Deploying Energy Efficient Wi-Fi Networks

The growing number of Wi-Fi networks at homes, buildings and public areas can consume excessive energy and therefore increase CO2 emissions. Hence, the aim of this paper is to investigate the energy consumption of Wi-Fi networks in general. This study is based on real-world observations both usage and energy consumption of Wi-Fi access points. A variety of off-the-shelf Wi-Fi access points were examined to investigate to what degree clients' usage patterns, especially the signal to noise ratio (SNR) affects the energy consumption. The results indicate that low SNR increases the energy consumption up to 136% in various Wi-Fi access points. Therefore, confining clients with a low level of SNR can reduce the energy consumption of Wi-Fi access points while increases network throughput. Hence, findings of this paper can improve the energy efficiency of Wi-Fi networks in particular energy and cost efficiency of public hotspots.