Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Adaptive link layer strategies for energy efficient wireless networking

  • Published:
Wireless Networks Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Low power consumption is a key design metric for portable wireless network devices where battery energy is a limited resource. The resultant energy efficient design problem can be addressed at various levels of system design, and indeed much research has been done for hardware power optimization and power management within a wireless device. However, with the increasing trend towards thin client type wireless devices that rely more and more on network based services, a high fraction of power consumption is being accounted for by the transport of packet data over wireless links [28]. This offers an opportunity to optimize for low power in higher layer network protocols responsible for data communication among multiple wireless devices. Consider the data link protocols that transport bits across the wireless link. While traditionally designed around the conventional metrics of throughput and latency, a proper design offers many opportunities for optimizing the metric most relevant to battery operated devices: the amount of battery energy consumed per useful user level bit transmitted across the wireless link. This includes energy spent in the physical radio transmission process, as well as in computation such as signal processing and error coding. This paper describes how energy efficiency in the wireless data link can be enhanced via adaptive frame length control in concert with adaptive error control based on hybrid FEC (forward error correction) and ARQ (automatic repeat request). Key to this approach is a high degree of adaptivity. The length and error coding of the atomic data unit (frame) going over the air, and the retransmission protocol are (a) selected for each application stream (ATM virtual circuit or IP/RSVP flow) based on quality of service (QoS) requirements, and (b) continually adapted as a function of varying radio channel conditions due to fading and other impairments. We present analysis and simulation results on the battery energy efficiency achieved for user traffic of different QoS requirements, and describe hardware and software implementations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. P. Agrawal, E. Hyden, P. Krzyzanowski, M.B. Srivastava and J. Trotter, Hardware-software architecture of the SWAN wireless ATM network, Journal of VLSI Signal Processing 13(2–3) (August-September 1996) 87–104.

    Google Scholar 

  2. A. Asthana, M. Cravatts and P. Krzyzanowski, An indoor wireless system for personalized shopping assistance, in: Proceedings of Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, Santa Cruz, CA (8–9 December 1994) pp. 69–74.

  3. E. Ayanoglu, Adaptive ARQ/FEC for multitone transmission in wireless networks, in: Proceedings of GLOBECOM '95, Vol. 3, Singapore (13–17 November 1995) pp. 2278–2283.

    Google Scholar 

  4. E. Ayanoglu, S. Paul, T.F. LaPorta, K.K. Sabnani et al., AIRMAIL: a link-layer protocol for wireless networks, Wireless Networks 1(1) (1995) 47–60.

    Google Scholar 

  5. R. Bagrodia and W.-L. Liao, Maisie: A language for design of ef-ficient discrete-event simulations, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (April 1994).

  6. B.S. Bakshi, P. Krishna, N.H. Vaidya and D.K. Pradhan, Improving Performance of TCP over wireless networks, in: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, Baltimore, MD (27–30 May 1997) pp. 365–73.

  7. H. Balakrishnan, S. Seshan, E. Amir and R.H. Katz, Improving TCP/IP performance over wireless networks, in: Proceedings of the 1st ACM Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking 1995 (MobiCom '95) (November 1995).

  8. [8] A.P. Chandrakasan and R.W. Brodersen, Minimizing power consumption in digital CMOS circuits, Proceedings of the IEEE 83(4) (April 1995) pp. 498–523. 354 P. Lettieri et al. / Adaptive link layer strategies

    Google Scholar 

  9. C. Chien, S. Nazareth, P. Lettieri, W.A. Boring, J. Chen, S. Molloy, M. Siqueira, M. Srivastava, A. Alwan and R. Jain, Design experience with an integrated testbed for wireless multimedia computing, in: Mobile Multimedia Communications(Plenum Press, 1997).

  10. F. Douglis, P. Krishnan and B. Marsh, Thwarting the power-hungry disk, in: Proceedings of the Winter 1994 USENIX Conference(January 1994) pp. 293–306.

  11. W. Gang, K. Taira and K. Mukumoto et al., A mixed channel access and hybrid ARQ method for wireless communication networks, in: Proceedings of ICUPC '95–4th IEEE International Conference on Universal Personal Communications, Tokyo, Japan (6–10November 1995) pp. 707–712.

  12. S. Hara, A. Ogino, M. Araki, M. Okada and N. Morinaga, Throughput performance of SAW-ARQ protocol with adaptive packet length in mobile packet data transmission, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 45(3) (August 1996) 561–569.

    Google Scholar 

  13. I. Joe, An adaptive hybrid ARQ scheme with concatenated FEC codes for wireless ATM, in: Proceedings of the 3rd Annual ACM/ IEEE International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking 1997 (MobiCom '97), Budapest, Hungary (26–30 September 1997) pp. 131–138.

  14. P. Lettieri and M.B. Srivastava, Adaptive frame length control for improving wireless link throughput, range, and energy efficiency, in: Proceedings of IEEE Infocom '98, San Francisco, CA (29 March-2 April 1998) pp. 564–571.

