29-08-2017, 10:12 AM
In wireless sensor networks, where energy efficiency is the key design challenge, power consumption is usually dominated by the node's communication subsystem. It can only be significantly reduced by the transition from the embedded radio to a state of rest, at which point the node essentially retracts from the network topology. Existing topology management schemes have focused on intelligently selecting which nodes can turn off their radius, without sacrificing network capacity. We propose a new technique, called dispersed topology and energy management (STEM), that dramatically improves the useful life of the network by exploiting the fact that most of the time, the network only detects its environment waiting for an event to occur. By alleviating the restriction of the preservation network capacity, we can exchange large energy savings for an increase in latency to establish a multi-hop path. We will also show how STEM is efficiently integrated with existing topology management techniques.