Energy-efficient Low-delay TDMA Scheduling Algorithm for Industrial Wireless Mesh Networks.

Time division multiple access (TDMA) is a widely used media access control (MAC) technique that can provide collision-free and reliable communications, save energy and bound the delay of packets. In TDMA, energy saving is usually achieved by switching the nodes' radio off when such nodes are not engaged. However, the frequent switching of the radio's state not only wastes energy, but also increases end-to-end delay. To achieve high energy efficiency and low delay, as well as to further minimize the number of time slots, a multi-objective TDMA scheduling problem for industrial wireless mesh networks is presented. A hybrid algorithm that combines genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is then proposed to solve the TDMA scheduling problem effectively. A number of critical techniques are also adopted to reduce energy consumption and to shorten end-to-end delay further. Simulation results with different kinds of networks demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms traditional scheduling algorithms in terms of addressing the problems of energy consumption and end-to-end delay, thus satisfying the demands of industrial wireless mesh networks.