802.15.4 + 6lowpan + mesh routing options in ns3

[Emanuele Di Pascale]

Hi all,

I'm interested in simulating a mesh of wireless sensors, preferably using 802.15.4 + 6lowpan. The key part here is the mesh, a star topology simply won't do for what we have in mind.

I've had a look at the options available in ns3 and my understanding of the situation is the following:

* 802.15.4 is implemented as is 6lowpan, but "mesh under" is not currently supported by the model;

* even if I modified the 6lowpan code to not simply discard MESH headers I would still need to implement my own mesh routing protocol, something on the line of what's described in 802.15.5 presumably? I couldn't find any mention of this in ns3...

* I understand that another mesh under routing standard, 802.15.10 (L2R), is being developed, but it is not yet defined, and so presumably not an option for simulations;

* for "the route over" option, the reference seems to be RPL, but the alpha implementation of the ns3 module has not been released yet and there is no ETA.

Is that correct, and if so what options am I left with other than switching to wifi? If there's anything I blatantly missed or misunderstood I would greatly appreciate a nudge in the right direction; I'm returning to ns3 after a couple of years of inactivity and I'm relatively new to the wireless world (I have a distributed systems background) so please bear with me :)

Thanks,

Emanuele

[Tommaso Pecorella]

Hi,

your analysis is totally right.

You could do one of the following (or both):

1) Try with one of the existing mesh protocols (e.g., AODV) that have been ported to IPv6. I think there's something being reviewed.

2) Write to the ns-3 RPL module authors 

Cheers,

T.