Joint routing and scheduling in multi-channel capillary machine-to-machine networks

In recent times, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is considered the most promising solution for revolutionizing future intelligent pervasive applications. The capillary M2M network is a key component of the M2M system, and it should support a data rate that is sufficient to accommodate various vertical applications with limited resources of end devices. This paper presents a joint routing and scheduling (JRS) framework for a capillary M2M network. To achieve the conflicting goals of maximizing network performance and conserving energy, the JRS framework is designed with an integrated concept of routing and transmission scheduling, which provides time division multiple access (TDMA)-based transmission scheduling based on the established routing path of data. Moreover, to extend the number of available transmission frames and enhance network performance, JRS uses the multi-channel communication approach. Experimental results of the prototype implementation demonstrate that JRS outperforms conventional schemes, even under heavy traffic conditions.