Designing Optimized Scheduling QoS-Aware RPL for Sensor-Based Smart Grid Communication Network

Various applications with different requirments are rapidly developed in the smart grid. The need to provide Quality of Service (QoS) for such a communication network is inevitable. However, recently a protocol called RPL (Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Network) has been standardized and is known as the main solution for last mile communication network of smart grid. In this paper, by studying the existing methods and identifying the shortcomings, we propose a customized version of RPL which we call OMC-RPL (Optimized Multi Class-RPL). Two principal advantages of the proposed method are: a holistic objective function including distinctive metrics related to QoS; and supporting the data classification which is an important requirement in this context. The main contribution of this paper is to make different objective functions proportional to the number of classes by using weighting parameters. The best values of these coefficients are determined by an optimization algorithm. OMC-RPL is evaluated from different aspects. Simulation results show that the new idea significantly decreases the end-to-end delay and increases lifetime of the nodes that have limited source of energy. It seems that OMC-RPL could be a good substitution for the available methods.