6HRRT: 6TiSCH Scheduling for Supporting Highly-Reliable Real-Time Mobile IoT Applications

Abstract

The landscape of industrial communication systems is rapidly evolving, driven by the proliferation of Industrial IoT (IIoT) devices, increased automation, and the convergence of operational and information technologies. This evolution introduces greater complexity, with diverse requirements in latency, reliability, scalability, and mobility, calling for advanced planning and decision-support tools. In this work, we address the needs of IIoT applications requiring ultra-reliable low-latency communication and mobility support. Instead of relying on 5G ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), we thoroughly investigate an alternative option, less covered in the existing literature, based on the IETF 6TiSCH architecture and short-range communications. In particular, we propose Highly-Reliable Real-Time Scheduling for 6TiSCH (6HRRT), a novel algorithm designed for mobile IIoT scenarios. By combining intelligent resource allocation with optimized redundancy strategies, 6HRRT achieves reliability up to 99.999% and latencies of tens of milliseconds for applications with heterogeneous requirements. Simulation results show that 6HRRT consistently outperforms state-of-the-art 6TiSCH solutions, particularly under mixed workloads and stringent requirements, ensuring robust real-time performance in IIoT environments.