System-level Dynamic Power Management Techniques for Communication Intensive Devices

Low-power devices require energy-aware design and dynamic power management techniques to reduce the power consumption. Communication intensive devices make the decision of shutting down idle components very difficult, specially in wireless communication. This paper presents a new system-level dynamic power management technique to reduce the power consumption of communication intensive sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks. It analyzes the application-level information to determine the need for communication and to selectively shutdown hardware components, specially the radio. The hybrid automata framework is used to dynamically change duty cycles, making the best trade-off between energy conservation and quality of service, according to the application requirements. Simulation results reveal that application-level information is crucial to reduce power consumption and to increase the sensor node lifetime.