmer, heating valve), sensors (wall switch, water leak, blood pressure), and advanced controllers (radio-frequency-based AV remote control, central server for light and heat control). Because such devices only cover a limited radio range, routing is often required. The aim of this document is to specify the routing requirements for networks comprising such constrained devices in a home-control and automation environment. This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.

The wide deployment of lower-cost wireless devices will significantly improve the productivity and safety of industrial plants while increasing the efficiency of plant workers by extending the information set available about the plant operations. The aim of this document is to analyze the functional requirements for a routing protocol used in industrial Low-power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) of field devices. This memo provides information for the Internet community.

The application-specific routing requirements for Urban Low-Power and Lossy Networks (U-LLNs) are presented in this document. In the near future, sensing and actuating nodes will be placed outdoors in urban environments so as to improve people's living conditions as well as to monitor compliance with increasingly strict environmental laws. These field nodes are expected to measure and report a wide gamut of data (for example, the data required by applications that perform smart-metering or that monitor meteorological, pollution, and allergy conditions). The majority of these nodes are expected to communicate wirelessly over a variety of links such as IEEE 802.15.4, low-power IEEE 802.11, or IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth), which given the limited radio range and the large number of nodes requires the use of suitable routing protocols. The design of such protocols will be mainly impacted by the limited resources of the nodes (memory, processing power, battery, etc.) and the particularities of the outdoor urban application scenarios. As such, for a wireless solution for Routing Over Low-Power and Lossy (ROLL) networks to be useful, the protocol(s) ought to be energy-efficient, scalable, and autonomous. This documents aims to specify a set of IPv6 routing requirements reflecting these and further U-LLNs' tailored characteristics. This memo provides information for the Internet community.