Real-World Energy Measurements of a Wireless Mesh Network

Over the past several years the topics of energy consumption and energy harvesting have gained significant importance as a means for improved operation of wireless sensor and mesh networks. Energy-awareness of operation is especially relevant for application scenarios from the domain of environmental monitoring in hard to access areas. In this work we reflect upon our experiences with a real-world deployment of a wireless mesh network. In particular, a comprehensive study on energy measurements collected over several weeks during the summer and the winter period in a network deployment in the Swiss Alps is presented. Energy performance is monitored and analysed for three system components, namely, mesh node, battery and solar panel module. Our findings cover a number of aspects of energy consumption, including the amount of load consumed by a mesh node, the amount of load harvested by a solar panel module, and the dependencies between these two. With our work we aim to shed some light on energy-aware network operation and to help both users and developers in the planning and deployment of a new wireless (mesh) network for environmental research.

Energy Efficiency Issues in Information-Centric Networking

In this paper we address energy efficiency issues of Information Centric Networking (ICN) architectures. In the proposed framework, we investigate the impact of ICN architectures on energy consumption of networking hardware devices and compare them with the energy consumption of other content dissemination methods. In particular, we investigate the consequences of caching in ICN from the energy efficiency perspective, taking into account the energy consumption of different hardware components in the ICN architectures. Based on the results of the analysis, we address the practical issues regarding the possible deployment and evolution of ICN from an energy-efficiency perspective. Finally, we summarize our findings and discuss the outlook/future perspectives on the energy efficiency of Information-Centric Networks.

Enhancing IEEE 802.11 Energy Efficiency for Continuous Media Applications

This paper proposes the Optimized Power save Algorithm for continuous Media Applications (OPAMA) to improve end-user device energy efficiency. OPAMA enhances the standard legacy Power Save Mode (PSM) of IEEE 802.11 by taking into consideration application specific requirements combined with data aggregation techniques. By establishing a balanced cost/benefit tradeoff between performance and energy consumption, OPAMA is able to improve energy efficiency, while keeping the end-user experience at a desired level. OPAMA was assessed in the OMNeT++ simulator using real traces of variable bitrate video streaming applications. The results showed the capability to enhance energy efficiency, achieving savings up to 44% when compared with the IEEE 802.11 legacy PSM.