  15. S. Lin and D.J. Costello, Jr., Error Control Coding: Fundamentals and Applications(Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  16. W. Mangione-Smith, P.S. Ghang, S. Nazareth, P. Lettieri et al., A low power architecture for wireless multimedia systems: lessons learned from building a power hog, in: Proceedings 1996 International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design(August 1996) pp. 23–28.

  17. S. Narayanaswamy, S. Seshan, E. Amir and E. Brewer et al., A lowpower, lightweight unit to provide ubiquitous information access application and network support for InfoPad, IEEE Personal Communications 3(2) (April 1996) 4–17.

    Google Scholar 

  18. J.-Y. Park, J.-S. An, Y.-N. Han, S.-J. Lim et al., Throughput performance improvement of adaptive packet length allocation scheme in wireless data communication system, in: Proceedings of 1995 International Symposium on Communications (ISCOM '95), Vol. 1, Taipei, Taiwan (December 27–29, 1995) pp. 401–408.

    Google Scholar 

  19. T.S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications: Principles & Practice(Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  20. M. Sarraf, Optimum packet length in a fading channel environment along with random bit rrrors and finite buffer size, AT&T Technical Memorandum, No. 140360000 (October 30, 1991).

  21. K.A. Semenov and A.I. Antonov, A quantitative estimate of the effectiveness of an adaptive algorithm for selecting block length in data transmission systems, Radiotekhnika 50(1). Translation: Telecommunications and Radio Engineering, Part 2 (Radio Engineering) 44(11) (November 1989) pp. 91–93.

    Google Scholar 

  22. J. Short, R. Bagrodia and L. Kleinrock, Mobile wireless network system simulation, in: Proceedings of 1st Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (Mobicom '95), Berkeley, CA (November 1995).

  23. C.K. Siew and D.J. Goodman, Packet data transmission over mobile radio channels, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 38(2) (May 1989) 95–101.

    Google Scholar 

  24. K.M. Sivalingam, M.B. Srivastava and P. Agrawal, Low power link and access protocols for wireless multimedia networks, in: Proceedings of IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, Phoenix, AZ (May 1997).

  25. K.M. Sivalingam, M.B. Srivastava, P. Agrawal and J.C. Chen, Lowpower access protocols based on scheduling for wireless and mobile ATM networks, in: Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE 6th International Conference on Universal Personal Communications, Vol. 2 (October 1997) pp. 429–433.

    Google Scholar 

  26. J.D. Spragins, J.L. Hammond and K. Pawlikowski, Telecommunications: Protocols and Design(Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1991) Chapter 6, pp. 293–295.

    Google Scholar 

  27. M.B. Srivastava, A.P. Chandrakasan and R.W. Brodersen, Predictive system shutdown and other architectural techniques for energy effi-cient programmable computation, IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems 4(1) (March 1996) 42–55.

    Google Scholar 

  28. M. Stemm, P. Gauthier, D. Harada and R. Katz, Reducing power consumption of network interfaces in hand-held devices, in: Proceedings of 3rd International Workshop on Mobile Multimedia Communications (MoMuC-3)(September 1996).

  29. F. Swarts and H.C. Ferreira, Markov characterization of digital fading mobile VHF channels, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 43(4) (November 1994) 977–985.

    Google Scholar 

  30. H.S. Wang and N. Moayeri, Finite-state Markov channel-A useful model for radio communication channels, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 44(1) (February 1995) 163–171.

    Google Scholar 

  31. M. Weiser, Some computer science issues in ubiquitous computing, Communications of the ACM 36(7) (July 1993) 74–84.

    Google Scholar 

  32. M. Weiser, B. Welch, A. Demers and S. Shenker, Scheduling for reduced CPU energy, in: Proceedings of the 1st USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI), Monterey, CA (November 1994) pp. 13–23.

  33. S. Yajnik, J. Sienicki and P. Agrawal, Adaptive coding for packetized data in wireless networks, in: Proceedings of 6th IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC '95), Toronto, Ontario, Canada (September 27–29, 1995) pp. 338–342.

  34. H. Zhao and S. Uebayashi, A hybrid ARQ scheme for DS-CDMA mobile data communications, in: Proceedings of 5th IEEE International Conference on Universal Personal Communications (ICUPC), Cambridge, MA (September 29-October 2, 1996) pp. 71–75.

  35. M. Zorzi and R.R. Rao, On the accuracy of a first-order Markov model for data transmission on fading channels, in: Proceedings of 4th IEEE Intl. Conf. on Universal Personal Communications, Tokyo, Japan (November 1995) pp. 211–215.

  36. M. Zorzi and R.R. Rao, Error control and energy consumption in communications for nomadic computing, IEEE Transactions on Computers 46(3) (March 1997) 279–289.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. EE Department, 56‐125B Engineering IV, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095‐1594, USA

    Paul Lettieri & Mani Srivastava

  2. Imec, VSDM, WISE, Kapeldreef 75, 3001, Heverlee, Belgium

    Curt Schurgers

Authors
  1. Paul Lettieri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Curt Schurgers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mani Srivastava
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lettieri, P., Schurgers, C. & Srivastava, M. Adaptive link layer strategies for energy efficient wireless networking. Wireless Networks 5, 339–355 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019123700246

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019123700246

Keywords

Search

Navigation