Sleep and Wakeup Strategies in Solar-Powered Wireless Sensor/Mesh Networks: Performance Analysis and Optimization

A queuing analytical model is presented to investigate the performances of different sleep and wakeup strategies in a solar-powered wireless sensor/mesh network where a solar cell is used to charge the battery in a sensor/mesh node. While the solar radiation process (and, hence, the energy generation process in a solar cell) is modeled by a stochastic process (i.e., a Markov chain), a linear battery model with relaxation effect is used to model the battery capacity recovery process. Developed based on a multidimensional discrete-time Markov chain, the presented model is used to analyze the performances of different sleep and wakeup strategies in a sensor/mesh node. The packet dropping and packet blocking probabilities at a node are the major performance metrics. The numerical results obtained from the analytical model are validated by extensive simulations. In addition, using the queuing model, based on a game-theoretic formulation, we demonstrate how to obtain the optimal parameters for a particular sleep and wakeup strategy. In this case, we formulate a bargaining game by exploiting the trade-off between packet blocking and packet dropping probabilities due to the sleep and wakeup dynamics in a sensor/mesh node. The Nash solution is obtained for the equilibrium point of sleep and wakeup probabilities. The presented queuing model, along with the game-theoretic formulation, would be useful for the design and optimization of energy-efficient protocols for solar-powered wireless sensor/mesh networks under quality-of-service (QoS) constraints