Spectrum-aware wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are one of the enabling technologies for the Internet of Things. Due to the restricted capability of sensor, the performance of WSN is sensitive to interference from nearby wireless devices utilizing the same band. The channel hopping technique is adopted by IEEE 802.15.4e standard to mitigate such adverse effect. In this paper we propose the Adaptive Time-slotted Channel Hopping (A-TSCH) framework which augments standard IEEE 802.15.4e channel hopping with mechanisms for learning the spectral condition and blacklisting. Complete design and implementation are provided, followed by analysis of experimental results. We discover that A-TSCH improves the packet delivery in the presence of interference from co-located devices, leading to substantially enhanced reliability of WSN based on IEEE 802.15.4e.