TLS-VaD: A New Tool for Developing Centralized Link-Scheduling Algorithms on the IEEE802.15.4e TSCH Network

A simulator plays an important role in network protocol research, as it enables researchers to develop protocols more flexibly. Many simulators have been developed to support research in this field, including NS-2, NS-3, OPNET, OMNeT, and Cooja. Although, as a research support tools, NS3 and Cooja have already been equipped with an Internet of things (IoT) module, their support for research on IoT centralized scheduling is still limited. Therefore, this study is aimed to develop a tool for IoT centralized scheduling research, where the IoT technology is based on the IEEE802.15.4e time synchronized channel hopping (TSCH) standard. The tool is called the TSCH Link-Scheduling visualization and data processing (TLS-VaD). The results of validity tests show that TLS-VaD works well; therefore, this tool can be used in the performance measurement of centralized scheduling algorithms on TSCH networks. As an example of the application, this research used TLS-VaD to test the performance of three scheduling algorithms: Iman Ramli Bursty Transmission Scheduling Algorithm (IRByTSA), first top scheduling algorithm (FTSA), and first leaf scheduling algorithm (FLSA). The test results using TLS-VaD shows that IRByTSA had better performance compared to FLSA and FTSA, because it saved more power and was able to generate scheduling decisions relatively quickly.