Hop-interval based decision of operational mode in RPL with multi-instance

The potentials of Internet of Things (IoT) are unlimited and a lot of IoT based applications have been recently explored. In IoT networks, anything can be enabled with network connectivity anytimes, and at anyplace. Path establishement from the source to the sink is an integral part of the IoT network. IPv6 Routing protocol for Low-power and Lossy networks (RPL) is a promising routing protocol for the constrained IoT networks. It establishes a robust upward paths towards the sink, however, the downward paths depend on source routing techniques implemented by the sink. In RPL, two operational modes are defined for intermediate nodes, i.e., storing mode and non-storing mode. A node working in storing mode can provide local repair and partial source routing in case of next-hop failure. However, due to the limited memory and computation power of the nodes, most of the nodes operate in non-storing mode. In this paper, we propose a method to optimize the operational mode decision of the nodes in the downward paths.