Performance analysis of the RPL Routing Protocol

TLDR

RPL was recently introduced by the IETF Routing Over Low‑power and Lossy Networks working group to meet the typical requirements of wireless sensor networks. The paper aims to analyze the performance of RPL in industrial and scientific contexts through simulation studies. The authors conduct simulation‑based performance analysis of RPL deployments. Simulations show that RPL achieves rapid network set‑up suitable for advanced monitoring, yet its signaling overhead requires further optimization.

Abstract

The IETF Routing Over Low-power and Lossy Networks working group has recently proposed the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks, i.e., the RPL protocol. It has been designed to face the typical requirements of wireless sensor networks. Given its relevance in the industrial and scientific communities, this paper presents a performance analysis of RPL based on simulations. Our results clearly show that RPL can ensure a very fast network set-up, thus allowing the development of advanced monitoring applications also in critical conditions. On the other hand, we found that further research is required to optimize the RPL signaling in order to decrease the protocol overhead.