Implementing and evaluating dual-radios with TSCH MAC for Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks.
Vegar Krogsethagen · NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives · 2018
Now that Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging, we see new industrial applications emerge in the industrial paradigm.Terms like Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Internet of Everything (Cisco), appear everywhere.An integral part in industrial networks is (Operational Technology) along with IP based networks (informational technology).As WSN has been important in the development of IoT, IWSN will be an important part of the development of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).WSN technologies have shown great potential for industrial use.Particularly in process monitoring and control where processes such as pressure, temperature, flow, vibration can be measured and transferred wirelessly to a control system.Wireless communication has several advantages like: -Reduction in Cost, Flexibility and Performance.Traditional cable Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS) can come up to several thousand dollars in both cables, installation and maintenance.Moving machinery also poses major challenges, this is solved with different techniques like sliding contacts and slip rings, but this is also prone to wear.We also see that by reducing costs we can increase the number of actuators and sensors which in turn gives an increased performance.A promising MAC solution is to combine time-division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency hopping to meet the strict requirements of reliability and real-time characteristics, called Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH).It uses time synchronization and channel hopping to mitigate effects of external interference and multi-path fading.This is used in well-known standards such as WirelessHART and ISA100.11.a.TSCH was standardized by IEEE 802.15.4-2015 and selected by IETF for standardization in "IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE 802.15.4.e" (6TiSCH).By using two homogenous radios on each sensor or actuator each link has different channels.This utilize the same effect that makes channel hopping so efficiently (frequency-dependent fading effects) and could make it possible to achieve extremely high reliability, and with extremely low jitter and delay.