Energy Consumption Model for Power Management in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

It is well recognized that a proper energy consumption model is a foundation for developing and evaluating a power management scheme in the wireless sensor networks (WSN). However, by investigating the organization and behavior of the communication subsystem in WSN devices, we found that in terms of energy consumption, the actual specifications of real WSN devices are significantly different from those typically assumed while designing and evaluating the energy-aware protocols. We argue that the fundamental energy consumption behavior of real WSN devices is critically important to properly model before optimizing or developing an energy-aware design even at higher communication layers. Thus, we initially propose a general energy consumption model of WSN devices based on their actual hardware architecture. In particular, we utilize measured energy consumption performance of the actual hardware components to implement a realistic CSESM (Communication Subsystem Energy Consumption Model) of WSN devices, which reflects the energy consumption in various functioning states and during transitions between states of the devices. By applying the CSECM, we are able to evaluate and analyze the energy efficiency of various WSN sleeping schedule protocols. Experimental measurements with real WSN devices (CC1000 and CC2420) validated the CSECM and its application methodology. Furthermore, using realistic CSECM parameter from real WSN devices has significant impact on the evaluation of energy efficient WSN sleeping schedule protocols and in developing effective power management schemes.