SEEOF: Smart energy efficient objective function: Adapting RPL objective function to enable an IPv6 meshed topology solution for battery operated smart meters

In this research, a new Smart Energy Efficient Objective Function (SEEOF) is designed to develop an IPv6 meshed topology for IoT based smart metering applications. IoT protocols offer horizontal scalability, interoperability and multi-service environment versus isolated, proprietary and service based environment of traditional smart metering network solutions. Smart metering is not limited to electricity meters; it comprises gas and/or water meters. In other words, it encompasses battery powered devices with limited computing functionalities and energy resources along with full functional devices powered by main line. The battery consumption of end-points is a major challenge and should be addressed in IoT smart-metering solutions. Among the various techniques to reduce the energy consumption, routing is a key element affecting the network performance and lifetime. IETF in its ROLL working group has considered RPL as the routing protocol for IoT applications in low power and lossy networks (LLN). SEEOF, based on RPL, is designed to use energy efficiently and extend network lifetime. It takes into account both the link quality and node energy. We have implemented SEEOF in ContikiOS and compared the energy consumption in RPL using SEEOF with existing objective function. Simulation results show that up to 27% improvement is attained in the network life time when using the proposed objective function. More importantly, the results show that SEEOF balances the energy consumption more uniformly among the battery powered devices keeping them alive for longer duration.