An MDP-based application oriented optimal policy for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Technological advancements due to Moore’s law have led to the proliferation of complex wireless sensor network (WSN) domains. One commonality across all WSN domains is the need to meet application requirements (i.e. lifetime, respon-siveness, etc.) through domain specific sensor node design. Techniques such as sensor node parameter tuning enable WSN designers to specialize tunable parameters (i.e. proces-sor voltage and frequency, sensing frequency, etc.) to meet these application requirements. However, given WSN do-main diversity, varying environmental situations (stimuli), and sensor node complexity, sensor node parameter tuning is a very challenging task. In this paper, we propose an auto-mated Markov Decision Process (MDP)-based methodology to prescribe optimal sensor node operation (selection of val-ues for tunable parameters such as processor voltage, pro-cessor frequency, and sensing frequency) to meet application requirements and adapt to changing environmental stimuli. Numerical results confirm the optimality of our proposed methodology and reveal that our methodology more closely meets application requirements compared to other feasible policies