Green wireless video sensor networks using FM radio system as control channel

The rise of the Internet of Things and the growth of the IP cameras market are making Wireless Video Sensor Networks (WVSNs) popular. In turn, Wi-Fi is becoming the enabling technology for WVSNs due to its flexibility, high bitrates provided and low cost; however, these networks suffer from three major problems: bad performance, throughput unfairness, and energy inefficiency. In order to address the lack of holistic solutions to solve these problems, we propose the FM-WiFIX+ solution. This solution uses FM radio as an out-of-band control channel to signal when a video sensor should turn its IEEE 802.11 interface OFF, thus saving energy. The results obtained with a proof-of-concept prototype show that for a network with 7 nodes the proposed solution can achieve gains of energy up to 48 %, while maintaining good levels of performance and throughput fairness.