Industrial control systems have traditionally been built around dedicated wired solutions. The requirements of flexibility, mobility, and cost have created a strong push toward wireless solutions, preferably solutions requiring low power. Simultaneously, the increased need for interoperability and integration with the wider Internet made a transition to IP-based communication unavoidable.

Following these trends, we survey 6TiSCH, the emerging family of standards for IP-based industrial communication over low-power and lossy networks. We describe the state of the standardization work, the major issues being discussed, and open questions recently identified.

Based on extensive first-hand experience, we discuss challenges in implementation of this new wave of standards. Lessons learned are highlighted from four popular open-source implementations of these standards: OpenWSN, Contiki, RIOT, and TinyOS. We outline major requirements, present insights from early interoperability testing and performance evaluations, and provide guidelines for chip manufacturers and implementers.