Min (N, T) Policy M/G/1 Queue based Reduction of Power Consumption in Wireless Sensor Networks

Technological advancements in the research of integrated circuits and communications have made it possible to manufacture and deploy efficient, low cost, low power small devices in sensor-based applications. This has led to the feasibility of using a network of sensors to be used for the collection, processing, analysis, and distribution of valuable information collected in an array of environments. A critical issue in wireless sensor networks is the scarcity of power, and hence optimal use of available power is of prime importance. It is seen that in any sensor node, switching from idle to busy state and vice versa takes up a significant portion of the power. There are a few queue-based techniques that aim to reduce the number of transitions to reduce the consumption of power. This, however, introduces a delay in the processing of the packets. To alleviate this, we study a technique to reduce the average consumption of power in a sensor node by making use of the Min (N, T) policy M/G/1 queue. Utilizing both a counter (N) and a timer (T) to trigger a radio server to transmit queued packets would ensure reduced power consumption at the sensor node for communication and also mitigate the latency delay introduced due to the N - policy. We analyze the performance of this system with respect to power consumption. The simulations performed show that the simulation results are close to the theoretical results, thus indicating the validity of the technique studied.