Towards an energy-efficient Wi-Fi: An experimental study on recent standards power consumption

This paper presents a study of the current con-sumption of various Medium Access Control (MAC) states for Wi-Fi devices, focusing on the latest IEEE 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) and 802.11ac standards. Through detailed experimental measurements, we provide new, precise values for the current drawn in MAC states such as idle, transmission, reception, and sleep. We capture real-time current consumption in different scenarios with various traffic loads, offering an understanding of the power usage across different operational modes. The results reveal significant differences in power consumption patterns compared to earlier Wi-Fi standards (e.g., 802.11n), with notable improvements in energy efficiency in sleep and idle states, but increased current draw in transmission and reception states. These findings provide valuable insights into the energy behavior of recent Wi-Fi devices, offering a solid basis for the simulation of power management optimization strategies in next-generation wireless systems.