Various Energy-Saving Approaches in Wireless Sensor Networks: An Overview

The amount of energy expended in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is directly related to the life-period of the network. The energy expended in a WSN is therefore a very crucial resource and it needs to be managed wisely. In this paper, the different ways in which energy is consumed in a WSN is described. The paper highlights energy dissipation in a WSN at three major levels – hardware level, network level and the software level. A brief enumeration is then provided of different approaches that are used, sometimes simultaneously, to minimize the energy loss in a WSN at these three different levels.