IoTorii: Outperforming RPL with scalable routing

RPL is the de-facto IPv6-based routing protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT), where networks are mainly formed by sensors and other low capacity devices. However, RPL lacks scalability and is inefficient in any-to-any communications. In this article, we present IoTorii, a layer-two hierarchical protocol that creates routes based on a probe frame, instead of the computation of a distance vector, as in RPL. We implemented a proof-of-concept of IoTorii and compared it with RPL, proving lower number of table entries, exchanged control messages and convergence time, with similar creation of shortest paths, which is particularly promising in the IoT field.RPL是当前物联网（IoT, Internet of Things）领域事实上广泛应用的基于IPv6的路由协议，其所属网络主要由传感器及其他低算力设备构成。然而，RPL存在可扩展性不足的缺陷，且在任意到任意通信场景中效率低下。本文提出了IoTorii：一种基于探测帧生成路由的二层分层协议，其路由构建逻辑不同于RPL所采用的距离矢量计算方式。我们完成了IoTorii的概念验证实现，并将其与RPL进行对比实验，结果显示IoTorii的路由表条目数、交互控制报文数量以及收敛耗时均更低，且可生成与RPL相当的最短路径，这一特性在物联网领域极具应用前景。