Improving Low Power Listening (LPL) Mechanism to Save Energy Consumption in WSN

As stated in the literature, Low Power Listening (LPL) duty cycle is one of the most common energy conservation solution for WSN. By using channel check mechanism, the purpose of LPL solutions is to reduce the energy consumption of the listening phase. In this paper, we propose to study the performances and limitations of this kind of solutions. Therefore, we deploy a ContikiMAC LPL on both real and simulated WSN platform to demonstrate the impact of LPL on the energy consumptions of the node radio and microcontroller but also on the application Quality of Service. Based on the obtained results, shortcomings of LPL solutions are highlighted and potential improvements are discussed such as the use of multi-parameter dynamic duty cycle.