64 research outputs found
A Load Balancing Algorithm for Resource Allocation in IEEE 802.15.4e Networks
The recently created IETF 6TiSCH working group combines the high reliability
and low-energy consumption of IEEE 802.15.4e Time Slotted Channel Hopping with
IPv6 for industrial Internet of Things. We propose a distributed link
scheduling algorithm, called Local Voting, for 6TiSCH networks that adapts the
schedule to the network conditions. The algorithm tries to equalize the link
load (defined as the ratio of the queue length over the number of allocated
cells) through cell reallocation. Local Voting calculates the number of cells
to be added or released by the 6TiSCH Operation Sublayer (6top). Compared to a
representative algorithm from the literature, Local Voting provides
simultaneously high reliability and low end-to-end latency while consuming
significantly less energy. Its performance has been examined and compared to
On-the-fly algorithm in 6TiSCH simulator by modeling an industrial environment
with 50 sensors
Fast Desynchronization For Decentralized Multichannel Medium Access Control
Distributed desynchronization algorithms are key to wireless sensor networks
as they allow for medium access control in a decentralized manner. In this
paper, we view desynchronization primitives as iterative methods that solve
optimization problems. In particular, by formalizing a well established
desynchronization algorithm as a gradient descent method, we establish novel
upper bounds on the number of iterations required to reach convergence.
Moreover, by using Nesterov's accelerated gradient method, we propose a novel
desynchronization primitive that provides for faster convergence to the steady
state. Importantly, we propose a novel algorithm that leads to decentralized
time-synchronous multichannel TDMA coordination by formulating this task as an
optimization problem. Our simulations and experiments on a densely-connected
IEEE 802.15.4-based wireless sensor network demonstrate that our scheme
provides for faster convergence to the steady state, robustness to hidden
nodes, higher network throughput and comparable power dissipation with respect
to the recently standardized IEEE 802.15.4e-2012 time-synchronized channel
hopping (TSCH) scheme.Comment: to appear in IEEE Transactions on Communication
An Analytical Model for Wireless Mesh Networks with Collision-Free TDMA and Finite Queues
Wireless mesh networks are a promising technology for connecting sensors and
actuators with high flexibility and low investment costs. In industrial
applications, however, reliability is essential. Therefore, two time-slotted
medium access methods, DSME and TSCH, were added to the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.
They allow collision-free communication in multi-hop networks and provide
channel hopping for mitigating external interferences. The slot schedule used
in these networks is of high importance for the network performance. This paper
supports the development of efficient schedules by providing an analytical
model for the assessment of such schedules, focused on TSCH. A Markov chain
model for the finite queue on every node is introduced that takes the slot
distribution into account. The models of all nodes are interconnected to
calculate network metrics such as packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay and
throughput. An evaluation compares the model with a simulation of the Orchestra
schedule. The model is applied to Orchestra as well as to two simple
distributed scheduling algorithms to demonstrate the importance of
traffic-awareness for achieving high throughput.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figure
Survey on wireless technology trade-offs for the industrial internet of things
Aside from vast deployment cost reduction, Industrial Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (IWSAN) introduce a new level of industrial connectivity. Wireless connection of sensors and actuators in industrial environments not only enables wireless monitoring and actuation, it also enables coordination of production stages, connecting mobile robots and autonomous transport vehicles, as well as localization and tracking of assets. All these opportunities already inspired the development of many wireless technologies in an effort to fully enable Industry 4.0. However, different technologies significantly differ in performance and capabilities, none being capable of supporting all industrial use cases. When designing a network solution, one must be aware of the capabilities and the trade-offs that prospective technologies have. This paper evaluates the technologies potentially suitable for IWSAN solutions covering an entire industrial site with limited infrastructure cost and discusses their trade-offs in an effort to provide information for choosing the most suitable technology for the use case of interest. The comparative discussion presented in this paper aims to enable engineers to choose the most suitable wireless technology for their specific IWSAN deployment
DeSSR: a Decentralized, Broadcast-Based Scalable Scheduling Reservation Protocol for 6TiSCH Networks
The emergence of IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) for low-power wireless communication is considered a breakthrough allowing a densely populated multi-hop network of Internet of Things (IoT) devices to be used for data gathering over a range of 1-2 kilometer (km). However, the communication between the devices has suffered from external interferences and multi-path fading challenge. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) jointly proposed The IPv6 over IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH mode (6TiSCH) to deal with existing challenges and improve network performance to meet key requirements of industrial applications. The 6Top layer integrates TSCH (Time Slotted Channel Hopping)-MAC over IEEE 802.15.4 with the rest of the IPv6 stack where the schedule allocation is performed by scheduling function (SF). However, network scalability remains an open challenge. Specifically, the 6TiSCH Working Group (WG) do not define rules towards optimal schedule allocation over Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) mode of IEEE 802.15.4. In this paper, we propose Decentralized, and Broadcast-based Scalable Scheduling Reservation Protocol for 6TiSCH Networks (DeSSR). The experimental performance analysis demonstrates strong performance under steady and bursty traffic when compared with current SFs. This makes DeSSR a strong proposal contributing towards improving scalability in large-scale 6TiSCH networks.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin
