Failure Detectors for 6LoWPAN: Model and Implementation

Abstract

Consensus is a basic building block in distributed systems for a myriad of related problems that involve agreement. For asynchronous networks, consensus has been proven impossible, and is well known as Augean task. Failure Detectors (FDs) have since emerged as a possible remedy, able to solve consensus in asynchronous systems under certain assumptions. With the increasing use of asynchronous, wireless Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, such as IEEE 802.15.4/6LoWPAN, the demand of applications that require some form of reliability and agreement is on the rise. What was missing so far is an FD that can operate under the tight constraints offered by Low Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) without compromising the efficiency of the network. We present 6LoFD, an FD specifically aimed at energy and memory efficient operation in small scale, unreliable networks, and evaluate its working principles by using an ns-3 implementation of 6LoFD.