Impact of material parameters on the energy consumption for amplify and forward relays

In this paper, we consider a heterogeneous network, where objects of different kinds can ensure some amplify and forward function. In this case, objects can have different characteristics. We propose a thorough study of the energy consumption, taking into account efficiencies of the transmitter and relays. Given a quality of service, we minimize the global consumption and evaluate the impact of the relays´ characteristics. If efficiency (source and relay) and noise level (relay and destination) are equal, the multihop transmission is less power effective than the direct link. However, the dissipated energy is shared by the different objects involved in the transmission which can result in a longer lifetime of the network. Besides, a disparity in the objects´ parameters can result in important changes in the dissipated power. In section I we present the source, relays and destination characteristics. We derive the optimal solution to save energy given a signal to noise ratio at the receiver. In section II we evaluate the interest of multihop non-regenerative relaying and the impact of efficiency on consumption. The dual-hops link is analyzed.