MC-RPL: A New Routing Approach based on Multi-Criteria RPL for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of smart objects that interconnect and exchange data gathered. The IoT includes sensor networks in which the nodes are limited in terms of power consumption, energy usage, and memory. Therefore, a protocol is needed to discover the proper path between the nodes in the least amount of time. The Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) is specially-designed for IoT and used for routing nodes in Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs). Quality of Service (QoS) in this routing protocol faces some challenges. In QoS based networks, the routing protocol must be able to utilize some criteria during the routing process. Enabling multi-criteria based routing in RPL is proposed in this paper. The well-known VIKOR Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) used for this goal. Each link of route selects the best parent according to the solution of the VIKOR method. Simulation results show that QoS increased in terms of average Energy Consumption, End-to-End Delay (E2ED), Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and Throughput.