g6TiSCH: Generalized 6TiSCH for Agile Multi-PHY Wireless Networking

Wireless networks traditionally use a single physical layer for communication: some use high bit-rate short-range radios, others low bit-rate long-range radios. This article introduces g6TiSCH, a generalization of the standards-based IETF 6TiSCH protocol stack. g6TiSCH allows nodes equipped with multiple radios to dynamically switch between them on a link-by-link basis, as a function of link-quality. This approach results in a dynamic trade-off between latency and power consumption. We evaluate the performance of the approach experimentally on an indoor office testbed of 36 OpenMote B boards. Each OpenMote B can communicate using FSK 868 MHz, O-QPSK 2.4 GHz or OFDM 868 MHz, a combination of long-range and short-range physical layers. We measure network formation time, end-to-end reliability, end-to-end latency, and battery lifetime. We compare the performance of g6TiSCH against that of a traditional 6TiSCH stack running on each of the three physical layers. Results show that g6TiSCH yields lower latency and network formation time than any of the individual PHYs, while maintaining a similar battery lifetime.