Energy-Efficient Dynamic RTO with Enhanced Stability for CoAP-Based IoT Networks

The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is widely adopted to ensure end-to-end reliability in resource-constrained Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). However, CoAP’s default retransmission timeout (RTO) mechanism lacks algorithmic responsiveness under volatile channel conditions, and state-of-the-art benchmarks like CoCoA+ and FASOR often suffer from over-conservative backoff states or destabilizing retransmission storms. To overcome these operational bottlenecks, this paper proposes a novel dual-adaptive Dynamic RTO algorithm specifically engineered for heterogeneous IoT deployment scales. The proposed framework dynamically adjusts its parameter inspection cycle (N) based on instantaneous round-trip time (RTT) variance while simultaneously scaling its tuning coefficient (α) in response to real-time packet loss indicators. To rigorously validate the algorithmic resilience, performance evaluations were conducted within a highly volatile network environment governed by the Gilbert–Elliott dynamic loss model across multi-hop linear (1 × 6) and grid (3 × 6, 5 × 6) topologies. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed Dynamic RTO consistently optimizes the throughput–latency trade-off, achieving a total communication time of 25.92 s in complex grids—outperforming CoCoA+ and FASOR by 14.28% and 8.89%, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed mechanism significantly curtails transmission overhead, restricting the cumulative retransmission footprint to just 59 counts under severe localized impairments, thereby establishing a scalable, resource-efficient, and empirically robust transport-layer solution for next-generation edge-computing infrastructures.