Introduction and Evaluation of Attachability for Mobile IoT Routing Protocols With Markov Chain Analysis

• Published in: IEEE eTransactions on network and service management 2022-09, Vol.19 (3), p.3220-3238
• Main Authors: Safaei, Bardia, Taghizade, Hossein, Monazzah, Amir Mahdi Hosseini, Khoosani, Kimia Talaei, Sadeghi, Parham, Mohammadsalehi, Aliasghar, Henkel, Jorg, Ejlali, Alireza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: attachability; dependability; Evaluation; Internet of Things; IoT; Markov analysis; Markov chain; Markov chains; Markov processes; Measurement; mobility; Network reliability; Nodes; Packet transmission; Reliability; Reliability analysis; Reliability aspects; Routing; Routing (telecommunications); Routing protocols; RPL; Topology; Wireless networks; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 1932-4537; 1932-4537
• DOI: 10.1109/TNSM.2022.3176365

Reliability of routing mechanisms in wireless networks is typically measured with Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR). Basically, PDR is reported with an optimistic assumption that the topology is fully constructed, and the nodes have started their packet transmission. This is despite the fact that prior to being able to transmit packets, nodes must first join the network, and then try to keep connected as much as possible. This is a key factor in the overall reliability provided by the routing protocols, especially in mobile IoT applications, where disconnections occur frequently. Nevertheless, there is a lack of appropriate metrics, which could evaluate the routing mechanisms from this perspective. Accordingly, this paper introduces attachability; a new metric for evaluating the capability of routing protocols in assisting the mobile or stationary nodes in joining, and maintaining their connections to the network. Our newly proposed metric is calculated via Markov chain analysis along with the sample frequency-based estimating technique. To evaluate attachability, we have simulated a mobile IoT infrastructure, and conducted a comprehensive set of experiments on different versions of the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and lossy networks (RPL). Based on our observations, attachability is significantly dependent on the employed metrics and path selection policies in the routing mechanisms. Among the three different versions of RPL, including the original version (ORPL), which is standardized for stationary IoT applications, and two mobility-aware versions, i.e., MARPL, and OMARPL, OMARPL showed up to 42%, and 10% of improvement in terms of attachability against ORPL, and MARPL, respectively.