Priority-based scheduling using best channel in 6TiSCH networks

Abstract

Many industrial wireless sensor networks deploy the IEEE 802.15.4-2015 standard with low power consumption and the Internet networking capabilities. The time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH) is an amendment to the medium access control protocol defined by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. Furthermore, the Internet engineering task force (IETF) defines an architecture for IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE 802.15.4 (6TiSCH) to provide deterministic properties on wireless sensor networks. The TSCH leverages the scheduled time slot to achieve low power operation and frequency hopping to combat external interference and multi-path fading. Although TSCH provides the channel hopping mechanism to increase transmission reliability, it is still susceptible to periodic interference for the specific frequency. In this research, we focus on the issue of random channel hopping in the error-prone wireless channel condition and the scheduling for different service requirements. We propose a priority-based scheduling using best channel (P-SBC) mechanism for periodic sensing data and emergency packets transmission in 6TiSCH networks. The simulation results show that the proposed P-SBC achieves higher reliability with significantly lower end-to-end latency for emergency packets transmission as compared to TSCH standard.