Performance Evaluation the 6top Protocol and Analysis of its Interplay with Routing

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) will represent a crucial enabling technology to interconnect sensors and actuators in future smart cities. Since many applications will demand for reliable and low-latency communication, current standardization efforts are focusing in the definition of novel wireless standard architectures, e.g., the 6TiSCH architecture, to improve reliability and introduce support for quality of service. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the 6TiSCH architecture during the initial network formation. Specifically, the performance of the 6top protocol, defined in 6TiSCH for distributed negotiation of resources, is evaluated. Simulations highlighted how the initial negotiation of resources is influenced by the routing protocol and the link-quality estimation mechanism adopted. The performance evaluation allowed to draw a set of guidelines for network configuration to guarantee the reliability of the initial allocation of resources.