Extending IETF 6TiSCH to the 868 MHz Band P: A large-scale field study on smart meter communication
COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS, cilt.257, ss.1-15, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 257
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.comcom.2026.108615
- Dergi Adı: COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Applied Science & Technology Source, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO), Engineering Source (EBSCO), Scopus, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Compendex, INSPEC, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA)
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-15
- Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) into Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) has strengthened the need for scalable and reliable wireless communication in smart grid systems. As utilities automate grid monitoring, deterministic and interference-resilient connectivity becomes essential to sustain large-scale low-power deployments. The IEEE 802.15.4e Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) protocol provides high reliability single hop communication through synchronized slot scheduling and channel diversity. The IETF 6TiSCH protocol enhances the IEEE 802.15.4e standard with IPv6 addressing and multi-hop communication. Although many of the current 6TiSCH deployments use the 2.4 GHz ISM band, it presents challenges in transmit power and propagation characteristics. In contrast, the 868 MHz ISM band offers superior propagation characteristics and permits higher transmission power, making it a compelling alternative. This study presents the first large-scale field evaluation of Sub-GHz TSCH in the 868 MHz spectrum, targeting smart metering communication in rural power distribution networks. All experiments were conducted exclusively within the ETSI-defined 868 MHz Band P (869.4-869.65 MHz), which permits up to 10% duty-cycle operation and a maximum effective radiated power (ERP) of 500 mW under ETSI EN 300 220 regulations. Field deployments across three distinct rural regions in Siirt, Türkiye, validate the efficacy of an 868 MHz TSCH-based protocol stack for IoT applications. Quantitative analysis of key metrics Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) at both MAC and application layers, RSSI, average hop count, and node duty-cycle, revealed consistently high performance. The results confirm that the protocol provides stable multi-hop connectivity and high reliability required for challenging rural environments with limited GSM coverage.