# Routing Protocols Performance on 6 LoWPAN IoT Networks
## 5 Conclusions and Recommendations  
The primary objective of this study is to investigate the performance of RPL, AODV, and LOADng routing protocols on IoT devices within the context of 6 LoWPAN. Through a series of comprehensive simulations, the objective has been achieved by thoroughly analyzing and comparing the protocols' performance across various network scenarios and topologies. Our findings indicate that RPL outperforms AODV and LOADng in power efficiency, especially as network size increases empirical evidence. RPL is more suitable for scalable deployments. Its efficient DODAG maintenance mechanism enables more stable power consumption under different mote densities compared to AODV and LOADng. AODV frequent route discovery mechanism may result in higher energy consumption when higher number of motes are involved. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the routing protocols based on empirical simulation data via the Cooja simulator. While our simulation results provide valuable insights into protocol performance, it is crucial to validate these findings through real-world testing. In addition, we assume that RPL's reliance on DODAG structures might result in lower power consumption during mobility compared to AODV. Moreover, we also assume that the energy efficiency and performance of LOADng will degrade with higher mobility. Our results suggest that RPL, which uses periodic updates to repair and maintain routes may experience higher delay or latency in mobile scenario. Hence, we recommend that future studies should advance beyond simulations by testing the routing protocols RPL, AODV, and LOADng in real-world environments using a physical testbed. The testbed can be implemented with practical scenarios, such as smart homes or smart offices with hardware like the Cortex-M3 Controller board and follow a structured methodology for configuring and testing these protocols. This approach can bridge the gap between theoretical simulations and practical implementations, ultimately advancing our understanding and application of IoT networking technologies. Hence, we plan to extend this study by incorporating advanced network performance monitoring tools to capture a broader range of performance metrics during testbed experiments. Protocol trade-offs will be investigated based on power consumption and metrics like latency, end-to-end delay, packet delivery ratio, etc. Exploring algorithmic modifications and different mobility models like Random Way Point may provide a holistic evaluation of 6 LoWPAN routing protocols in high mobility environments.  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.F.A.R.; investigation, P.S.C., N.H.K. and M.F.A.; methodology, P.S.C., N.H.K. and M.F.A.; resources, S.Y.; supervision, S.F.A.R.; validation, S.Y. and W.Y.; writing--original draft, P.S.C. and S.F.A.R.; writing--review and editing, S.F.A.R. and N.H.K. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
**Funding:** This research received no external funding.  
**Data Availability Statement:** The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.  
**Acknowledgments:** All authors would like to thank the Centre for Intelligent Cloud Computing for the encouragement and support in completing this study. The authors acknowledge the use of Quillbot (free web version) in the process of correcting the grammar and improving the clarity as well as quality of the English language in this manuscript. The authors have reviewed and edited the output and take full responsibility for the content of this publication.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare there are no conflicts of interest. All authors agree to the final version of the manuscript.