A Lightweight Simulation Environment for TSCH-Based Wireless Sensor Networks

Simulators are becoming increasingly important in the context of wireless networks. They allow fair comparison of different network configurations and algorithms under the same environmental conditions, and permit proper network sizing without the need for in-field experiments with real devices. Additionally, simulators enable adaptive reconfiguration of network parameters, either at runtime when employed as network digital twins or offline, by improving the training of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms through data augmentation. In this paper we present TSCHmodeler, a lightweight discrete-event simulator for the IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH protocol characterized by a streamlined design. Outcomes provided by the simulator were checked against experimental results acquired from a simple, real implementation, achieving a high degree of similarity, despite the simulator's limitations related to design choices favoring simplicity and usability. Then, as a concrete application of the simulator, TSCHmodeler was used to obtain latency and power consumption in a non-trivial multi-hop network topology evaluated under various configurations.