5.1. RPL Instance ID

A global RPLInstanceID MUST be unique to the whole LLN. Mechanisms for allocating and provisioning global RPLInstanceID are out of scope for this specification. There can be up to 128 Global instance in the whole network. Local instances are always used in conjunction with a DODAGID (which is either given explicitly or implicitly in some cases), and up 64 Local instances per DODAGID can be supported. Local instances are allocated and managed by the node that owns the DODAGID, without any explicit coordination with other nodes, as further detailed below.

A global RPLInstanceID is encoded in a RPLInstanceID field as follows:

     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |0|     ID      |  Global RPLInstanceID in 0..127
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

      Figure 4: RPLInstanceID Field Format for Global Instances

A local RPLInstanceID is autoconfigured by the node that owns the DODAGID and it MUST be unique for that DODAGID. The DODAGID used to configure the local RPLInstanceID MUST be a reachable IPv6 address of the node, and it MUST be used as an endpoint of all communications within that Local instance.

A local RPLInstanceID is encoded in a RPLInstanceID field as follows:

     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |1|D|   ID      |  Local RPLInstanceID in 0..63
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

      Figure 5: RPLInstanceID Field Format for Local Instances

The 'D' flag in a local RPLInstanceID is always set to 0 in RPL control messages. It is used in data packets to indicate whether the DODAGID is the source or the destination of the packet. If the 'D' flag is set to 1, then the destination address of the IPv6 packet MUST be the DODAGID. If the 'D' flag is cleared, then the source address of the IPv6 packet MUST be the DODAGID.

For example, consider a Node A that is the DODAG root of a Local RPL Instance, and has allocated a local RPLInstanceID. By definition, all traffic traversing that Local RPL Instance will either originate or terminate at Node A. In this case, the DODAGID will be the reachable IPv6 address of Node A. All traffic will contain the address of Node A, and thus the DODAGID, in either the source or destination address. Thus, the local RPLInstanceID may indicate that the DODAGID is equivalent to either the source address or the destination address by setting the 'D' flag appropriately.