Adaptive Scheduling With Cell Borrowing for 6TiSCH Networks

Low-power wireless networks are a key technology in industrial IoT (IIoT), where the rapid increase in connected devices necessitates solutions to enhance maximum traffic throughput. IPv6 over the time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH) mode of IEEE 802.15.4e (6TiSCH) networks, based on the IEEE 802.15.4 time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH) MAC mode, provides high reliability and energy efficiency. However, the default scheduling function (SF) in 6TiSCH, the minimal SF (MSF), suffers from overprovisioning issues, leading to inefficient timeslot utilization and traffic throughput limitations in high-density, high-traffic network environments. To address these challenges, we propose adaptive scheduling with cell borrowing for improving traffic throughput in dense 6TiSCH networks (ASCBT). ASCBT introduces three mechanisms that allow sibling nodes to borrow and utilize overprovisioned cells, reducing timeslot resource waste and improving the network’s maximum traffic throughput. Additionally, it effectively adapts to fluctuating traffic conditions. Performance evaluations in high-traffic scenarios show that ASCBT achieves up to 20.2% higher packet delivery ratio (PDR) and 23.8% lower end-to-end latency compared to MSF under constant-rate and burst traffic scenarios. These results indicate that ASCBT effectively enhances traffic handling capacity and network stability in large-scale TSCH-based IIoT networks.