Chapter 6

6LoWPAN & Wireless Embedded

Internet
MSc. Nguyen Khanh Loi
[email protected]
2/2021
MSc Nguyen Khanh Loi
Content

v IPv6 and 6LoWPAN

v Routing Protocol for LLN (RPL)

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Many Advantages of IP
v Extensive interoperability
ü Other wireless embedded 802.15.4 network devices
ü Devices on any other IP network link (WiFi, Ethernet, GPRS, Serial lines, …)
v Established security
ü Authentication, access control, and firewall mechanisms
v Established naming, addressing, translation, lookup, discovery
v Established proxy architectures for higher-level services
ü NAT, load balancing, caching, mobility
v Established application level data model and services
ü HTTP/HTML/XML/SOAP/REST, Application profiles
v Established network management tools
ü Ping, Traceroute, SNMP, … OpenView, NetManager, Ganglia, …
v Transport protocols
ü End-to-end reliability in addition to link reliability
v Most “industrial” (wired and wireless) standards support an IP option

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IPv4 and IPv6 addressing

v 128-bit IPv6 address: each 16 bit values (four hex digits) separated by
colons, one sequence of all-zero 16-bit values can be replaced by a double
colon indicating a longer sequence of zeros.
v Unicast, Anycast, Multicast address
v Unicast address:
ü Global Unicast
ü Local Unicast addresses: involves IP adaptation

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IPv6 Unicast

v Link local
ü Connected devices in local area
ü Prefix: FE80::/10

v Global Unicast
ü This address is similar to the Public IPv4 address, meaning that this address is
routed and used on the Internet.
001xxxxx

Identifies the zones –

Identifies the service providers –
Identify businesses, organizations –
Identifies the smaller network in the
enterprise or organization.

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 IPv6 Multicast

- First 8 bits are 1111 1111: Identifier of the

Multicast address
- Next 4 bits are Flags: the first 3 bits are not
normally used, the last bit. The 4th bit: 0 is the
value assigned by IANA and 1 is the temporary
address, for internal use.
- Next 4 bits are Scope: Specifies the range of
the Multicast address
- Remaining 112 bits: Identifies the group of
hosts/interfaces with the same Multicast
address.

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 IPv6 Global Unicast Addressing Method

- Manual Interface ID Assignment

Router1(config-if)# ipv6 address 2001:DB8:1111:2222::54/64
- EUI-64 Interface ID Assignment & stateless Auto-config: Base on MAC address

q IID: 00:1D:BA:FF:FE:06:37:64 - B.o MAC address

q Network Prefix: 2001:db8:1:2::/64
q Full IPv6 Address :
2001:db8:1:2:021D:BAFF:FE06:3764

- DHCPv6 (Stateful): DHCPv6 is a DHCPv4 update version to support IPv6

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 IPv6 Global Unicast Addressing Method

- Manual Interface ID Assignment

Router1(config-if)# ipv6 address 2001:DB8:1111:2222::54/64
- EUI-64 Interface ID Assignment & stateless Auto-config: Base on MAC address

q IID: 00:1D:BA:FF:FE:06:37:64 - B.o MAC address

q Network Prefix: 2001:db8:1:2::/64
q Full IPv6 Address :
2001:db8:1:2:021D:BAFF:FE06:3764

- DHCPv6 (Stateful): DHCPv6 is a DHCPv4 update version to support IPv6

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 IPv6 Global Unicast Addressing Method

- Manual Interface ID Assignment

Router1(config-if)# ipv6 address 2001:DB8:1111:2222::54/64
- EUI-64 Interface ID Assignment & stateless Auto-config: Base on MAC address

q IID: 00:1D:BA:FF:FE:06:37:64 - B.o MAC address

q Network Prefix: 2001:db8:1:2::/64
q Full IPv6 Address :
2001:db8:1:2:021D:BAFF:FE06:3764

- DHCPv6 (Stateful): DHCPv6 is a DHCPv4 update version to support IPv6

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IPv4 & IPv6 Header

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 IPv6 & UDP Header

The packet header in IPv6 is

simpler than that used in IPv4.
ü IPv6 routers do not perform
fragmentation
ü The IPv6 header is not

