Modeling the Impact of Bursty Traffic on End-to-End Delays in 6TiSCH Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

New applications emerge for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), e.g., monitoring and surveillance, producing bursty traffic which greatly impacts communication network performance. The latter can be evaluated through simulations or experiments, both of which are more time-consuming and costly than analytical models. Reliable communication in WSNs is achievable through IEEE 802.15.4 Timeslotted Channel Hopping (TSCH). Accurately evaluating its performance under bursty traffic is critical to plan future networks. This letter proposes a framework for modeling the impact of bursty traffic on end-to-end delays in TSCH networks, using queuing theory and Markov chains. Simulations in OMNeT++ validate framework accuracy with ¡1% normalized Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE).