Aggregator based RPL for an IoT-fog based power distribution system with 6LoWPAN

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) forms an important part in Smart Grids. Routing the data effectively from smart meters to the Edge/Fog node requires an efficient routing protocol. Routing Protocol for Low Power Lossy Area Network (RPL) is a standard routing protocol for IPv6 over Low Power Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN). In a Power Distribution system all the smart meters together form 6LoWPAN network. They communicate with the fog router, which acts as the 6LoWPAN gateway. ContikiRPL was evaluated using Cooja Network simulator for a power distribution network topology. The nodes which were far away from the fog node gave low Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and large End to End delay. This paper proposes an aggregation RPL scheme by modifying the existing Contiki RPL. The smart meter nodes communicate to the aggregator, which communicates to the fog node. The results show that the aggregation scheme has 35.6% increase in PDR, lesser hop count and 13.24% decrease in End to End delay on an average compared to existing RPL.