IPv6 - 40 Bytes
protected by a checksum.
ü IPv6 routers do not need to
recompute a checksum when
header fields (such as the hop
limit change)
ü The TTL field of IPv4 has been
renamed to Hop Limit
Source Port 16 bits Destination Port 16 bits
ü Length 40 Bytes UDP 8
Bytes Length 16 bits Checksum 16 bits

UDP header: 8 bytes

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IEEE 802.15.4: Frame format

127 B

SFD: 10101011

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6LoWPAN encapsulation header stack

Support 3 headers: Mesh, Fragmentation and IPv6 header

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The first byte: 6LoWPAN Dispatch

The first byte is used to defined the next header. For example, if the first 2 bits are 11, the
next header is a fragmentation header

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HC1 Compressed IPv6 Header

HC1 based on observations:

ü IP version is always 6. (IPv6)
ü Since HC1 is optimized for link-
local addresses, the IPv6 interface
ID can be inferred from the link
layer MAC address.

IPv6 - 40 Bytes
ü The packet length can be inferred
from the frame length field of the
IEEE 802.15.4 frame (or from the
datagram size field of the fragment
header when present).
ü Common value for the TC and
flow label is 0.

UDP 8 Bytes
Source Port 16 bits Destination Port 16 bits
ü Next header is UDP, TCP, or ICMP
(2 bits) Length 16 bits Checksum 16 bits

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HC1 Compressed IPv6 Header

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HC2 Compressed UDP Header
UDP port uses a short_value 4-bit field instead of the
original 16-bit field. The original 16-bit field is simply
obtained by the formula short_value + 61616 (0xF0B0).

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 HC1 without UDP header compression

v Need 11 bytes

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 HC1+HC2 with UDP header compression

v Need 7 bytes

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ICMPv6

v Internet Control Message

Protocol v6
ü Modification from ICMP for
IPv4
v Neighbor Discovery (ND)
ü Replace ARP, ICMP
ü Reachability of Neighbors
ü Hosts use to discovery
routers, auto-configuration
of addresses
ü Duplicate Address Detection
(DAD)

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Auto-configuration

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IP Routing in WSNs

v Low power and Lossy Network (LLN) consists of an edge router (also
called as LLN Border Router LBR), Router(R) and Host(H):
ü H chooses only the default router
ü R forwards traffic
ü ROLL operates only within LoWPAN and terminates at LBR

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Routing Protocol for LLN (RPL)

v Routing (ROLL – Routing over LLN)

ü Routing requirements are scenario-based. Mainly:
§ one-to-one (configuration, data reading)
§ many-to-one (data gathering)
§ one-to-many (data dissemination)
ü Traffic in LLN: Mainly for P2MP and MP2P traffic flows

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DAG and DODAG

v DAG: Directed Acyclic Graph (Fig. B)

ü DAG root: a node within the DAG that has no outgoing edge
ü All paths terminated at a DAG root
ü All edges are oriented in such a way that no cycles exist (Fig. A is not
a åçDAG)
v DODAG: Destination Oriented DAG (Fig. C)
ü Defines a DAG that forms paths to a single logical root

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DODAG - Upward and Downward Routes

v Upward: the direction from leaf nodes

towards the DODAG root
ü Data flow towards the DAG root ‐ MP2P
traffic flows
v Downward: the direction from the DODAG
root towards leaf nodes
ü Data flow away from the DAG root –
P2MP traffic flows
v Point-to-point data flow via up and down
route
v DODAG root: Low power border router
(LBR)

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 Rank vs OF

v Rank: node's individual position relative to other

nodes with respect to a DODAG root
ü Increases in the Down direction and decreases in
the Up direction
ü Rank computed depends on the Objective
Function (OF) ‐ e.g. calculated as a simple
topological distance (hop counts) or may also be
calculated as a function of link metrics
v Objective Function (OF): Defines the optimization
objectives to compute the Rank
ü Optimization objectives : minimizing energy,
minimizing latency, or satisfying some
constraints, etc…
ü Dictates how routers (parents) inside the
DODAG are selected

