Communication Range Dynamics Using an Energy Saving Self-Adaptive Transmission Power Controller in a Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

The deployment of the nodes in a Wireless Sensors and Actuators Network (WSAN) is typically restricted by the sensing and acting coverage. This implies that the locations of the nodes may be, and usually are, not optimal from the point of view of the radio communication. And also when the transmission power is tuned for those locations, there are other unpredictable factors that can cause connectivity failures, like interferences, signal fading due to passing objects, and of course, radio irregularities. A control based self-adaptive system is a typical solution to improve the energy consumption while keeping a good connectivity. In this paper, we explore how the communication range for each node evolves along the iterations of an energy saving self-adaptive transmission power controller when using different parameter sets in an outdoor scenario, providing a WSAN that automatically adapts to surrounding changes keeping a good connectivity. The results obtained in this paper show how the parameters with the best performance keep a k-connected network, where k is in the range of the desired node degree plus or minus a specified tolerance value. In addition, the worst performance shows how a bad parameters choice can create isolated islands, groups of nodes disconnected from the rest of the network.