6LowPAN

IPv6 based Monitoring and management of wireless  sensor  networks

6LoWPAN is a joint project between ERNET India and IISc Bangalore, funded by Department of Information Technology for a duration of 24 months from January 2010. IEEE 802.15.4 Low-rate Wireless Personal Area Network (LoWPAN) standard supports wireless connectivity in low-cost devices that operate with limited battery power. LoWPAN networks enable emerging application functions such as agricultural field measurements, monitoring structural health of buildings, patient health monitoring and home/industrial automation. The support for IPv6 over 802.15.4 links enables integration of LoWPANs into the existing IP infrastructure. Also, the large IPv6 address space will meet the requirements of numerous LoWPAN nodes with address assignment using auto-configuration protocols. The 6LoWPAN layer performs header compression, fragmentation and layer 2 forwarding functions to adapt IPv6 packets to the resource constrained LoWPAN networks.
  

The objective of this project is to develop a prototype for monitoring and managing a 6LoWPAN based Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Internet open standards such as SNMP will be utilized to build the management and monitoring framework. Considering the wide ranging WSN applications, it is proposed to develop a generic modular framework that is extensible with application-specific monitorable parameters. It will be demonstrated with an experimental test bed at IISc and an operational test bed at ERNET India. Monitoring applications in the field of agriculture and healthcare will be demonstrated.

6LoWPAN – Enabling IPv6 over Low-power Wireless Sensor Devices