LMH-RPL: a load balancing and mobility aware secure hybrid routing protocol for low power lossy network

Purpose Routing protocol for low-power lossy network (RPL) being the de facto routing protocol used by low power lossy networks needs to provide adequate routing service to mobile nodes (MNs) in the network. As RPL is designed to work under constraint power requirements, its route updating frequency is not sufficient for MNs in the network. The purpose of this study is to ensure that MNs enjoy seamless connection throughout the network with minimal handover delay. Design/methodology/approach This study proposes a load balancing mobility aware secure hybrid – RPL in which static node (SN) identifies route using metrics like expected transmission count, and path delay and parent selection are further refined by working on remaining energy for identifying the primary route and queue availability for secondary route maintenance. MNs identify route with the help of smart timers and by using received signal strength indicator sampling of parent and neighbor nodes. In this work, MNs are also secured against rank attack in RPL. Findings This model produces favorable result in terms of packet delivery ratio, delay, energy consumption and number of living nodes in the network when compared with different RPL protocols with mobility support. The proposed model reduces packet retransmission in the network by a large margin by providing load balancing to SNs and seamless connection to MNs. Originality/value In this work, a novel algorithm was developed to provide seamless handover for MNs in network. Suitable technique was developed to provide load balancing to SNs in network by maintaining appropriate secondary route.