Synchronisation in 6Tisch networks

Recently, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have gained popularity with the introduction of new application areas. Especially, with the inclusion of small devices to the Internet, new terms such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Everything (IoE) are being introduced to the research community. Furthermore, IPv6 protocol can finally be utilised with the wide spread adoption of WSNs. IETF(Internet Engineering Task Force) have recently developed new standards to enable IPv6 based communications over WSNs. An example standardisation activity is the routing protocol developed for the IEEE 802.15.4e time slotted channel access MAC called 6Tisch( IPv6 routing over time slotted channel access). This paper describes the components of IETF 6Tisch protocol. In addition, a mechanism is proposed to establish network wide synchronisation of the wireless nodes. This will enable the nodes in the network to execute a common network-wide communication schedule which is essential for 6Tisch protocol. The synchronisation mechanism is implemented in Contiki OS and its performance is analysed using the Cooja emulator for several different network topologies.