Industrial internet of things over IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH networks: design and challenges

Abstract

Using the internet of things technologies in manufacturing provides a promising opportunity to build powerful industrial systems and applications. The quest for mobility, flexibility, and low-energy consumption has created a strong push toward using low-power wireless solutions to enable the industrial internet of things (IIoT). This paper presents a survey of the emerging research concerning IIoT with a focus on the most promising solutions. It, first, outlines the main requirements to be addressed in order to build a powerful IIoT system. The paper, then, presents an overview accompanied by a comparative study of the most prevalent IIoT communication technologies. The study reveals the potential of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard with its time slotted channel hopping (TSCH) mode to lead the way through the IIoT, thanks to its latency, reliability and low-power characteristics along with the support of multi-hop communications. Based on this outcome, the paper provides an in-depth look at TSCH mechanisms and outlines the most challenging issues. Finally, the paper concludes the need to propose new solutions addressing such issues in order to make successful IIoT systems.