Network Formation for Industrial IoT: Evaluation, Limits and Recommendations

Abstract

An open standardized protocol stack proposed by IETF is nowadays emerging in industrial wireless communication. Main building blocks are TSCH at MAC layer and RPL as routing protocol. This standard architecture is able to replace proprietary technology and to guarantee a timely, reliable and energy efficient communication. However, IETF can not offer a one-size-fits-all solution. Therefore, implementers of industrial IoT have to correctly set the parameters of the protocols in this stack, adapting it to the application requirements and on the physical topology. This paper focuses on the network formation procedure proposed by IETF 6TiSCH working group, a mandatory phase before nodes may transmit any sensed data. We evaluate through simulations the impact of TSCH-and RPLparameters on the duration of and the energy consumed for the network formation process. We describe how to avoid an unsuccessful network formation and we give guidelines for an appropriate parameter setting, depending on typical network topologies.

Accelerating 6TiSCH Network Formation

“…In [11], the authors show how to tune the TSCH and RPL parameters to decrease the network formation duration and the energy consumed, and make the interplay easier. They also recommend to allocate at least one additional shared slot to the one defined in the minimal configuration of the standard.…”

On the suitability of 6TiSCH for industrial wireless communication

“…Authors in [VWV18], [Vass] and [FSK18] recently have studied the performance of the 6TiSCH network process specified by 6TiSCH-MC. In [VWV18], the congestion problem originated by the only one shared slot in the 6TiSCH minimal schedule is considered as well as a factual issue in a dense network and motivates there the adoption of a 6TiSCH specific broadcasting strategy as the answer to this problem.…”

“…In [VWV18], the congestion problem originated by the only one shared slot in the 6TiSCH minimal schedule is considered as well as a factual issue in a dense network and motivates there the adoption of a 6TiSCH specific broadcasting strategy as the answer to this problem. Both [Vass] and [FSK18] highlight that the minimal configuration needs at least a proper parameter tuning of TSCH and RPL to avoid prolonged or unsuccessful network formation. The authors of [Vass] first provide an analytical model for expressing the average number of slotframes required for a joining node to become operational as a function of the number of advertiser nodes in the neighbourhood.…”

“…Then, they highlight the dependence between the slotframe length and the node joining time distribution in the 6TiSCH-MC. In our previous contribution [FSK18], we evaluated through simulation the impact of EB broadcast period and RPL minimum interval I min on the duration of and the energy consumed for the network formation process of different typical network topologies. With an improper TSCH and RPL parameter tuning (i.e.…”

“…A simulative study, similar to that conducted alike in [FSK18], is ongoing for the proposed algorithm. First results show that the diagonal algorithm helps in reducing the network formation time, without inducing a relevant increase of the energy consumption, compared to the 6TiSCH-MC.…”