04-Sep-21

Chapter 3

IoT NETWORK
(Standards-P2)
(Network Protocols)
IP-based Network Layer Solutions

IoT Short Range and Long Range Systems

 A. Fixed & Short Range

 1. RFID
 2. Bluetooth
 3. Zigbee
 4. WiFi
 B. Long Range technologies
 1. Non 3GPP Standards (LPWAN)
 2. 3GPP Standards


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Long Range technologies

 Non 3GPP Standards (LPWAN)

 3GPP Standards

Non 3GPP Standards (LPWAN)

 Consist of :
 LoRaWAN
 Sigfox
 Weightless
 RPMA
 Others
LPWAN
REQUIREMENTS

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IoT Protocol Stack

IPv4 Protocol

 IP version 4 (IPv4)
 First version deployed by the ARPANET project in
1983
 Uses 32-bit network addresses (address space →
4294967296 values).
 IPv4 can be public (i.e. routable over the Internet) or
private
 Each IPv4 address contains two parts: the (i) network
identifier and the (ii) host identifier. The network
mask indicates the number of bits (over the 32) used
to represent the network identifier.

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IPv6 Protocol

 IP version 6 (IPv6)
 Developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force
(1998).
 Replace IPv4 and address the IPv4 address
exhaustion problem.
 Additional routing functionalities (not included in
IPv4).
 Not compatible with the IPv4 protocol
 The migration process to IPv6 involves:
 Network infrastructures, routers, applications
 Complete migration expected by 2025

Pv6 Protocol

 IP version 6 (IPv6) adoption worldwide

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IPv6 Protocol

 Novel features of the IPv6 protocol (compared to

IPv4)
1. Extended addressing capabilities

 Novel features of the IPv6 protocol (compared

to IPv4)
1. Extended addressing capabilities
 Three types of IPv6 addresses:
 Unicast: one-to-one communication
 Multicast: one-to-many communication
 Anycast: one-to-a-group, and a single destination is
chosen
 Broadcast: not supported

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 1. Extended addressing capabilities

 A network interface can have multiple addresses

 1. Extended addressing capabilities

 A network interface can have multiple addresses

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 Novel features of the IPv6 protocol (compared to

IPv4)
2. IP Header re-newed

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IPv6 Protocol

 Novel features of the IPv6 protocol (compared to

IPv4)
3. IP Address assignment process, three ways:
 Manual configuration → like using the “ifconfig” utility
 Stateful configuration → using DHCPv6 protocol
 Stateless autoconfiguration → no DHCP, IPv6 nodes
can connect to a network and automatically generate
global IPv6 addresses without the need for
manual configuration or help of a server.

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IPv6 Protocol

 Managing transition from IPv4 to IPv6

 Dual-stack approach: Some routers will support both
IPv4 and IPv6 protocols
 GRE Tunnelling approach: Communication tunnels
enable communication between IPv6 subnetworks
over IPv4 links

IPv6 Protocol and the IoT

 Benefits of using IPv6 protocols on IoT

scenarios:
 Address/manage/access any IoT device from the
Internet.
 Easily connect to other IP networks without the need
of translation gateways or proxies.
 Use well-known socket APIs for the deployment of
network application.
 Easily re-use tools for managing, commissioning
(vận hành) and diagnosing IP-based networks.
 Leverage (tận dụng) on the addressing capability
of the IPv6 protocol

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IPv6 Protocol and the IoT

 At the same time, supporting IPv6 over IoT
scenarios present several challenges:
 IPv6 datagrams are not a natural fit for IEEE
802.15.4 networks
 MTU size of an IEEE 802.15.4 frame is 127 bytes, while the
minimum IPv6 frame size is 1280 bytes;
 The IPv6 header size (40 bytes) can occupy 1/3 of the MTU
 IPv6 assumes that a link is a single broadcast
domain, while the assumption does not hold in multi-
hop wireless sensor networks.
 IPv6 includes optional support for IP security
(IPsec), authentication and encryption but these
techniques might be too complex for IoT-devices.

Pv6 Protocol and the IoT

 Worst case scenario calculations.

