3.7.3. DAO Loops

A DAO loop may occur when the parent has a route installed upon receiving and processing a DAO message from a child, but the child has subsequently cleaned up the related DAO state. This loop happens when a No-Path (a DAO message that invalidates a previously announced prefix, see Section 6.4.3) was missed and persists until all state has been cleaned up. RPL includes an optional mechanism to acknowledge DAO messages, which may mitigate the impact of a single DAO message being missed. RPL includes loop detection mechanisms that mitigate the impact of DAO loops and trigger their repair. (See Section 11.2.2.3.)