Impacts of Transmission Power Control on Link Quality Estimation in Wireless Sensor Networks

Transmission power control (TPC) is often utilized to achieve dynamic topology control while minimizing energy consumption in wireless sensor networks, which is usually adjusted based on the condition of links. Therefore, the accuracy of link quality estimation (LQE) is critical to the efficiency of TPC. Although there are many well-established metrics and models for LQE, most of them are developed and validated in conditions of constant transmission power. This paper systematically analyzes the influence of transmission power changes on commonly used LQE metrics and models. The results indicate that the change of transmission power has different impacts on different link quality metrics and models. As LQI is less affected by the change of transmission power, it should be the best LQE metric under TPC.