 Maximum frase size in IEEE 802.15.4 → 127 bytes
 Reduced by the max frame header (25 bytes) → 102
bytes
 Reduced by the highest link layer security (21 bytes) →
81 bytes
 Reduced by standard IPv6 header (40 bytes) → 41
bytes
 Reduced by standard UDP header (8 bytes) → 33 bytes
 Only 33 bytes left for data payload!

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6LoWPAN

 Set of standards defined by the Internet

Engineering Task Force (IETF) enabling the
efficient use of IPv6 over low-power, low-rate
wireless networks on simple embedded IoT
devices.
It provides:
 A novel Adaptation Layer;
 Several optimization of IPv6 functionalities.

6LoWPAN MarketShare

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6LoWPAN

6LoWPAN

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6LoWPAN
 6LoWPAN Protocol Stack vs Ethernet Protocol
Stack

6LoWPAN
 Use-cases: Large-scale IoT Deployment

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 Use-cases: Interoperable, Smart Environments

Digression: IEEE 802.15.4

 Low-power, low-cost technology for Wireless
Personal Area Networks (WPANs)

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 IEEE 802.15.4 → standard for the deployment of

WPAN. Characteristics: low complexity, low-
power for low-datarate wireless connectivity
among fixed and portable devices

 IEEE 802.15.4 → standard for the deployment

of WPAN.Characteristics: low complexity, low-
power for low-datarate wireless connectivity
among fixed and portable devices.

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 IEEE 802.15.4 → standard for the deployment

of WPAN.Characteristics: low complexity, low-
power for low-datarate wireless connectivity
among fixed and portable devices.

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6LoWPAN

 Main operations:
 Device Addressing
 Routing (different from forwarding)
 Header Extensions
 Header compression
 Fragmentation
 Bootstrapping & Device discovery
 …

 IPv6 addresses are typically formed automatically

from the prefix of the LoWPAN edge router, and the
MAC address of the wireless card.
 The IEEE 802.15.4 supports two MAC address
format:

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6LoWPAN: Routing

 6LoWPAN supports two different routing modes

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6LoWPAN: Extension Headers

 Analogously to IPv6, 6LoWPAN uses the

Extension Headers for the optional data and for
specific use-cases.
 Two 6LoWPAN Extension Headers are defined:

6LoWPAN: Fragmentation

 All IPv6 subnetworks have to provide a

minimum MTU of 1280 bytes (recommended:
1500 bytes).
 IPV6 does provide its own fragmentation for
datagrams larger than the minimum MTU (1280
bytes).
 6LoWPAN provides fragmentation in order to fit the
size of 802.15.4 MTU (127 bytes)
 Mesh-Under → fragments are reassembled at the
destination.If any fragment is missing, the complete
packet must be retransmitted by the source node

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6LoWPAN: Fragmentation
 Route-over → fragments are reassembled at every hop (and
fragmented again). If a fragment is missing, the complete
packet must be re-transmitted by the previous node
 Fragment info are contained in the Fragment Header.
 All Fragments carry the same tag value, assigned
sequentually by the source of fragmentation.

6LoWPAN: Header Compression

 6LoWPAN can use state-less or shared-context
header compression mechanisms.

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6LoWPAN: Device Discovery

 The IPv6 Neighbour Discovery Protocol is

used by IPv6 nodes to find routers, to determine
their link-layer address and to maintain
reachibility info about the paths.
 Routers send Announcement messages (RA) in
multicast, attaching their network prefix.
 IPv6 nodes can solicit a RA message by using a
Router Solicitation (RS) message.
 Each IPv6 node builds its own address: <Prefix,
MAC>

 Differences compared to the standard NDPv6 protocol

 In 802.15.4 networks, 6LoWPAN nodes might belong to
different broadcast domains (e.g. multi-hop scenarios).
 RA messages must be flooded in the entire 6LoWPAN.

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6LoWPAN: Device Discovery

 Differences compared to the standard NDPv6

protocol.
 The 6LoWPAN Edge Router maintains a whiteboard
of all the IPv6 address registered in the 6LoWPAN.
 It also performs Duplicate Address Detection (DAD).

RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 RPL → IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy
Networks
 Standardized by the IETF in 2011 (current draft: RFC 6550)
 De Facto standard routing protocol for IoT scenarios
characterized by the presence of low-power, resource-
constrained devices.
 It supports: point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and multipoint-
to-point communications.
 It separates packet processing and forwarding from the
routing optimization objective (e.g. min energy, maxthroughput,
min delay, etc).
 It can be used to disseminate IPv6 or 6LoWPAN specific info
(e.g. neighbour discovery).
 It does not rely on any specific link-layer protocol (although
it is commonly coupled with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard).

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RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 RPL creates a routing topology in the form of a
Destination-Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph
(DODAG)
 Directed graph without cycles, oriented towards a root
node (the edge router)

RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 In case of Extended LoWPANs (i.e. presence of

multiple Edge Routers), RPL might create
multiple disjoint DODAGs, routed at different
ER

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RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 In order to create and maintain the DODAG, the
RPL protocol introduces the following control
packets:
 DIO (DODAG Information Object) → used to
enstablish the upward path (from leafs to root)
 DAO (Destination Advertisment Object) → used to
enstablish the downlink path (from root to leafs)
 DIS (DODAG Information Solicitation) → used by
an internal node in order to solicitate the transmission
of DIO messages
 DAO-ACK (Destination Advertisement Object
Acknowledgement)

RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 Two modes of operation: storing and non-storing
 Storing → each node keeps a routing entry for all the
destinations reachable via its sub-DODAG.
 Non-Storing → the root is the only network node
maintaining routing information; source routing is used
for downward routing

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RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 Each node of the DODAG has its own rank value.

RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 Creation of the upward paths (assumed at start-up)
 1.The Edge router creates the DIO message, containing its rank
and DODAG id, and sends it in multicast.
 Receiving nodes:
 2.Each node establishes the upward link toward the sender.
 3.Each node computes its own rank value, based on the
root’s rank and on the Objective Function.
 4.Each node rebroadcasts the DIO message (following the
Trickle algorithm), by including its own computed rank.

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RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 Creation of the upward paths (assumed at start-up)

RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 Creation of the downward paths (from leaf to

edge router)

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RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 Creation of the downward paths (from leaf to
edge router)

RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 Trickle algorithm → data dissemination scheme
for lossy shared medium (e.g. low-power and
lossy networks).
 It can be applied to a wide range of protocol design
problems (beside our topic, i.e. the DIO message
dissemination in RPL)
 Three configuration parameters: the minimum
interval size Imin, the maximum interval size Imax, and a
redundancy constant k.
 In addition, Trickle maintains three variables:
 I → the current interval size.
 t → a time within the current interval.
 c → a counter

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RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 The Trickle execution follows five rules:

 1. At startup, it sets I to a value in the range of [Imin, Imax], c
to 0 and t to a random point in the interval, [I/2, I];
 2. Whenever Trickle hears a transmission that is
"consistent", it increments the counter c;
 3. At time t, Trickle transmits if and only if the counter c is
less than the redundancy constant k.
 4. When the interval I expires, Trickle doubles the interval
length (I).
 5. If Trickle hears a transmission that is "inconsistent" and
I is greater than Imin, sets I to Imin and t to a random point in
the interval [I/2, I] (step 1).
The meaning of consistent and inconsistent depends on the
specific use-case!

RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 The Objective Function (OF) defines the specific

metrics/constraints to use for finding minimum
cost paths.
 How to compute the rank;
 How to select the parents (and the preferred parent);
 How to compute the path cost.
 EXAMPLE1. Determine the shortest route (METRIC) by
avoiding lowenergy nodes (CONSTRAINT).
 EXAMPLE2. Determine the lowest end-to-end delay
(METRIC) by avoiding low-quality links (CONSTRAINT).

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RPL Protocol: Routing over 6LoWPAN

 Two objective functions have been defined so far:
 OF0: Objective Function Zero → use hop count as
default routing metric.
 OF1: Minimum Rank with Hysteresis Objective
Function →
 Select routes which minimize an additive metric.
 Default Metric: Expected Transmission Number (ETX)

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