Energy-delay tradeoffs in impulse-based ultra-wideband body area networks with noncoherent receivers

© 2014 IEEE. In this paper we address the problem of rate scheduling in the Impulse Radio (IR) ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless body area networks (WBANs) and the minimum energy required to stabilize the queuing system. Targeting low complexity WBAN applications, we assume noncoherent receivers based on energy detection and autocorrelation for all nodes. The coordinating node can minimize the average energy consumption of the system and achieve the queue backlog stability of the sensor nodes by controlling the number of pulses per symbol. We first illustrate the necessary and sufficient conditions of network stability for a multi-mode UWB system and then propose a feasible rate scheduling algorithm based on the Lyapunov optimization theory. The scheduling algorithm uses the instantaneous channel state information and the length of the local queue of all sensor nodes and can approach the optimal energy-delay tradeoff of the network. We apply our theoretical framework to the IR-UWB physical layer of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard and extract the optimal physical layer modes that can achieve the desired energy-delay tradeoff

Markov Decision Processes with Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of autonomous and resource-limited devices. The devices cooperate to monitor one or more physical phenomena within an area of interest. WSNs operate as stochastic systems because of randomness in the monitored environments. For long service time and low maintenance cost, WSNs require adaptive and robust methods to address data exchange, topology formulation, resource and power optimization, sensing coverage and object detection, and security challenges. In these problems, sensor nodes are to make optimized decisions from a set of accessible strategies to achieve design goals. This survey reviews numerous applications of the Markov decision process (MDP) framework, a powerful decision-making tool to develop adaptive algorithms and protocols for WSNs. Furthermore, various solution methods are discussed and compared to serve as a guide for using MDPs in WSNs

Adaptive Duty Cycling MAC Protocols Using Closed-Loop Control for Wireless Sensor Networks

The fundamental design goal of wireless sensor MAC protocols is to minimize unnecessary power consumption of the sensor nodes, because of its stringent resource constraints and ultra-power limitation. In existing MAC protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), duty cycling, in which each node periodically cycles between the active and sleep states, has been introduced to reduce unnecessary energy consumption. Existing MAC schemes, however, use a fixed duty cycling regardless of multi-hop communication and traffic fluctuations. On the other hand, there is a tradeoff between energy efficiency and delay caused by duty cycling mechanism in multi-hop communication and existing MAC approaches only tend to improve energy efficiency with sacrificing data delivery delay. In this paper, we propose two different MAC schemes (ADS-MAC and ELA-MAC) using closed-loop control in order to achieve both energy savings and minimal delay in wireless sensor networks. The two proposed MAC schemes, which are synchronous and asynchronous approaches, respectively, utilize an adaptive timer and a successive preload frame with closed-loop control for adaptive duty cycling. As a result, the analysis and the simulation results show that our schemes outperform existing schemes in terms of energy efficiency and delivery delay

Energy-Delay Tradeoff and Dynamic Sleep Switching for Bluetooth-Like Body-Area Sensor Networks

Wireless technology enables novel approaches to healthcare, in particular the remote monitoring of vital signs and other parameters indicative of people's health. This paper considers a system scenario relevant to such applications, where a smart-phone acts as a data-collecting hub, gathering data from a number of wireless-capable body sensors, and relaying them to a healthcare provider host through standard existing cellular networks. Delay of critical data and sensors' energy efficiency are both relevant and conflicting issues. Therefore, it is important to operate the wireless body-area sensor network at some desired point close to the optimal energy-delay tradeoff curve. This tradeoff curve is a function of the employed physical-layer protocol: in particular, it depends on the multiple-access scheme and on the coding and modulation schemes available. In this work, we consider a protocol closely inspired by the widely-used Bluetooth standard. First, we consider the calculation of the minimum energy function, i.e., the minimum sum energy per symbol that guarantees the stability of all transmission queues in the network. Then, we apply the general theory developed by Neely to develop a dynamic scheduling policy that approaches the optimal energy-delay tradeoff for the network at hand. Finally, we examine the queue dynamics and propose a novel policy that adaptively switches between connected and disconnected (sleeping) modes. We demonstrate that the proposed policy can achieve significant gains in the realistic case where the control "NULL" packets necessary to maintain the connection alive, have a non-zero energy cost, and the data arrival statistics corresponding to the sensed physical process are bursty.Comment: Extended version (with proofs details in the Appendix) of a paper accepted for publication on the IEEE Transactions on Communication

Energy-delay bounds analysis in wireless multi-hop networks with unreliable radio links

Energy efficiency and transmission delay are very important parameters for wireless multi-hop networks. Previous works that study energy efficiency and delay are based on the assumption of reliable links. However, the unreliability of the channel is inevitable in wireless multi-hop networks. This paper investigates the trade-off between the energy consumption and the end-to-end delay of multi-hop communications in a wireless network using an unreliable link model. It provides a closed form expression of the lower bound on the energy-delay trade-off for different channel models (AWGN, Raleigh flat fading and Nakagami block-fading) in a linear network. These analytical results are also verified in 2-dimensional Poisson networks using simulations. The main contribution of this work is the use of a probabilistic link model to define the energy efficiency of the system and capture the energy-delay trade-offs. Hence, it provides a more realistic lower bound on both the energy efficiency and the energy-delay trade-off since it does not restrict the study to the set of perfect links as proposed in earlier works

Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks with RF Energy Harvesting and Transfer

Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting and transfer techniques have recently become alternative methods to power the next generation of wireless networks. As this emerging technology enables proactive replenishment of wireless devices, it is advantageous in supporting applications with quality-of-service (QoS) requirement. This article focuses on the resource allocation issues in wireless networks with RF energy harvesting capability, referred to as RF energy harvesting networks (RF-EHNs). First, we present an overview of the RF-EHNs, followed by a review of a variety of issues regarding resource allocation. Then, we present a case study of designing in the receiver operation policy, which is of paramount importance in the RF-EHNs. We focus on QoS support and service differentiation, which have not been addressed by previous literatures. Furthermore, we outline some open research directions.Comment: To appear in IEEE Networ