The IETF IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE802.15.4e (6TiSCH) working group has standardized a set of protocols to enable low power industrial-grade IPv6 networks. 6TiSCH proposes a protocol stack rooted in the Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) mode of the IEEE802.15.4-2015 standard, supports multi-hop topologies with the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) routing protocol, and is IPv6-ready through 6LoWPAN. 6TiSCH has defined the missing control plane protocols to match link-layer resources to the routing topology and application communication needs. 6TiSCH has also defined a secure light-weight join processes combining link-layer security features (through Counter with CBC-MAC (CCM*)) with a secure joining procedure using the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP). This tutorial provides a comprehensive overview of the 6TiSCH architecture and protocol suite, including the 6TiSCH Operation Sublayer (6top), the 6top Protocol (6P), and how it uses 6LoWPAN, IP-in-IP encapsulation, and RPL. This document is meant to be used both as a primer, and as a reference. It is tailored to the advanced researcher and engineer implementing and building upon IETF 6TiSCH specifications.

IoT in Agriculture applications have evolved to solve several relevant problems from producers. Here, we describe a component of an IoT-enabled frost prediction system. We follow current approaches for prediction that use machine learning algorithms trained by past readings of temperature and humidity sensors to predict future temperatures. However, contrary to current approaches, we assume that the surrounding thermodynamical conditions are informative for prediction. For that, a model was developed for each location, including in its training information of sensor readings of all other locations, autonomously selecting the most relevant ones (algorithm dependent). We evaluated our approach by training regression and classification models using several machine learning algorithms, many already proposed in the literature for the frost prediction problem, over data from five meteorological stations spread along the Mendoza Province of Argentina. Given the scarcity of frost events, data was augmented using the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE). The experimental results show that selecting the most relevant neighbors and training the models with SMOTE reduces the prediction errors of both regression predictors for all five locations, increases the performance of Random Forest classification predictors for four locations while keeping it unchanged for the remaining one, and produces inconclusive results for Logistic regression predictor. These results demonstrate the main claim of these work: that thermodynamic information of neighboring locations can be informative for improving both regression and classification predictions, but also are good enough to suggest that the present approach is a valid and useful resource for decision makers and producers.

The convergence of operational and information technologies in the industry requires a new generation of IP-compliant communication protocols that can meet the industrial performance requirements while facilitating the integration with novel web-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. For more than a decade, the industry has relied on time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH) communication technology to meet these performance requirements through standards such as WirelessHART and ISA100.11a. TSCH-based networks have proven to yield over 99.999% end-to-end reliability, supporting flow isolation and QoS management while ensuring over a decade of battery lifetime. However, these technologies were designed to address the factory use cases of a decade ago, not considering IP compliance or standardized network management and resource orchestration as a must. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the 6TiSCH working group (WG) have been actively working on this challenge by designing protocols to bridge the performance of industrial solutions with IP-compliant networks. The effort has resulted in 6TiSCH, a set of specifications that define the IPv6 control plane to manage and orchestrate a TSCH network. 6TiSCH provides the missing elements for zero-configuration TSCH network bootstrap, efficient network access authentication, and distributed and modular scheduling mechanisms. As a cross-layer effort, 6TiSCH leverages and integrates other IETF specifications and the WG has also driven the definition of novel specifications in other IETF WGs. An ultimate goal of this effort is the definition of a fully functional architecture where a combination of IETF protocols enables the envisioned convergence on top of the IEEE industrial standard. This paper introduces the work done by the 6TiSCH WG at IETF, evaluates the performance of the reference implementation, and discusses the 6TiSCH software ecosystem.