Demo: Simulating a 6TiSCH Network using Connectivity Traces from Testbeds

The 6TiSCH simulator is an existing Python-based simulation tool that captures the full behavior of 6TiSCH, the Industrial IoT protocol stack standardized by the IETF. The existing 6TiSCH simulator uses a radio propagation model. In this demo, we present an extension to the 6TiSCH simulator which allows a simulation to be run against connectivity traces previously gathered on testbeds and real-world deployments. We demonstrate four elements. First, Mercator, the OpenWSN-based tool we developed to collect connectivity traces from different testbeds. Second, K7, the generic format we defined for these connectivity traces. Third, the set of 17 connectivity traces we gathered from testbeds and real-world deployments, and which are publicly available. Fourth, the extension of the 6TiSCH simulator which enables it to replay K7 connectivity traces rather than using a propagation model. Using connectivity traces for simulation is a way to increase the confidence the result are representative of a real-world deployment. Furthermore, it allows better repeatability than re-running an experiment on a testbed where the connectivity necessarily changes over time.