A power-saving scheduling for IEEE 802.11 mobile ad hoc network

Power efficiency is one of the most important aspects in mobile networks. Much research has been done in saving power for mobile devices. The IEEE 802.11 standard adopts a MAC layer sleep-wake power-saving scheme, and in the ad hoc mode of IEEE 802.11, a fully connected network is used. Taking advantage of the above mechanisms, we propose in this paper an enhanced power-saving algorithm that incorporates a contention-free scheduling function for data transmission within the beacon interval. We show by simulations that this enhanced algorithm results in better efficiency on both system throughput and energy preservation.