Investigating Wireless Sensor Network Lifetime Using a Realistic Radio Communication Model

Investigating realistic simulations in wireless sensor networks has been an area which has drawn a lot of research interest. These simulations are used to predict the lifetime of wireless sensor networks, evaluation of network performance and data dissemination algorithms. A discrete radio model can be used for calculating more realistic power consumption and determining which links between sensor motes are available for transmission. In this work, we apply a discrete power dissipation model to investigate performance of a few data dissemination algorithms and techniques. We also define an upper bound upon network lifetime which is derived from the discrete radio model.