8.2.3. DIO Message Communication

When a DIO message is received, the receiving node must first determine whether or not the DIO message should be accepted for further processing, and subsequently present the DIO message for further processing if eligible.

1. If the DIO message is malformed, then the DIO message is not eligible for further processing and a node MUST silently discard it. (See Section 18 for error logging).

2. If the sender of the DIO message is a member of the candidate neighbor set and the DIO message is not malformed, the node MUST process the DIO.

8.2.3.1. DIO Message Processing

As DIO messages are received from candidate neighbors, the neighbors may be promoted to DODAG parents by following the rules of DODAG discovery as described in Section 8.2. When a node places a neighbor into the DODAG parent set, the node becomes attached to the DODAG through the new DODAG parent node.

The most preferred parent should be used to restrict which other nodes may become DODAG parents. Some nodes in the DODAG parent set may be of a Rank less than or equal to the most preferred DODAG parent. (This case may occur, for example, if an energy-constrained device is at a lesser Rank but should be avoided per an optimization objective, resulting in a more preferred parent at a greater Rank.)