Reducing the Energy Consumption of Group Driven Ad-hoc Wireless
Sharad Agarwal, Randy Howard Katz, Anthony Douglas Joseph · 2001
Mobile ad-hoc networking involves peer-to-peer communication in a network with a dynamically changing topology. Energy efficient communication in such a network is more challenging than in cellular networks since there is no centralized arbiter such as a base station that can administer power management. In this report, we examine energy efficient networking protocols for ad-hoc networks. We propose MAC (media access control) and routing protocols that significantly impact the energy conservation and throughput of ad-hoc networks. We introduce a comprehensive simulation infrastructure consisting of group mobility, group communication and terrain blockage models. We employ these models to evaluate a power control loop, similar to those commonly found in cellular CDMA networks, for ad-hoc wireless networks. We show that this power control loop reduces energy consumption per transmitted byte by 10 - 20%. Furthermore, we show that it increases overall throughput by 15%. It performs significantly better in the new proposed simulation models than in simulations with random node mobility and communication models. We also discuss sleep cycle and low energy routing mechanisms.