A Model for Energy Usage in IEEE 802.11s Based Mesh Networks

Abstract

With increasing demand of Internet access service over large geographical area, Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) are gaining popularity among community. Numbers of standards are in market for wireless communications. Among that, standards like IEEE 802.11s and IEEE 802.16j are specifically designed for WMN. In rural or difficult environment, energy can be a highly scarce resource and every joule can be proved very precious. So, this research work focuses on energy efficiency aspects of IEEE 802.11s. Mesh nodes in IEEE 802.11s can maintain link specific power mode, independent of power saving mode (PSM) for other peer links. Energy consumption due to link-based PSM has been mathematically modeled. Impact of number of peer links, delivery traffic indication map period, bandwidth, traffic etc., over energy efficiency and network lifetime have been analyzed in PSM. It is observed that, with growth in peer links the energy consumption boosts up inspite of no traffic. So, with increase in number of peer links light sleep mode is lesser effective in terms of energy efficiency. The analysis stresses for redundant links to be in deep sleep mode for further energy saving.