Enabling real time requirements in industrial IoT through IETF 6TiSCH

With the emerging open-standards for Internet-of-Things, we can expect an increased use of wireless sensor networks in industrial environment. IEEE 802.15.4e protocol has been specially designed to support the communication in industrial environments and complex industrial processes using Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) mode. The OpenWSN implements TSCH MAC layer and IPv6 adaptation to the Low-power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) as defined by the IETF 6TiSCH working group. In OpenWSN, decentralized and distributed On-The-Fly (OTF) scheduling techniques for 6TiSCH environment are supported. In this paper, we present an evaluation of OTF scheduling technique carried out for different slot schedules considering two scenarios single channel communication and channel hopping. Experimental validation was carried out using TelosB motes running the OpenWSN 6TiSCH protocol stack. The parameters such as radio duty cycle, total number of packets successfully transmitted and received, and RSS levels are measured by varying the network size to compare the advantage of TSCH mode scheduling over the default. Our experiment results indicate 6TiSCH environment is best suited to address the emerging industrial Internet of Things requirements.