Energy Consumption Estimation and Profiling in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract:
In this work an energy estimator and profiler for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is proposed. This includes energy estimation and information compilation so that energy consumption values provide information to the designer to identify energy leakages or to compare different architectures and algorithms. To achieve that, every consuming energy process is considered from different points of view simultaneously: the ordinary hardware perspective, in which energy is associated with the hardware component that consumed it, the transaction perspective, where all consumed energy concerning one whole end-to-end transaction are compiled together, and the activity perspective, in which all the energy consumed in the same kind of activity is grouped. As a result, the programmer gets information not only about where and when energy is consumed, but also the reason and the real purpose of energy consumption.