Differential Evolution Optimization of TSCH Scheduling for Heterogeneous Sensor Networks

The Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) from the IEEE 802.15.4-2015 standard has been proposed as a MAC protocol for industrial sensor networks as it provides a reliable media access control protocol under harsh conditions. This paper presents an algorithm for the optimization of a TSCH schedule based on a combined determination of interference free transmissions and Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm. Because of the inconsistent number of transmissions that a TSCH schedule can support, the standard mutation and cross-over steps of the DE algorithm had to be modified and a unique approach is presented that accommodates for this inconsistency. The feasibility of the optimization algorithm is demonstrated by showing an improvement in the throughput of a sensor network with heterogeneous sensors rates as the DE optimizer iterates through the population of schedules.