Effect of sleep schedule and frame rate on the capabilities of Video Sensor Networks

Visual data carried on video sensor networks (VSNs) creates unique challenges due to the limited hardware of the sensors. In this paper, we study the capabilities of VSNs using currently available technology by investigating how the duty cycle of the sleep schedule and the frame rate affect the overall performance of a VSN. The trade-off between sensor video quality and the received frame rate at the sink is depicted which is an important measure for the application level performance. Using extensive simulations run with realistic parameters, it is shown that increasing the video quality to enhance the application level detection and/or tracking performance works only up to a certain extent.