Real-time Scheduling based on Multi-channel Communication in IEEE 802.15.4 Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

Most frequent technologies that are currently deployed in WSNs area are based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard. Moreover, industrial WSNs require real-time in exchanging messages among nodes. Although the standard defines TSCH in IEEE 802.15.4e that enables multi-channel communication and uses a slotted medium access with channel hopping on several channels, it is not enough to guarantee real-time delivery of packet due to the variation of channel's conditions. This paper proposes a real-time scheduling algorithm for multi-channel networks that utilizes multi-channel to find the optimal channel based on channel characteristic and to assign the highest priority to the packet with the shortest dead-line. This scheme enables the packet with the highest priority to be transmitted through the best channel within the available channels. Our proposed scheme enables an IoT device to evaluate every channel by switching the available channels periodically.