Receiver-based heading: Towards on-line energy efficient duty cycle assignments

Dynamic duty cycling, where a node´s duty cycle is adapted according to observed context (e.g, local traffic, other nodes duty cycles), is commonly used by Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to reduce energy consumption. Currently, duty cycles are assigned for every node in the network because it is assumed that all nodes are potential participants in transmissions. Receiver-based protocols, on the other hand, involve transmissions only among a subset of network nodes. Therefore, duty cycling may be limited to those nodes while the other nodes remain in an extended low-power state. In this work, we develop a duty cycle assignment algorithm for the nodes that participate in transmissions by employing two phases. First, nodes that participate in transmissions are selected and marked as “heads.” Second, by acquiring information to estimate future network traffic, the heads are programmed to be awake only during incoming transmissions. Simulation evaluations show that they greatly improve energy efficiency without sacrificing packet delivery ratio or introducing delay compared with traditional methods for duty cycle assignment.