CoAP server with public IPv6/TCSH network and M3 nodes

Difficulty: High

Duration: 60 minutes

Prerequisites: Configure SSH Access / Understand IPv6 subnetting / Get and compile firmware for M3 and A8-M3 nodes / CoAP server with public IPv6/RPL/6LoWPAN network

Description: The aim of this tutorial is to discover Contiki’s RPL/TSCH implementation and run it. Like for the Contiki’s CoAP tutorial, you will reserve some M3 nodes on the Lille site, set them up with flashing two firmwares nodes, and create a simple IPv6 network in IoT-LAB. You will access nodes over IPv6 using a Contiki tunslip6 bridge and launch requests on a CoAP Contiki Erbium server implementation.

Standard explanation: IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE 802.15.4e

We base this tutorial applications on Contiki examples from ipv6: Border Router and COAP Server. The code is available in the IoT-LAB Contiki github repository

• contiki/examples/iotlab/
  • 05-rpl-tsch-border-router
  • 06-rpl-tsch-coap

See additionals details for explanations on how we added TSCH to these ipv6 examples.

The simplest way to run this tutorial is by doing it from an SSH frontend, since all tools are already installed there. But you can as well do it from your local environment. See additionals details section to know how.

1. Connect to a site’s SSH frontend

   my_computer$ ssh <login>@lille.iot-lab.info

2. Setup the contiki repository

   <login>@lille:~$ git clone https://github.com/iot-lab/iot-lab.git
   <login>@lille:~$ cd iot-lab
   <login>@lille:~$ make setup-contiki
   <login>@lille:~$ cd parts/contiki/

3. In examples/iotlab/00-configuration/tsch-project-conf.h, set your PANID to something unique, to isolate your network from others. Look for the definition of IEEE802154_CONF_PANID and redefine it to some other value.
4. If it is not alreay done, set your credentials for CLI tools with:

   <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki$ iotlab-auth -u <login>

5. Submit a new experiment:
   • Duration: 60 minutes
   • Choose ten nodes: Archi = m3:at86rf231 / Site = lille / Number = 10

   Use this command with CLI tools:

   <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki$ iotlab-experiment submit -n tsch -d 60 -l 10,archi=m3:at86rf231+site=lille

6. Wait for your experiment to be running:

   <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki$ iotlab-experiment wait

7. Get the list of nodes of your experiments:

   <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki$ iotlab-experiment get -r
   {
    "items": [
    {
    ...
    "network_address": "m3-9.lille.iot-lab.info", 
    "uid": "1055", 
    ...

   Pick one node that will be later used as Border Router and write down its ID and UID (e.g. m3-9 and 1055).

8. Program your nodes
   • Border Router for m3-9:

     <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki$ cd examples/iotlab/05-rpl-tsch-border-router 
     <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki/examples/iotlab/05-rpl-tsch-border-router$ make TARGET=iotlab-m3
     <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki/examples/iotlab/05-rpl-tsch-border-router$ iotlab-node -up border-router.iotlab-m3 -l lille,m3,9

   • COAP Erbium server for all nodes except m3-9:

     <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki$ cd examples/iotlab/06-rpl-tsch-coap
     <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki/examples/iotlab/06-rpl-tsch-coap$ make TARGET=iotlab-m3
     <login>@lille:~/iot-lab/parts/contiki/examples/iotlab/06-rpl-tsch-coap$ iotlab-node -up er-example-server.iotlab-m3 -e lille,m3,9

9. Launch tunslip6:

   <login>@lille:~$ sudo tunslip6.py -v2 -L -a m3-9 -p 20000 fd00::1/64

   Note: If you have an error “overlaps with routes”, it’s because another experiment is using the same ipv6 prefix (e.g. : fd00::1/64).

   You can view ipv6 prefix used on the frontend SSH with this command and choose another prefix in IPv6Network(fd00::/8) like fddd::1/64.

   <login>@lille:~$ ip -6 route
   fd00::/64 dev tun_7589  proto kernel  metric 256  mtu 1500 advmss 1440 hoplimit 4294967295
   fe80::/64 dev eth1  proto kernel  metric 256  mtu 1500 advmss 1440 hoplimit 4294967295
   fe80::/64 dev eth0  proto kernel  metric 256  mtu 1500 advmss 1440 hoplimit 4294967295

10. From another terminal, ping the Border Router:

    <login>@lille:~$ ping6 fd00::1055

11. Get the list of neighbors and links from the Border Router:

    <login>@lille:~$ lynx -dump http://[fd00::1055]

    Note: in such a dense topology like in the lille site, you may have direct connections between nodes. To test TSCH with multi-hop, you could use a dozen of nodes spread among the whole site and change the radio default configuration. Add those lines in your project-conf.h or directly in the iotlab-project-conf.h file:

    #define RF2XX_TX_POWER  PHY_POWER_m17dBm
    #define RF2XX_RX_RSSI_THRESHOLD  RF2XX_PHY_RX_THRESHOLD__m84dBm

12. Send a CoAP request to one of your server nodes, listed in the result of the previous command:

    <login>@lille:~$ aiocoap-client coap://[fd00::9373]/.well-known/core
    </.well-known/core>;ct=40,</test/hello>;title="Hello world: ?len=0..";rt="Text",</test/push>;title="Periodic demo";obs,</actuators/toggle>;title="Red LED";rt="Control",</sensors/light>;title="Ambient light (supports JSON)";rt="LightSensor",</sensors/pressure>;title="Pressure (supports JSON)";rt="PressureSensor",</sensors/gyros>;title="Three axis gyroscope (supports JSON)";rt="GyroscopeSensor",</sensors/accel>;title="Three axis accelerometer (supports JSON)";rt="AccelerometerSensor",</sensors/magne>;title="Three axis magnetometer (supports JSON)";rt="MagnetometerSensor"
    

13. Explore the services proposed by this CoAP node. For example, get the light sensor value:

    <login>@lille:~$ aiocoap-client coap://[fd00::9373]/sensors/light
    174.926758

    You can have other examples of the CoAP server services explained in this Contiki’s CoAP server tutorial

#include "../00-configuration/tsch-project-conf.h"
#include "../00-configuration/iotlab-project-conf.h"