On the applicability of model predictive power control to an IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor network

This paper addresses the practical applicability of dual mode infinite horizon model predictive control (MPC) strategies for a variety of stationary and mobile transmission power control problems that arise naturally in wireless sensor network (WSN) systems. The key performance requirement is to maximise battery lifetime while also preserving sufficient Quality of Service (QoS) among all users. This is achieved by implementing a closed-loop MPC mechanism within a nominal state-space tracking error based dynamic model that uses the received signal strength related to the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) as a state feedback signal. The resulting controller is compared with a number of proven strategies and is experimentally validated using an IEEE 802.15.4 WSN test bed and across a number of different test scenarios.