Efficient Control Message Dissemination in Dense Wireless Lighting Networks
Modern lighting systems using LED light sources lead to dense lighting installations. The control of such systems using wireless Machine-to-Machine (M2M) where standard LED light sources are replaced by wirelessly controllable LED light sources create new problems which are investigated in this thesis. Current approaches for control message transmission is such networks are based on broadcasting messages among luminaires. However, adequate communication performance - in particular, sufficiently low latency and synchronicity - is difficult to ensure in such networks, in particular, if the network is part of a wireless building management system and carries not only low-latency broadcast messages but also collects data from sensors. In this thesis, the problem of simultaneously controlling dense wireless lighting control networks with a higher number of luminaires is addressed. Extensive computer simulation shows that current state-of-the-art protocols are not suitable for lighting control applications, especially if complex applications are required such as dimming or colour tuning. The novel D³LC-Suite is proposed, which is specially designed for dense wireless lighting control networks. This suite includes three sub-protocols. First, a protocol to organize a network in form of a cluster tree named CIDER. To ensure that intra-cluster messages can be exchanged simultaneously, a weighted colouring algorithm is applied to reduce the inter cluster interference. To disseminate efficiently control messages a protocol is proposed named RLL. The D³LC-Suite is evaluated and validated using different methods. A convergence analysis show that CIDER is able to form a network in a matter of minutes. Simulation results of RLL indicate that this protocol is well suited for dense wireless applications. In extensive experiments, it is shown that the D³LC-Suite advances the current state-of-the-art in several aspects. The suite is able to deliver control messages across multiple hops meeting the requirements of lighting applications. Especially, it provides a deterministic latency, very promising packet loss ratios in low interference environments, and mechanisms for simultaneous message delivery which is important in terms of Quality of Experience (QoE
High Performance Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks for Industrial Internet of Things
Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks (WSANs) enable cost-effective communication for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). To achieve predictability and reliability demanded by industrial applications, industrial wireless standards (e.g., WirelessHART) incorporate a set of unique features such as a centralized management architecture, Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH), and conservative channel selection. However, those features also incur significant degradation in performance, efficiency, and agility. To overcome these key limitations of existing industrial wireless technologies, this thesis work develops and empirically evaluates a suite of novel network protocols and algorithms.
The primary contributions of this thesis are four-fold. (1) We first build an experimental testbed realizing key features of the WirelessHART protocol stack, and perform a series of empirical studies to uncover the limitations and potential improvements of existing network features. (2) We then investigate the impacts of the industrial WSAN protocol’s channel selection mechanism on routing and real-time performance, and present new channel and link selection strategies that improve route diversity and real-time performance. (3) To further enhance performance, we propose and design conservative channel reuse, a novel approach to support concurrent transmissions in a same wireless channel while maintaining a high degree of reliability. (4) Lastly, to address the limitation of the centralized architecture in handling network dynamics, we develop REACT, a Reliable, Efficient, and Adaptive Control Plane for centralized network management. REACT is designed to reduce the latency and energy cost of network reconfiguration by incorporating a reconfiguration planner to reduce a rescheduling cost, and an update engine providing efficient and reliable mechanisms to support schedule reconfiguration. All the network protocols and algorithms developed in this thesis have been empirically evaluated on the wireless testbed. This thesis represents a step toward next-generation IIoT for industrial automation that demands high-performance and agile wireless communication
Seamless roaming and guaranteed communication using a synchronized single-hop multi-gateway 802.15.4e TSCH network
Industrial wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs) are being used to improve the efficiency, productivity and safety of industrial processes. One open standard that is commonly used in such cases is IEEE 802.15.4e. Its Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) mode employs a time synchronized based medium access control (MAC) scheme together with channel hopping to alleviate the impact of channel fading and interference. Until now, most of the industrial WSANs have been designed to only support static nodes and are not able to deal with mobility. In this paper, we show how a single-hop, multi gateway IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH network architecture can tackle the mobility problem. We introduce the Virtual Grand Master (VGM) concept that moves the synchronization point from separated Backbone Border Routers (BBRs) towards the backbone network. With time synchronization of all BBRs, mobile nodes can roam from one BBR to another without time desynchronization. In addition to time synchronization, we introduce a mechanism to synchronize the schedules between BBRs to support fast handover of mobile nodes. We show that with the proposed network architecture handovers happen instantly without any packet losses, while the handover time can be up to tens of seconds without any time synchronization between BBRs. The solution is evaluated in a testbed setting as well as in a real industrial environment. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
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