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DAG Construction

v Distance‐Vector
ü advertise path cost (routing metric)
ü choose a parent (default router/
next hop) that minimize path cost
ü Avoids loops & count‐to‐infinity
v Assign every node a rank
ü Node Rank: Relative position
within a DODAG
ü Rank strictly decreasing towards
the root
v Parents & Siblings
ü Parents –nodes with lower ranks
ü Siblings –nodes with same ranks

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Data Path Validation & Loop Detection

v RPL packet information (Up/Down route) is

transported with a data packet
v On‐demand loop detection using data packets
v An inconsistency between the routing decision for
a packet (upward or downward) and the Rank
relationship between the two nodes indicates a
possible loop
ü E.g. if S3 receives a packet flagged as moving
in the upward direction, and if that packet
records that the transmitter (S2) is of a lower
Rank than the receiving node (S3)
ü S3 should initiate a local repair

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Creation of Upward routes – DIO messages

v Nodes are configured to be DODAG roots

v DODAG roots advertise their presence (affiliation
with a DODAG, routing cost, and related metrics)
by sending link‐local multicast DIO messages to
all‐RPL‐nodes
v Nodes listen for DIOs
ü to join a new DODAG (thus selecting
DODAG parents),
ü or to maintain an existing DODAG, according
to the specified Objective Function
v Nodes update routing table entries, for the
destinations specified by the DIO message
ü Nodes can decide to join one or more
DODAG parents as the next‐hop for the
default route

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Creation of Downward Routes: DAO Messages

v RPL uses Destination Advertisement

Object (DAO) messages to establish
downward routes
v DAO messages are an optional feature for
applications that require P2MP or P2P
traffic
v RPL supports two modes of downward
traffic
ü Storing (fully statefull)
ü Non‐storing (fully source routed)

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Storing Mode vs Non-Storing mode
v Storing mode
ü Creation of routes
§ DAO propagates towards the root via
the routers
§ Each router maintains routes to each
router in WSNs
ü Data goes hop by hop (each router
forwards the packet to the right next hop)

v Non-storing mode
ü Only the root stores routes to the all
routers in WSNs
ü Calculates routes to all destination by
piecing together the info (address of the
routers) collected from DAO messages
ü Data forwards using source routing

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Storing Mode vs Non-Storing mode

v Storing mode:
ü Requires more storage capacities and
memory on each router
ü Efficient communications
ü Extra mechanism to avoid loops (e.g. use
of RPL packet information)
v Non‐storing mode:
ü Does not require additional state on the
routers, but increases the message
overhead
ü Traffic through the root node increases
for internal traffic (e.g. P2P traffic within
a 6LoWPAN)

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Route Construction and Forwarding

v Up routes towards nodes of decreasing rank

ü Via DAG parents (always forward to lower
rank when possible)
ü may forward to sibling if no lower rank
exists

v Down routes towards nodes of increasing rank

ü Nodes inform parents of their presence and
reachability
ü Forward hop by hop (storing mode) or using
source routing (non‐storing mode)

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 DAG Construction

v Objective Code Point for example

ü Metric: ETX LBR-1
ü Objective Function: Minimize 1 2
3
ETX
1 1
A B C
1
1 1

1 4
F D E
1
1 1 1

1
G H I

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 DAG Construction

v LBR-1 multicasts RA-DIO

v Nodes A, B, C receive and process LBR-1
RA-DIO 1 2
3
v Nodes A, B, C consider link metrics
to LBR-1 and the optimization 1 1
A B C
objective
1
v The optimization objective can be 1 1

satisfied by joining the DAG rooted 1 4

at LBR-1 F D E
v Nodes A, B, C add LBR-1 as a DAG 1
1 1 1
parent and join the DAG
1
G H I

