Optimized Neighbor Discovery in Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a future technology expected to consist of plenty real world objects or things [1]. These devices collaborate together and possibly form a network of things/nodes. Since the nodes can be stationary or mobile the network topology frequently changes, therefore node or neighbor discovery is a continuous process. The process of collaboration involves the devices to discover each other and learn network topology. The conventional node discovery procedures require the nodes to do active listening which would waste significant amount of energy just for establishing topology information [2]. This paper studies the basic architecture of an IoT network and the functions of each of its layers. Further we analyzes Classic Neighbor discovery procedure followed by IPv6 nodes, and an Optimized techniques which modifies this classic approach to reduces active listening and makes it more suitable for IoT.