Adaptive Radio Modes in Sensor Networks: How Deep to Sleep?

—Energy-efficient performance is a central challenge in sensor network deployments, and the radio is a major contributor to overall energy node consumption. Current energyefficient MAC protocols for sensor networks use a fixed low power radio mode for putting the radio to sleep. Fixed low power modes involve an inherent tradeoff: deep sleep modes have low current draw and high energy cost and latency for switching the radio to active mode, while light sleep modes have quick and inexpensive switching to active mode with a higher current draw. This paper proposes adaptive radio low power sleep modes based on current traffic conditions in the network, as an enhancement to our recent RFIDImpulse low power wake-up mechanism. The paper also introduces a comprehensive node energy model, that includes energy components for radio switching, transmission, reception, listening, and sleeping, as well as the often disregarded microcontroller energy component to evaluate energy performance for...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: SECON
• Authors: Raja Jurdak, Antonio G. Ruzzelli, Gregory M. P. O'Hare
• Keywords: Communications, Low Power, Low Power Mode, SECON 2008, Sleep Modes