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 DAG Construction

v Assume, the RA timer on Node C

expires LBR-1
v Node C multicasts RA-DIO 1 2
3
v LBR-1 ignores RA-DIO from deeper
node 1 1
A B C
v Node B can add Node C as alternate
1
DAG Parent, remaining at ETX 3 1 1

v Node E joins the DAG at ETX 3 by 1 4

adding Node C as DAG Parent F D E
1
1 1 1

1
G H I

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 DAG Construction

v Assume, the RA timer on Node A

expires LBR-1
v Node A multicasts RA-DIO 1 2
3
v LBR-1 ignores RA-DIO from deeper
node 1 1
A B C
v Node B adds Node A
1
1 1
v Node B can improve to a more
optimum position in the DAG 1 4
F D E
v Node B removes LBR-1, Node C as
DAG Parents 1 1
1
1

1
G H I

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 DAG Construction

v DAG Construction continues…

v MP2P Traffic – via Upward Route LBR-1
1 2
3

1 1
A B C
1
1 1

1 4
F D E
1
1 1 1

1
G H I

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 P2MP Traffic – via Downward Route
v Destination Advertisements
LBR-1
ü LBR-1 triggers Destination
1
Advertisement mechanism in DIO
ü G emits NA to F with DAO
indicating reachability to destination 1
A B
prefix G::
ü F stores G:: via G 1
Dest Next
ü H emits NA to F for destination Hop
1
prefix H:: G:: G
F D
H:: H
ü F stores H:: via H
1 1

G H

Non-storing mode
Storing mode

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 P2MP Traffic – via Downward Route
v Suppose in this example F has a prefix
F*:: capable of aggregating {F::, G::, LBR-1
H::} 1

v The method to provision such a

prefix is beyond the scope of RPL 1
A B
v F emits NA to D with DAO indicating
reachability to destination prefix F*:: 1
Dest Next
Hop
G:: G
1
F D
H:: H

1 1

G H

Non-storing mode
Storing mode

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 P2MP Traffic – via Downward Route
v D adds F to the Reverse Route Stack in
the DAO, and passes DAO on to B for LBR-1
F*:: [F] 1

v D also emits a DAO indicating prefix D::

to B 1
A B

1
Dest Next
Hop
G:: G
1
F D
H:: H

1 1

G H

Non-storing mode
Storing mode

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 P2MP Traffic – via Downward Route
v B adds D to the Reverse Route Stack in
the DAO for F*::, and passes DAO F*::, LBR-1
Next
D on to A Dest
Hop 1
B:: B
v B adds D to the Reverse Route Stack in
D:: B, D
the DAO for D::, and passes DAO D:: 1
[D] on to A
F*:: B,D,F A B
v A stores D:: via B, with the piecewise 1
source route [D] Dest Next
Hop
v B also emits a DAO indicating prefix B:: G:: G
1
F D
to A H:: H

v A stores B:: via B 1 1

G H

Non-storing mode
Storing mode

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 P2MP Traffic – via Downward Route
v A emits DAOs to LBR-1 for destination Next
prefixes A::, B::, D::, and F* LBR-1 Dest
Hop
Next A:: A
Dest 1
v LBR-1 stores A:: via A, B:: via A, D:: via Hop
B:: A
B:: B
A, and F*:: via A D:: A
D:: B, D
1 F*:: A
F*:: B,D,F A B

1
Dest Next
Hop
G:: G
1
F D
H:: H

1 1

G H

Non-storing mode
Storing mode

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 P2MP Traffic – via Downward Route
v LBR-1 want to send data to G(F*::) Next
LBR-1 Dest
Hop
ü LBR-1 directs traffic for G (F*::) to Next A:: A
Dest 1
A Hop
B:: A
B:: B
ü A adds source routing directive, [D, D:: B, D
D:: A

F], and forwards to B 1 F*:: A

F*:: B,D,F A B
ü B uses source routing directive to
forward to D 1
Dest Next
ü D uses source routing directive to Hop
1
forward to F G:: G
F D
H:: H
ü F uses routing state to forward to G
1 1

G H

Non-storing mode
Storing mode

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 P2P Traffic

v P2P traffic use Upward and

Downward. LBR-1
1 2
3

1 1
A B C
1
1 1

1 4
F D E
1
1 1 1

1
G H I

Non-storing mode
Storing mode

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