An Energy Consumption Model for IEEE 802.11ah WLANs

TL;DR

This paper introduces an analytical energy consumption model for IEEE 802.11ah WLANs in power saving mode, aiding in optimizing IoT device battery life and validating existing power saving parameters.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed energy consumption model for IEEE 802.11ah WLANs in power saving mode, enabling estimation of energy use and battery lifetime.

Findings

The model accurately predicts average energy consumption.

Optimal power saving parameters are validated for IoT scenarios.

IEEE 802.11ah parameters are already near optimal.

Abstract

One of the main challenges when designing a new self-powered wireless sensor network (WSN) technology is the vast operational dependence on its scarce energy resources. Therefore, a thorough identification and characterisation of the main energy consumption processes may lay the foundation for developing further mechanisms aimed to make a more efficient use of devices' batteries. This paper provides an energy consumption model for IEEE 802.11ah WLANs operating in power saving mode, which are expected to become one of the technology drivers in the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the next years. Given the network characteristics, the presented analytical model is able to provide an estimation of the average energy consumed by a station as well as to predict its battery lifetime. Once the model has been validated, we use it to obtain the optimal IEEE 802.11ah power saving parameters in several IoT key scenarios, validating that the parameters provided by the IEEE 802.11ah Task Group are already a very good choice.