Time slotted channel hopping (TSCH) is an enhanced access mechanism for IEEE 802.15.4 that improves many aspects of the original protocol, like determinism and power consumption. Besides preventing collisions, time slotting allows motes to stay asleep for most of the time. In addition, channel hopping achieves more stable communication, in terms of packet losses and transmission latency, in spite of wireless spectrum variations. In this article, the specific effects of the latter mechanism are investigated from both qualitative and quantitative points of view. In particular, a thorough experimental campaign was carried out on real devices, deployed in a real environment and performing realistic data exchanges, when they are exposed to different interference conditions, to assess the benefits it brings over the case when transmissions are performed on a fixed-channel (FC). Experimental results confirm that, when the transmission frequency is kept repeatedly changing, communication quality is sensibly less affected by colocated Wi-Fi infrastructures, which makes the network behavior more predictable, and hence, intrinsically more dependable.

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评估 IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH 网络中信道跳频的有效性

时隙信道跳频 (TSCH) 是 IEEE 802.15.4 的增强型接入机制，它改进了原始协议的许多方面，例如确定性和功耗。除了防止碰撞之外，时间分配还可以让微尘在大部分时间里保持睡眠状态。此外，尽管无线频谱存在变化，但信道跳跃在数据包丢失和传输延迟方面仍能实现更稳定的通信。本文从定性和定量的角度研究了后一种机制的具体效果。特别是，在真实设备上进行了彻底的实验活动，部署在真实环境中并在暴露于不同干扰条件时执行真实的数据交换，评估它相对于在固定信道 (FC) 上执行传输的情况带来的好处。实验结果证实，当传输频率不断变化时，共置 Wi-Fi 基础设施对通信质量的影响明显较小，这使得网络行为更加可预测，因此本质上更加可靠。