Int. J. Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2019 173 A new scheme for RPL to handle mobility in wireless sensor networks Fatma Gara* Université de Tunis El Manar, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tunis, LR16ES07 Robotique, Informatique et Systèmes Complexes, BP. 37 Le Belvédère 1002, Tunis, Tunisia Email: fatmagara@gmail.com *Corresponding author Leila Ben Saad WISENET Lab., Department of Information and Communication Technology, University of Agder, 4879, Grimstad, Norway Email: leila.bensaad@uia.no Rahma Ben Ayed Université de Tunis El Manar, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tunis, LR16ES07 Robotique, Informatique et Systèmes Complexes, BP. 37 Le Belvédère 1002, Tunis, Tunisia Email: rahma.benayed@gmail.com Bernard Tourancheau LIG Laboratory, University Joseph Fourier of Grenoble, F-38402 Saint Martin d’Heres, France Email: Bernard.Tourancheau@imag.fr Abstract: Mobile wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are characterised by dynamic changes in the network topology leading to route breaks and disconnections. The IPv6 routing protocol for low power and lossy networks (RPL), which has become a standard, uses the Trickle timer algorithm to handle changes in the network topology. However, neither RPL nor Trickle timer are well adapted to mobility. This paper investigates the problem of supporting mobility when using RPL. It enhances RPL to fit with sensors’ mobility by studying two cases. Firstly, it proposes to modify RPL in order to fit with a dynamic and hybrid topology in the context of medical applications. Secondly, it investigates a more general case and introduces a new adaptive timer for RPL. The proposed approach is validated through extensive simulations and compared with existing protocols in the literature. Results show that our proposal significantly reduces disconnections and increases packet delivery ratio while maintaining low overhead. Keywords: WSNs; wireless sensor networks; RPL protocol; node mobility; trickle timer. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Gara, F., Ben Saad, L., Ben Ayed, R. and Tourancheau, B. (2019) ‘A new scheme for RPL to handle mobility in wireless sensor networks’, Int. J. Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp.173–186. Biographical notes: Fatma Gara received her MSc degree in Computer Science from Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tunis in 2012. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Tunis El Manar in Tunisia. Her research interests focus on wireless sensor networks and internet of things. Leila Ben Saad received her PhD in Computer Science from ENS Lyon-University of Lyon in France in 2011. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Agder in Norway. Her research interests span over wireless sensor networks, internet of things, networking protocols, distributed algorithms and graph signal processing. Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.