Neighbor-area network (NAN), also known as smart meter communication network, is one of the most important constitutive segments of smart grid communication network. Since almost all smart meters are deployed in hash outdoor environment, they could fail or wireless links between them could be fluctuating over time. These dynamics could hinder the network connectivity and degrade the reliability of data communications. However, the robustness of NANs in the case of network element failures has not received sufficient attention in existing work. This paper therefore proposes a cross-layer scheme that adaptively switches preferred parent nodes in order to help the routing protocol for low-power and lossy networks (RPL), the state-of-the-art implementation of self-organizing routing class, quickly deflect network traffic from points of failures in the NAN scenario. Operation and performance of the proposed scheme in IEEE 802.11-based wireless mesh NANs are studied by simulations.
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