Utility-Optimal Power Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are energy- constrained in nature, moreover, sensor nodes play the dual role of data gathering and data relaying. In this paper, we consider how to allocate the power of sensor nodes for forwarding traffic of other nodes. After forwarding power ratios of nodes are decided, we consider pricing as a mean to stimulate cooperation between a node and other nodes along its routing path to a sink node. By formulating the problem of data sensing and transport in WSNs as a network utility maximization (NUM) problem, we propose an iterative price and power adaption algorithm by using dual decomposition techniques. Numerical results show that by using our price mechanism, we can improve system performance while reducing power consumption.