Improving Network Formation in 6TiSCH Networks

Abstract

The industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is expected to revolutionize the current industry. The capillary introduction of sensors and actuators for real-time monitoring and remote control and their seamless integration into existing information systems will represent a technological breakthrough that will help to reshape the industrial processes. To this aim, the definition of wireless communication standards will play a crucial role in reducing deployment costs and minimizing the time for installation. In this context, the new IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE 802.15.4e communication stack, 6TiSCH, represents the current leading standardization effort that aims at achieving both reliable and timed wireless communication and integration within IPv6 communication networks for industrial systems. In this paper, the network formation dynamics of 6TiSCH networks are assessed, considering the current guidelines for the so-called minimal configuration, a static initial configuration pre-configured to guarantee control communication during network bootstrap. It is shown that the minimal configuration might lead to long network formation and suboptimal performance of the routing algorithm which may result into a disconnected network. In order to overcome this issue, a dynamic resource management algorithm to be executed during network bootstrap is proposed. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed solution allows to minimize the network formation time and also helps in optimizing routing operations leading to the discovery of better routes.

Department(s)

Computer Science

Research Center/Lab(s)

Intelligent Systems Center

Second Research Center/Lab

Center for High Performance Computing Research

Comments

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their many insightful comments and suggestions that helped to improve significantly the quality of the paper. The work of S. K. Das was partially supported by NSF grants CCF-1533918 and CCF-1725755.

Keywords and Phrases

IEEE Standards; Network routing; Real time systems; Remote control; Titanium compounds; Wireless telecommunication systems; 6TiSCH; Dynamic resource management; IEEE 802.15.4; Network formation; Sub-optimal performance; Technological breakthroughs; Wireless communication standards; Wireless communications; Internet protocols; RPL

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1536-1233; 1558-0660

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2019 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2019

Share

 
COinS