Hybrid Transmission Power Control for Wireless Body Sensor Systems

Abstract

In wireless body sensor network systems (WB-SNSs), the sensor nodes have very limited battery power because they are tiny, lightweight, and wearable or implantable. As a result, WB-SNSs require a very efficient transmission power control (TPC) algorithm for effectively reducing energy consumption and extending the lifetime of sensor nodes. To achieve this goal, we propose a novel TPC algorithm referred to as hybrid TPC. The hybrid TPC algorithm adaptively selects a conservative or an aggressive control mechanism depending on current channel conditions. The conservative control mechanism, which slowly changes transmission power level (TPL), is suitable in a dynamic environment. On the other hand, the aggressive control mechanism, which rapidly changes TPL, is ideal in a static environment. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the hybrid TPC algorithm, we implemented various TPC algorithms and compared their performances against the hybrid TPC algorithm in different channel environments. The experimental results showed that the hybrid TPC algorithm outperformed other TPC algorithms in all channel environments.

A survey of link quality properties related to transmission power control protocols in wireless sensor networks

“…Analysis of the link quality properties captured in previously published works on TPC in WSNs, including: ATPC [11], B-MAC-PCI [14] B-MAC-PCA [14], ATPC for WBANs [15], TPC in WBANs for healthcare monitoring [16], AMC-TPC [7], RSSI/LQI TPC for BANs in healthcare environments [17] and Hybrid [18], highlight that all current solutions suffer from one or more of the following major deficiencies: 1) Unable to identify when multiple retransmissions occur. Packet retransmissions, as a result of poor communication reliability, consume significant energy resources.…”

Opportunities for transmission power control protocols in wireless sensor networks

“…The vastly different results are due to studies being carried out using different platforms having different radio chips (e.g. MicaZ that incorporates the Chipcon CC2420 used in [7] [8] [9], whilst the Mica2 with the Chipcon C1000 used in [10] [6]), different operational environments (e.g. indoor, outdoor) and different experimental settings (e.g.…”

An empirical study of link quality assessment in wireless sensor networks applicable to transmission power control protocols

“…As seen by the limited number of data points representing the curve for when interference is present in the network, external interference also detrimentally effects the communication reliability. This highlights that the relationship between RSSI and communication reliability is not fixed and TPC protocols such as [8][14] [15] that assume this, would lead to unreliable performance when these temporal patterns exist in the network.…”