Route error reporting schemes for on-demand routing in 6LoWPAN

Abstract

Due to their rapid growth and new paradigm applications, wireless sensor networks are morphing into low power personal area networks (LoWPANs), which are envisioned to grow radically. To achieve higher degrees of pervasiveness these LoWPANs must be connected to the wired networks where most of information resources reside. Integralion of IPv6 with LoWPANs poses many challenges; the hardest of them, probably, is the difference in packet size. Solution to this problem demands new packet format definition, packet header compression, and a fragmentation and reassembly layer. Header compression techniques suggest different schemes including removal of source node's address from the packet header. In this paper we analyze the effects of eliminating the source address from the packet header and then propose solutions to propagate the route error message (RERR) to the source even without having the source address. We make use of MAC layer address for sending the RERR to the previous hop node, back tracking the route hop by hop, eventually to the source. The simulation results show that the proposed solutions deliver RERRs to the source even without the source address. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.